Modifying/attaching a new barrel to the wand

Equipment Proton Packs
1

Hi all! Old fan, but new to the forums, I recently got pulled down the rabbit hole (started out like many I think, you get a cheap jumpsuit and patches and the next thing you know you have a Fun.com pack and you’re already adding modifications) and I’m in the process of doing some gentle upgrades to the neutrona wand. Currently I’m adding a new white LED down inside the box so that it shines up through the vents (easy enough), and replacing the short barrel with the acrylic one bought from, of course, the store here at GBfans. Baby steps. :slight_smile:

What I’m mostly curious about is the best way to transfer the existing “grounding trigger” from the old, short barrel, to the new one. I could try and tap new screw holes to match the original tip, but I’m worried about cracking the acrylic. Any advice from some of the more experienced builders here? If I drill out a couple of holes with a rotary tool before inserting the screws, does that seem likely to go well? Otherwise, I’m kinda inclined to go with glue…

And has anyone had success yet with building out a way to extend the barrel? The foregrip on the rumble wand is almost entirely hollow, it does seem like it should be possible to work something out in there… At the moment, I’m looking into short drawer slides from the hardware store, but I don’t know if I’ll be able to find anything short enough. Any thoughts?

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Heyo, an update for anyone else who finds themselves in a similar postion: I went ahead and skipped trying to rig a pop-tube substitute, for now it’s enough to have the longer barrel locked into the extended position. I was able to use a rotary tool to carve out holes for both the base (which fixed it nicely into place) and for the emitter tip, without cracking the acrylic. It’s possible (probable?) that this was never really a concern, and I’m just learning new things. For instance, I learned that you can end up getting a good bit of melted acrylic chaff in the grooves of your drill bits and carving bits, but it cleans out pretty easily with a knife tip.

I also got new white LEDs down in the box, shining up through the grill, and that’s pretty nice… not quite as bright as I had hoped, but still a good effect. One of the reasons I went for the Fun.com pack over the Spirit (given that they’re the same base price) was the switches and the open grill on the neutrona wand (also the separated bumper over the cyclotron, and the included ALICE frame), and I gotta say… it’s a toy pack, it’s made of cheap plastic, but I think for someone working on a relatively lower budget and without the commitment, time, skills or tools to build a better pack from scratch, print or parts… it’s not a bad starting point. I’ll see how far I can take it. :slight_smile: