Welding aluminum myself wasn’t an option, but a friend of a friend offered to help so I went to work using pieces I got from a local metal supply store that sells discarded excess by the pound. I was able to get the correct size booster tube after a number of visits, as well as some box material that I could cut into all the brackets I need for both mounting the shell and matching the Phoebe wand cable port.
Unfortunately it wasn’t the cleanest weld job, but I’m not going to complain about someone being willing to help. I had to go in and clean up a few areas where it was interfering with the pack shell.
Next up was everything to do with the Booster Tube. This was a particularly interesting element because I both wanted it to be the correct size, and also had thought to include my batteries inside for easier external access (I don’t know why, but putting a door on the motherboard side just felt like something I didn’t want to do). In any case, I set out to design and build a battery pack that would fit well inside the booster tube and be easily removable in the event I needed to swap batteries but didn’t want to take the shell off.
I used a heavier wire than I may have needed, but with zero extra space inside, I didn’t want to risk additional heat build up from wiring that was too small. In the end, I was able to get six 18650s in a nice package with a magnet twist mechanism all in one piece. Added a BMS as wiring six 18650 cells together without one felt like a risk. It’s probably not the most beautiful thing in the world but it 's fairly compact, strong, and should resist heat build up decently well. I can turn the booster plug ~45 degrees and slide the whole assembly out the top of the booster tube to hot swap the batteries. These photos skip ahead to when I actually mounted a bunch of the pieces more permanently but shows how it looks in the bottom.
In the middle of a bunch of of the design of the battery pack, I continued work on a bunch of the elements that need to attach to the shell. Everything around the booster tube, ion arm and spacer, cutting holes for the afterlife switch on the crank gen, drilling holes for the brass PPD fittings, all the little wires around the Clippard, cuttting and shaping the ribbon cable clamp…have I mentioned I totally underestimated how many holes were in this thing!?
Drilling the N filter holes caused me particular issues because my 1/2" bit had too much wobble in my hand drill which resulted in some gouging and made the holes not round. Had to go back and repair and redrill them with a step bit instead.
In this stage of the pack I found myself jumping between different elements. As I was trying to figure out where some stuff went or waiting for a part I’d ordered I’d move back and forth to other areas. I went back to some more aluminum work - installing riv nuts and lining things up to physically attach my shell to the mobo for the first time.
The Savage photos of the Phoebe pack have been absolutely critical for reference. Used them in trying to make my v hook (and nearly every other element of this thing).
Drilling holes in the motherboard for my speaker - so many holes. Went for a pretty large speaker as I’m only doing one and I wanted both some oomph as well as a good balance of highs and lows.
Its amazing to see the progress made and just how long it can take when you want to build a prop from scratch and the dedication put in. Nice job so far!
