Help/Advice needed to finish a proton pack in Europe !

Equipment Proton Packs
1

Hi guys,

I’ve read a lot of stuff here for a while regarding the construction of a proton pack.

A few weeks ago I decided to construct mine, and I opted for a mold and maybe make several shells with the same mold ( for my friends ).

Here I am, a few weeks later, with my “master” nearly finished. I’m just missing the circles for the cyclotron and the stripes on the crank generator and the gun holder. It should be done by this week-end.

But now, I have a big problem… I never made a mold myself, neither did I ever make something out of resine, fiberglass, etc…

I’ve seen some guys here make this for the first time, and the result was pretty good.

So I’m looking for some help/advice. Now that I have the “master” made of wood and some construction foam, what am I supposed to do next ?

Here’s what I have in mind :

  • Putting bee wax on the whole master so that the silicone doesn’t stick on the wood and the foam

  • For the mold, what is the best thing to use ? I don’t find boxes of “silicone” at the hobby stores, the closest thing I have is the silicone used to make the seals in the bathroom, etc… ( I can have a huge stock for a good price ), but the question is, can it be used for a mold ?

  • How should I use the silicone on the wood ?

So if some of you could give me a hand here, it would be really appreciated…

Here are the pics of the master, today I finished the spacer with the plates, and made the crank generator + the gun holder. The ion arm support and the gun holder will not be fixed, I think it will be easier to mold the pack without these parts, what do you think ?

A few weeks ago, at the beginning :

Today :

For the pack I used Stefan’s plans, with some minor modification.

Thanks for your help !

Regards

2

First off, why the giant gun block?

Second, while people have been experimenting with using industrial sealant silicone as a “cheap” and readily available casting option generally the results are poor and the mold doesn’t last long. For a propper mold you need to get actual casting silicone, which is generally rather expensive. If you’re trying to have a pack finished for halloween I’d suggest finishing up your master and just using that for now then, after you’re won a couple costume contests and got some cash, pick up some silicone and try casting a shell. There’s a good video tutorial on youtube of molding a pack and a couple examples on the boards here if you dig around a bit.

3

The gun block still needs to be reduced to the proper size, it will be corrected the next time I work on it.

I’m not in a hurry for halloween, so that’s not a matter of time. I’ve spent some time on this pack and I would be very happy to make something good out of it. Making a mold is the primary idea, a shell will be much better than all this wood on my back. Plus I fear it would stand a beating at a party !

I’ve seen some examples here ( a guy in UK which made a really nice one with a latex mold that took him months to finish ).

It’s a pleasure to spend time on the pack, so as I said before, I’m not in a hurry and I just want to make things good. That’s why I’m asking for some advices and help.

Thanks

4

I did some test yesterday with the silicone used for the seals, it came out pretty good. The only problem is it must be very thick to hold the form perfectly.

I’m still thinking in using some molding silicone, but I just can’t find some here…