Thanks guys!
Here is where I left off tonight:
Synchronous generator, cyclotron, center cover, and power cell are cut out, EDA mostly cut out. Much sanding and gluing to come.
6 more weekends…
Not much to share from this weekend. I spent a lot of time at the hardware store yesterday, hopefully I have everything I need now.
I successfully tapped my trigger tip:
Prototype ion knob (aka .6 lb of washers):
The pack is starting to take shape:
5 more weekends…
I have some experience brazing aluminum, I gave it a try before I started welding. Its not permanent, its meant to be removed by heat if need be (I always thought of it as “METAL GLUE”). You want your workpiece to be heated up to around 700 F prior to applying the brazing rod. You shouldn’t have to heat the piece while applying the rod, your workpiece should be hot enough to melt the rod on its own. I found it a helluva lot easier to use a MAP torch rather than propane, it has faster heat distribution, and you won’t have to spend as much time heating up your workpiece, espically if you’re working on pieces bigger than the trigger tip.
Try to set yourself up to only make one pass with the rod. Say you’re making a vacuum tube- don’t do one spot weld at a time, set it up so that you heat it up once, and make both spot welds in one pass. Sometimes if you go back and heat it up to braze another spot, it’ll liquify your previous work, and it’ll move from where you wanted it.
Thanks for the tips!
The propane torch did seem to take a while to heat the work piece. I started out with a sweeping motion for more even heat distribution, but switched to more direct heat because it was taking so long.
I’m hoping to solder together the thrower housing, and you last comment (about liquefying previous work) is something I’ve been worrying about. I’ve read that jewelers work with several different solders, with different melting points to avoid this problem. They start with a solder that has a high melting point, then progress to lower melting point solders to avoid melting previous work. Since the propane torch seems to require direct application of heat to melt the solder, I’m hoping it won’t be a problem. 
I received my crank knob, unfortunately it’s the wrong size:
I started experimenting with heat shaping styrene, seems to work fairly well:
I finally started work on the bumper, it’s probably the part I have been dreading the most. I was hoping to find a resin one for sale, but the only ones I’ve seen on ebay are from a banned seller. So far the scratchbuild is going well, the big test will be if I can glue styrene to MDF.
I also began the wood putty and sanding portion of the build. I hope it’s work the extra hassle. Here is a shot of the gun mount box:
Here is a shot of the pack. It felt like I accomplished a lot this weekend, but it doesn’t look much different from last weekend:
My metal parts should arrive tomorrow.
4 more weeks…
My metal parts are here!
I bought them from Speedy Metals, and I certainly can’t complain that the parts were poorly packaged. The sheet metal was bound in particle board, and I took a couple years off my knife trying to cut through all the fiber-tape and cardboard…
This is so cool. Love the work you’ve done so far on your pack. The bumper looks fantastic - I’m dreading trying to make one from scratch myself.
Thanks! The bumper is looking better than I thought it would, but glue is kind of a problem. I read that gorilla superglue gel works well, and it certainly bonds the styrene to the MDF, but when I test the bond, the outer layer of mdf peels off. I’m going to try applying a sealer to the MDF in hopes that it will penetrate and strengthen the MDF.
I didn’t really accomplish anything picture worthy this weekend. I just did a lot of cutting, drilling, and sanding. Not much assembling. I thought that by starting in July I would have lots of time, but everything is taking longer than I thought it would. I’m not sure I can finish by Halloween.
3 more weeks…
A quick update:
Cut out the pieces for the wand:
Cut up the tubbing:
Marked and drilled holes:
Soldered the HGA together. The solder flows really well, almost too well. It ran down the side of the HGA, and I’m having trouble cleaning it up. I tried sanding it, but the solder seems to be harder than the aluminum. Next I’ll turn it upside down, heat it, and hope it runs back to the other end (if I have time):
Started on the instrument bar, found out the 9v battery doesn’t fit (guess I’ll put it someplace else for now):
Light test:
Cable clamp is done:
The bumper cracked when I drilled the hole for the ion knob, but a little wood glue fixed it:
A few metal parts, nearly ready for soldering:
Only two weeks to go!
Looks like this is going to be a 2015 Halloween costume. Here is a small update:
Ah what a shame 
I was hoping you’d get this nailed in time. Still, look on the bright side, when you’ve finished you’ll have a sweet pack to look at/play with every day 
Loving this build!
Yeah, I realized a week or two before Halloween that I was spending all my time working on my costume and I was missing out on all the other fun Halloween stuff. It’s better this way, now I have the whole year to perfect it!
Thanks Grimmy!
This is awesome! Love seeing people take the time and effort to get it all right, and the work you are doing yourself is incredible! Unfortunately folks like me have to rely upon other people to do this kind of stuff, but you are doing it all yourself and it looks great! Will be watching this build closely! (I might have missed it, and if so, forgive me…) but are you going to mold your shell in fiberglass? Judging from what you’ve done so far I am guessing so. Again, excellent work!!!
Thanks!
I wasn’t planning on using fiberglass, but I guess I could give it shot. I’ve never worked with fiberglass before. I was thinking about vacuum forming the parts but I was worried that a thin plastic shell wouldn’t be able to hold the weight of the metal parts.
I was a little burned out on this project after October, but after a two month break, I have the proton pack bug again! While I was at my parent’s house over the holidays, I took advantage of their better equipped shop to work on the ion arm cap and the banjo fittings.
Starting with hunk of 1" x 1/2" aluminum stock, I marked and center punched the location of the holes:
Then bored and counter bored the holes:
Swarf can be sharp!
Drilling more holes:
Tapping the hole for the 10-32 Clippard fitting:
My cousin is a machinist and he was nice enough to knurl the copper rod for me:
Here is a test fit of the copper rods after a quick polish of the parts:
On to the banjo fittings!
Here is my starting material, 3/8" square brass stock, and 1/4" brass tube:
I started with the hose fittings- cut the tube to length, square the ends, and polish:
Who needs a lathe when you have a drill press and dremel?
The top piece has an ugly end where I practiced my technique:
For the body of the banjo fittings, I cut the stock to length, squared the ends, etc, etc:
Drilled and tapped the 10-32 hole for the screw:
I didn’t have a 4 jaw chuck (to turn the work piece), so I had to drill out the inside the hard way. I starting by finding and punching the center of the end face:
Drilling out the inside:
On the first one I made, I made the mistake of drilling out the inside before drilling and tapping the hole for the screw. It made
drilling and tapping the hole much more difficult because the drill bit would wander due to the variable wall thickness, resulting in a large oval hole.
Here they are after adding the wire management holes and test fitting the tubes:
Now I just need to chamfer the corners and cut the tubes in half.
Completed Legris elbows! I think I may go back and drill out the threads, they are preventing me from tightening the elbow against the trigger tip.
Ion arm cap! Not complete yet (there is nothing to hold the copper rods in place). I’m trying to decide if I can get away with just super gluing them in place or if I should drill some small holes in the back and pin them in place, maybe even use some tiny set screws.
Your work looks so clean! Gonna paint that ion arm cap or leave bare?
If you are planing on having the rod permanently attached, you could slightly flatten the end a bit so it expands, then just press it into the block. You could have threaded it, but it’s too late for that option.
Thanks NickoRay! Currently I’m not planning to paint it (i’m not sure that I could weather it properly).
CPU64, I considered those options, but I didn’t think they could give me the seamless transition between the parts that I am looking for. Counterboring the cap would hide threads, but there just isn’t a lot of space there, and I don’t have a bottoming tap or die.