Alright…I have only one question on Proton Pack building.
How the hell do you guys make a bumper? (I think thats what it is…wraps around the cylcron and has the metal washers in the middle)
I want to fab up one that is curved. I’ve seen squared off ones and they look great, but I really want a rounded, more movie acurate one. I cant figure out how to do that unless I mold one…and I have no idea on how to do that.
I’ve searched on this site, but had no luck in the construction of one.
I know there are some sellers here on GB props, that will sell ya the bumper. And the thing you described as the thing with washers, is called the Ion Knob.
Yep, most guys buy a resin one from sources here. you could make your own but it would take alot of work to get it right. Post in the wanted section 8)
I’m as eager to see this answered as anti-venom. How do you make a bumper? I’ve been on this site nearly 2 years and I’ve never seen anyone give a real explanation as to how it’s done, despite several threads begging for an answer. The construction of a bumper has got to be the best kept secret in this community.
But in all seriousness. what I did was take foamboard, used the plans by stephan and used ther above measurments first, then eye balled it. I have to find my camera, but once I do, I’ll get some pics of it. I’m also in the process of building another one, and I can say I did buy one from propfan. It just goes to show that even if you made one before…doesn’t mean you want to again lol
(i jigsawed two long cuved pieces of wood, glued them together, and used some sort of vinyl door jamb to keep them supported, and to hide the separation in the wood - such a rushed, and crude job)…so don’t do this…
there is no real answer to this, it’s really a trial and error issue. best advise is to study the plans, really study the refrence photos and then try it yourself. you will mess up and thats just the nature of the hobby. you can also buy one instead.
one thought that could work though is maybe we can get propfan or another resin caster to give some pointers on what they thought worked and sticky this topic in the tutorials. lets see what AJ says
To date, I’ve built 4 out of foam board. Granted, they are not 100% movie accurate, they still look a hell of a lot closer than the Hot Wheels track i was using. I basically made it from 2 pieces. The long piece that wraps around the cyclotron and then I added another piece with the plate that the ion knob rests on. I can post some pics if anyone is interested. It’s nothing fancy, but it has made my pack look better.
I made mine by making a mould out of 18mm MDF using Stefans plans. I then got some 6mm acrylic sheet and cut it into 5cm strips, I heated this up in an oven (after heat bending and folding it roughly so it fitted into the oven) until it was soft and placed this over the mould and pressed it into shape (using gloves). Once it cooled it had the basic bumper shape. I placed the moulded shape on its side onto some other kind of plastic and drew on the edges which would be on the side of the bumper. I cut these out and stuck them on with a glue gun and then used the glue gun to round off the seams to give it a more realistic look. The last step was to cut a shape that resembled the larger middle piece (that the Ion Knob sits on) and glue it down. Then it was a case of painting and attaching to the rest of the pack. Not 100% accurate but from a short distance difficult to notice any difference.
It depends what tools you have to work with of course but i hope this helps a bit. I will put pictures on here one day so i can show off my packs.
i am starting on my very first proton pack, the website is a great tool to help and the proton pack plans are very helpful. my buddy and i have just completed the motherboard and are figuring out other details, i want to know if anybody can give me a good idea on how to build and what to use for a pretty accurate bumper, i just cant seem to figure out what to use.
I’m going to be making my bumper out of wood, somehow. It’ll probably be the hardest part to make.
But if I didn’t mind if it wasn’t exact, I might try one of those U shaped things you put on the bottom of a door. The tricky part is bending it. I’m not sure if it’s dangerous or even possible to bend PVC by heating, but the only one I found that wasn’t rubber wasmade of PVC, so that’s an issue that would need to be considered.
Once you got that bent into the right shape though, you could cut it and add the rectangular bit, and fill in the cracks and right side with bondo maybe.
Not exactly an ideal solution though.
Another possibility is to get some kind of metal strip and bend that into the right shape and then cut thin wood to fit the sides to make the ridges, and the square on top, and glue that together, and sand the wood a bit to blend it as best you can, again using bondo to fill the cracks.
Difficulty there is finding a metal strip that is thick enough to be sturdy, but which you can actually bend.
That, IMO, Is the best option. Or rather than bending aluminium for the whole thing, maybe just the curved part, then making the angled part from wood.
I’ve made 6-7 bumpers… And that’s my favoured method. I used hardboard (think it’s called something different in the states) on some to make the curved part. Bristing it with some water first to soften it out.
i am starting on my very first 