How I built my Semi- Metallic Proton Gun

Equipment Tutorials & Guides
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Guys,

I am waaay bummed! My Resin proton gun from last year was “improperly” stored…

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and the one I ordered this year from online, hasn’t arrived. Therefore I am making my own. I always wanted to make a metal one, but have judged good ol steel a little heavy… Therefore, I snagged this sheet of Aluminum…

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Now granted that it is rather thin… but easily trimmed… and laminated… this lamination, along with key bends will give me more strength that the ole resin version I am using as a template…

Using my old proton gun… and views/ plans from this site, I layed out my box…

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To keep things good, I labeled each edge a letter. Then proceeded to layout the metal that goes around the side profile… I will call this the side plate.

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To creat the side plate, I left lotsa extra metal to bend over as tabs. These tabs will help reinforce the “side plate” to the outer perimeter.

Meanwhile, to create the outer perimeter, I cut out bend angles… which got me this..

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Careful placement in my vice… or mandrel, or sharp metal rule edge…

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Notice that I do have a square tube and flat long plate as a bend angle…

There are areas that you won’t be able to easily reach with your mandrels… hence the use of strong pliers…

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Mating the perimeter and sideplate, I got this..

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Here is the next side profile… notice the long tabs that I bent over. These will also be used to laminate the outer perimeter..

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Using an adhesive… or even riveting… I have clamped the side and outer perimeter to dry…

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Now that I have some lamination, I will note that I will laminate the other surface on the inside… to hold onto items that need more strength, I will use angle aluminum behind my shell that I have created..

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Time to rest up… and allow my initial adhesive application to solidify before moving to the next phase…

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Can’t wait to see how this turns out

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Tapatalk 2

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I been wondering about how the metal guns look. I wanna do one. But I think my winter projects are gonna be a giga meter like yours and two real working slime blowers like from GB2.

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Gents,

This is actually an easy build. Aluminum is easily worked and shaped. With a thin section, you can easily bend without “heavy” tools… lamination gives you beef to screw into, along with strength.

I have access to a mig welder, so was debating on actually taking some thin sheet metal, and welding a steel version together. However, I decided to move forward on this one… hope ya’all enjoy!

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Reminds me a lot of when I built my gun body out of aluminum sheeting. If you don’t have a welder that can do aluminum, I highly recommend either JB Weld or Steel Stick epoxy for keeping everything together. They’re great and last forever!

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Tyrael,

Well… how did YOUR gun build come out?? Any link to link to mine? I would like to gather as much data as possible for others to do this… including feedback.

For adhesive, Tyrael is correct on JB weld or something like it… I like Short Hair Fiberglass (similar to Bondo). But if I need something to be tight, yet flexible, I do use Household Goop. Not all Goop’s are good to use here… but the Household seems harder than others.

Anywho, here is where we are at: Glueing all sides got me this…

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Notice the bent down tabs. This gave me the opportunity to use an adhesive and or Fiberglass layer inbetween aluminum sheet..

Here I am cutting another sheet to laydown over the adhesive..

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.After application of this layer, I have this..

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My next goal was to stiffen where components would attach. I did this with Aluminum angle

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Cutting it up to the right lengths… and after glueing… I have this..

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Next up was drilling holes and painting/ priming… To prime aluminum, you should a primer designed for it such as this..

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Although I attempted this, my primer can was junk, and refused to spray… all this means is that my black paint, will easily chip off when applied, giving the gun a well used look.

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Sorry, I’m not trying to steal your thunder or anything. Just trying to express a shared approach. :-/

Anywho, here’s the link to my build. Can’t recommend Steel Stick epoxy enough; it’s like Mighty Putty and JB Weld had an awesome baby. http://www.gbfans.com/community/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=25701

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Tyrael,

Yep… thanks for the link! You are NOT stealing any thunder… as I requested you post your linky!

As far as I can see… playing with this stuff is FAR superior to the resin proton gun that I purchased. This sucker is as hard as… well… metal!

Here I have punched an oval hole in the thrower to place the handle stub. I am using 1in aluminum. Previous builds have been with PVC… but I had this stuff laying around. I both Goop’d it in place… and glassed it (short strand).

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Here is what it looks like with an initial primer coat (investigating how it holds up on the aluminum…

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I then located my Clippard, and drilled/ tapped 2, 10-32 allen head screws…

Yet to do is make the glass look like weld…

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Typically this is where my builds start to heavily differ from the “Pros”. As I am running out of time, this will probably be painted black, and left hollow (no electronics)… until after Halloween!

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Well, to bring this full circle, I am working on a set of grips for it, before I carve out the various holes, plate over the bottom and call it a day on this build… I wanted to “get a grip” so to speak.

Started off with some generic 2x? pine…

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Then I drilled some holes for the finger location..

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Carving and sanding and carving..

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Then I got me this…

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Thats all for now folks… I will post some “after” pics… then you will have to wait until AFTER Halloween for some more wiring to be done here…

Please post comments…

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First I wanna say that this is coming out great :nicejobyoudid: :crunch: Second, I’m wondering if I can get away with doing this myself. I already have a wand (and pack), however, I’ve been looking to upgrade to aluminum parts. That being said, I really don’t have that much experience with metal works and I currently live in a (very) small studio apartment, but it appears all your using is a vice (which I think I can get my hands on), snips, and a straightedge/yardstick/ruler (which I have) - aside from the laminate, adhesive, paint and primer. So do you think that this is something that I, or more importantly, someone like me could do given the criteria previously mentioned?

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Blues…

I love your tag line!!

In one word: Yes!

I have access to some advanced equipment, but decided to go this route… due to the thin stock I used… it made fabrication fast and simple, with NO advanced machinery. What you saw, was a build taking place in 1 day (adhesive/ glue/ fiberglass dry time pending).

Your primary tool will be the tin snips (easily had for under $15.00… mine still has a tag saying $9.99 from some years back). Have a vice is desirable, to keep the bends tight. Other pcs of metal that I used to bend against, I call “bucking bars” could be sourced from any location.

The good thing about the thin stock that I used, is that I was able to hammer out wrong bends, and try again! You can’t do this to many times, but you can correct errors at least to some degree.

I called this “semi metallic” for several reasons… chiefly for the use of an adhesive/ fiberglass sandwiched in between the metal stock. It created a VERY hard, durable and tap- able gun box. Any surface that I needed MORE strength, I just added another sheet or two of aluminum.

Tyrael pointed out his product experience for adhesives… although I used fiberglass and “Goop”.

Another tip, is to over apply any adhesive. You can see where I applied tooo much fiberglass and it oozed out. This allowed me to manipulate the edges with a simple file/ sand paper.

You can get most of your dimensions off of any existing gun box that you have on hand. Or “eyeball” from plans on this site.

Ask any more questions you may have!

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Busy days and nights.

This is just a quick update on the build process. I am working now to get the bottom finished up. To this end, I traced out a thin sheet of aluminum, and glued the gun holder in place (GOOP to the rescue).

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Then I flipped it around, and layed down an 1/8in thick length of aluminum strap.

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Mind you, both are glued… and will now be screwed (when it dries). If you recollect, I mentioned that I virtually destroyed my last resin gun box… but luckily the wall broke the fall of the thrower as it headed for the floor. Anywho… this won’t happen again!

My next post, will show that I glued, and glassed a set of angles on the gunbox edge, so I have a solid screw mount.

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can’t wait to see it finished

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Gents,

Here is a partial “teaser” photo. I may forego the forward grip, just due to time… Here is an initial primer coat of black…

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Due to the late time, I will probably also leave this as an empty shell for THIS Halloween.

I will look around to see if I have additional photos of my “build” to upload…

You will note that I have a resin partial gun also in this photo. This gun readily deformed in Michigan summer and managed to crack in several locations.

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I hear that! The humidity here is bollocks bud. I’m a skip across from Port Huron. The gun is looking great buddy

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This is INCREDIBLY helpful to me, I’ve got a room that I would have to put this in that would probably do the same thing to resin, so sheet metal would probably be muuuuuuuuuuuuuuch better! Thanks for the notice

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Any specific aluminium you used or is it from the nearest builders market or DIY store ?

Starting a buildand help is appreciated as I am not able to cast resin or anything else yet. :blush:

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