Conqueror_Worm's Proton Pack Build

Equipment Proton Packs
1

I’ve begun preparing for my first proton pack build! I’ve been doing research off and on for around 7 years, and a couple years ago I bought the ALICE pack, flight suit, and rubber gloves, but I never got around to building the pack. This is going to be the year!

My current plan is to scratch-build it from styrene and aluminum, use real greebles when I can, and give it basic lighting. I’m going for a GB1 pack, but I’ll use GB2 parts when I need to. I’m trying to keep it under $300 (not counting the parts I already have). The deadline is Halloween.

Step 1 - Model the proton pack and thrower in SolidWorks so I can better understand the project.

I used Stephen’s plans when creating the model. The pack is mostly “done”, I just have to finalize some fasteners (and revise dimensions as I find more accurate ones).

Currently modeling the thrower.

Thank you Clippard and Legris for providing models! That saved some time.

Here are some images of my model and the various subassemblies:

EDIT: Removed a request for thrower dimensions, I just found some drawings.

2

Looks really great. Just a word of note: Stephan plans, while thorough, aren’t 100% accurate. Cross reference with Sean’s plans as I believe he had access to screen used packs for measurements. Also, check the reference section for the Sony Lobby pack photos. One of the hero screen packs from the first movie was actually measured and those photos are there. Good luck!!

3

Taking into account you’ve said you’re planning to make a GB1 pack, I feel it worth pointing out the following details:

On the PPD (tube with a sloped top and hose fitting) the brass hose fitting should be sitting straight up, rather than at an angle on the sloped top.

Although there were some cases where a second hole was drilled into the Pack, the L-Brackets usually only had one screw threaded into them to hold the shell to the Motherboard.

The bellows (as pictured) on the bumper resembles a GB2 bellows piece. In the first movie they didn’t have a screw fitting on the end.

It’s my understanding that the brass elbow on the end of the Ion Arm on most GB1 Packs was a square-shaped piece, rather than hexagonal.

4

You guys and your fancy 3D whatchamacallits.

Also, the injector tubes, I didn’t use the fittings on the bottom. Some people do, some don’t, just depends on how you want the tubes to flex around the bumper.

That is pretty cool to see the drawings! Good luck on the build!

5

Thanks for the tips guys!

It looked like the barbed hose fittings were only used in a few places, but since Clippard sells them in bags of 10, I figured I would put one at the end of every hose. They also sell the hex fitting in packs of 5, which is why I used a hex fitting instead of a square one on the ion arm :slight_smile:

6

GBFans store sells all those parts individually :wink: Need only 4 barbs instead of 10? The store has you covered! Only a single (or two) hex fittings? They have them too! Out of all seriousness though, the GBFans store usually has all the little parts and pieces you need, and if they don’t, there is bound to be a seller on this site that will have either replicas or resin casts of harder to find parts like legris straights and legris banjos (Nick-a-Tron and Wiz-GB008 come to mind).

7

Yeah, I will definitely purchase some of the more rare/custom stuff from GBFans. I’ll have to do the math to see how the shipping works out for more common items. How expensive is the shipping on this site? It looks like I have to submit an order before it will tell me.

8

Since the site uses paypal, it first takes you to PayPal to approve the store total then sends you BACK to the GBFans store to select your shipping method before submitting it.

9

I had a very successful shopping trip today. HSC Electronics seems to be a nearly one-stop-shop for proton pack greebles. My biggest find was a RH25 with the raised Dale logo!

There was an assortment of square brass elbows, but I wasn’t sure which (if any) were accurate. There seems to be four different types:

Tall fitting, no neck, long threads

Tall fitting, neck, long threads (stamped with clippard)

Tall fitting, neck, short threads(stamped with clippard)

Short fitting, neck, short threads

Unfortunately, the three fittings with the clippard stamp are T’s, not L’s…

I know I saw a thread here discussing this fitting, but I haven’t been able to find it a second time.

10

Does the lever for extending the barrel have a jog in it? This seems to be the only way I can get it to look right.

11

Some do (not quite as bent as you have shown in your drawings)…

http://www.gbfans.com/images/equipment/reference/1/2.jpg

…and some don’t…

http://www.gbfans.com/images/equipment/reference/33/290.jpg

Up to you on which you’d prefer to include with your pack.

12

Ah, so there are two different gun lever designs.

I finally finished modeling the gun:

Here is something cool I discovered I can create, a 3d PDF:

Download 3D pdf (37 mb).

If you open the pdf, you should be able to click and drag the image to rotate the model. If you right click on a part, you can change the way it is displayed (hide, make transparent, set as wireframe, etc.)

Now I just have to finish putting together a bill of materials and order the rest of the parts. I already ordered the sound board and light kits from GB Fans (so much for my budget :slight_smile: )

13

That was a fairly productive weekend. I finished modeling all the parts, I placed a bunch of orders, and I got to see Ghostbusters in theaters!

I still need to finalize my metal shopping list, though I did pick up a blow torch and some aluminum soldering rods. Does anyone have experience soldering 6061 aluminum? I’ve read that alloy can be tricky to solder, but most of the stock sizes I need only come in that alloy. Also, will it be less difficult to solder an easy-to-solder alloy (like a 3000 series) to a 6000 series, or should both parts be the same alloy?

My first package arrived today:

I’m don’t entirely understand what the Clippard valves do, but they are certainly pretty. I was also surprised at how difficult it is to remove the stock mounting screws. Well, not difficult, but kind of inconvenient.

I also tried 3D printing the rear gun grip (in ABS):

It isn’t very comfortable, so I will probably revise the design and print another one. I’ll use this one to experiment with acetone vapor polishing. That should give it a nice vinyl look.

8 weekends remaining…

14

Your first picture in your update convinced me, real Clippard valves are the way to go. I just finished my pack and used resin cast Clippards and they are fine but I’ve been second guessing that from the early days of the build. Real ones are worth the extra money. Hopefully the GBFans store will be back in stock in time for Halloween.

15

Yeah, reading through comments on the forum it seemed like that was one thing people usually regretted about their builds. I bought my Clippards from the Clippard web site. The parts aren’t too expensive, but the shipping was kind of painful.

I received my first package from GB Fans! I got the sound kit, light kits, a barrel (7/8" acrylic tube is surprisingly hard to find), a couple hat lights, and a PH 25 Resistor. The sound and light kits are very impressive, someone must have put a lot of work into designing those. Thank you!

Today I dyed my belt and Rothco flight suit. I started with a half package of black RIT dye powder, 1 cup salt, a little detergent and nearly simmering water. I dyed the belt first, and it came out a little too dark (and shrank about 2"), so I diluted the dye quite a bit before dying the flight suit. The suit looks good in person, but in the photos it looks like it did before the dye.

Before:

During:

After (without flash):

After (with flash):

I also started experimenting with making some aluminum parts. I started with the barrel trigger. Before I could start, I had to square the end of the tube…

I’m a little short on power tools right now, so I had to do this by hand. To draw a straight line around a cylinder, start by wrapping a piece of paper around it. The paper must be flat against the tube, and the leading edge of the paper must line up when it overlaps itself.

Then use a sharpie to mark the area that need to be removed. Move the paper out of the way.

File/sand the marked area away. Slide the paper back up and check to see if it is square. If it isn’t, mark and repeat.

Once I got it square, I hack-sawed and dremeled a hunk off the end. After more filing and sanding I had a decent looking trigger ring:

Then I started on the trigger. I printed off this template (print at 100%, no scaling), and traced it onto a piece of aluminum

I used a cutting bit in my Dremel to carve out the radius. It worked fairly well, but there is no way it’s going to cut the rest of the part out. I switched to a hack saw, but that was taking too long.

I think I’ll need to invest in an angle grinder if I am going to continue making aluminum parts.

I also started making styrene parts. I picked up sheets in both 1/8" and 1/16". The 1/8" styrene is pretty thick stuff. The score and break method seems to work for straight lines, but I’m still trying to figure out how to do curves.

16

I picked up a jig saw and some MDF today. What a difference having the right tool makes! I guess that means I should have also bought a router and a sander…

I also gave the aluminum another go:

Thats more like it!

Now I know I can cut aluminum. The next hurdle will be soldering. I was hoping to try it tonight, but I ran out of daylight.

7 weekends remaining…

17

After a lot of filing and sanding, the trigger was looking pretty good:

The next step was to drill a hole for mounting the banjo fitting. I started with a 5/64" pilot hole through the trigger:

Before drilling a matching hole through the ring, I super glued the ring to the trigger and checked to make sure it was square:

When I clamped the trigger in the vice, I also clamped a 1/4" drill bit behind the ring to support it during drilling:

I extended the 5/64" pilot hole into the ring, then slowly increased the size of drill bits until the hole was 1/8" in diameter:

The super glue worked well enough, but I did have to re-glue it once:

On to the soldering… First, a list of the tools I used.

ACE brand Torch Kit with 1 cylinder - $15

Stainless steel wire brush (wood handle) - $4

Forney 46111 “easy-flo” aluminum brazing rods - $14 (per 1/2 lb)

Vice + assorted hardware for holding the work piece

This was my first time soldering aluminum, so I wasn’t sure what would happen. I half expected to melt the parts and lose all of my hard work. I had watched a bunch of instructional youtube videos, but I hadn’t seen any using the specific brazing rods that I had. I also didn’t know which alloy of aluminum my parts are.

I started by breaking apart the parts and sanding off the super glue. Then I bolted my parts together, checked to make sure they were square, and hoped for the best.

Great grey ghosts, it worked!

It worked really well, I had no troubles at all. The solder flowed really well and the joint seems strong. I followed the instructions in this video, and I also used the stainless steel wire brush to brush the parts through the molten solder per the instructions on the box of brazing rods. Brushing through the molten solder tended to smear the solder around (note solder spatter and rough surface on front of trigger in above image), giving a less clean finish. It also removed most of the solder, requiring additional solder, but that’s pretty minor. I think these rods will go a long way. I know this is a pretty small part, but it only consumed about 1/4" total of one of the rods.

After a little polish:

In the last image, you can see where some of the solder started to flake off from the ring during polishing. That was an area I didn’t bother to brush. The rest of the joint seems pretty strong.

Here are a couple shots of the piece on the end of the barrel:

Now I need to get a tap and die set…

18

That’s a sexy trigger tip!

19

Wow, great job on the trigger tip!

20

that is a gorgeous piece :smiley: