# Greetings, from the engineer... **URL:** \ **Category:** Introductions\ **Created:** [September 26, 2011, 2:51am UTC](https://forum.gbfans.com/t/greetings-from-the-engineer/11795 "2011-09-26T02:51:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![energy\_engineer](https://forum.gbfans.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/e/6a8cbe/32.png) [@energy\_engineer](https://forum.gbfans.com/u/energy_engineer)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2011, 2:51am UTC](https://forum.gbfans.com/t/greetings-from-the-engineer/11795/1 "2011-09-26T02:51:53Z")
So introductions… I actually am an engineer and I work on small renewable energy products that get sold in developing/“frontier” markets. While in University, I (among others) made some really big fiberglass/CF parts… Here’s an example of one of our fairings for a competition vehicle (human powered): ![image](http://www.primitiveengineering.com/blog/img/hpv08/fairing1.jpg) It’s been a few years since I’ve made fiberglass tools, but I’ve been wanting to get into prop building and Ghostbusters is quite awesome and has an incredible amount of documentation. Seems like a logical starting place. For now, the goal is Halloween costume. I’ve gotten a very, very late start - so I’m going to do a combination of rapid prototype parts and foam core construction. Here’s the gun mount (based on Stefan’s plans), 3D printed: ![image](http://i.imgur.com/Ce8Rv.jpg) It needs some filler, that’s for sure. The actual gun mount holes will accept a threaded insert so I can actually screw the metal part in. It weighs about 200 grams - mostly because I went big on wall thickness (it could probably be 100-150g). Eventually, I want the 3D printed parts to become my master mold and I’ll have the bigger parts laser cut and/or routed out of tooling foam. So that’s that. ---
**Author:** ![aj-quick](https://forum.gbfans.com/user_avatar/forum.gbfans.com/aj-quick/32/188008_2.png) [@aj-quick](https://forum.gbfans.com/u/aj-quick)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2011, 2:56am UTC](https://forum.gbfans.com/t/greetings-from-the-engineer/11795/2 "2011-09-26T02:56:15Z")
Welcome. I don’t think rapid prototyping is the way to go with any of the Pack parts (with the exception of the Proton Gun). You would be much better off CNC milling a master out of foam or from stacked sheets of MDF. ---
**Author:** ![energy\_engineer](https://forum.gbfans.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/e/6a8cbe/32.png) [@energy\_engineer](https://forum.gbfans.com/u/energy_engineer)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2011, 5:45am UTC](https://forum.gbfans.com/t/greetings-from-the-engineer/11795/3 "2011-09-26T05:45:11Z")
> [@AJ Quick](#): > > Welcome. > > I don’t think rapid prototyping is the way to go with any of the Pack parts (with the exception of the Proton Gun). > > You would be much better off CNC milling a master out of foam or from stacked sheets of MDF. Thanks! Any particular reason RP is sub-optimal? Texture is the biggest thing I can think of for the process I’m using - anything else? ---
**Author:** ![aj-quick](https://forum.gbfans.com/user_avatar/forum.gbfans.com/aj-quick/32/188008_2.png) [@aj-quick](https://forum.gbfans.com/u/aj-quick)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2011, 5:55am UTC](https://forum.gbfans.com/t/greetings-from-the-engineer/11795/4 "2011-09-26T05:55:49Z")
Well. Just going off of that gun block that you have had made… The whole pack is huge, and the costs involved with making a whole shell on a rapid prototyper would be high (even if you are just paying material costs). And as you said, the texture really isn’t great. I think a pack made out of a high density foam on a CNC router would be great. I’ve got one that would fit the pack, but would need to be done in layers given the height. It would only cost a little amount of money, would be much faster, and the end result would be much neater.