Ok, I am begening a slow proces of gathering parts and building… I just ordered the ALICE pack frame off of eBay, and now I am going to make a motherboard out of wood, since it’s what I know and I have just about everything I could want to manipulate the material.
My question at the moment is, what is the BEST wood to use? I am going to be buying it from home depot tomorrow, seeing as how I work untill after they close tonight…
Best thing to use is 1/8" aluminum :lol: If you can’t do that get 1/8" or 1/4" hardboard, you should be able to buy 2’x4’ sheets. I you are going to make your pack modules out of wood use MDF (medium density fiberboard) it cuts, sands and shapes easily, 1/4" thickness, you can use a 9" cake pan for the cyclotron. Good luck!
i used 1/4 plywood sheets for most of it.with some styrene here and there.im hopeing to begin painting tomorrow.1/4 is pretty easy to cut and sand.i would consider ordering some minor parts from gp prop parts page if i were you.some parts just look better molded. i would post som pics but i dont think you can yet. good luck hope it works out for ya.
Hey, sorry it’s taken me so long to reply to this, I had some medical problems I’m working out, and a little girl trouble. Anyway, how much on estimate do you think those sugguestions would cost? Like (atleast I think I did) stated, I am looking cheap, wich is why my first thought was chipboard, I have an excess amount… it’d be a little thick… they’re about 1/2-3/8 thick… but it would be durable AND cheap. Lemme know, thanks.
Btw I have a post up in the PKE forum aswell… if you can help at all, that too would be much appreciated.
Thanks agian for the sugguestions.
Cheap is ok but think about the weight, even on a conservative build these packs still weigh 20-25 lbs. using thinner materials. Just worth considering 
Well… last night I measured out and got the chipboard all ready to cut. I couldn’t find the jigsaw anywhere so we tried the sawsall… yeah. I’m lookin’ into getting that hardboard or w/e now, considering that the motherboard looks like a 3D picasso masterpeice… Nevertheless I think it was good to get the process of getting it lined on the board prior to all that. It took me about 5 hours or so to get it right, I don’t know who it was that said stefan’s plans were the best when it come’s to measurements… but they are full of Sh*t… They are missing half the measurements… I ended up doing a sort of… cross between what I DID have on stefans and a little bit from Norm’s plans.
Actually came out to look really cool before my mother assited the butchering of it with the sawsall. So yeah, I’ll be attempting to get some 1/8 hardboard, I can probably get that at the home depot right? Well anyway I gotta get to work… oh boy I get to work till 10! and have people question my sanity because I’m building a pack lol
I’ll be sure to post pics as soon as I cut the the bugger out.
I used Stefan’s plans exclusively to build my pack, all the measurements are there.
Did you acquire the plans from here?
Well I think I saw your pack on a previous thread, and while that was good work, I still can’t find certain measurements on that… Maybe I’ll circle in red and post a link to show you all what I’m talking about… because I love how specific it is on the points I could find… I really want my pack to turn out right, but yeah… I’ll probably post that tonight.
Edit:
Ok, I now realize that I am an idiot who just needs a calculator… Still… it was easily confusing. All I wanna know now is how did you do the cuts? My mom (who beleive it or not is a tool junkie) said a jigsaw might work… but I don’t know, some of those are pretty detailed cuts… as I said I’m not going to go perfect here, just good enough.
i used a jigsaw on all my cuts,and took a power sanding block to touch it up and shape it with 100grit sandpaper.the perfect combonation.np 
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Ok, I went to home depot today, and got a brand new jigsaw, and a huge sheet of hardboard for like $10.67. The jiggy only cost me $39.99. I just finished penciling out the motherboard with stefan’s measurements, the only differance is the top where there is that… ridiculious cut, so I went with norm’s instead on that. I figure… it’s not perfect… but it’s still gonna be fine. Right?
Anyway I’m gonna jiggy it in about the next 15-30 minutes, take some shots, and post up what I got.
VenkmanPHD, It’s great to see your enthusiasm with your pack project, I was pumped when I started building my first pack, so much in fact that I spent night after night just working on it and day after day searching for parts. It tuly is an addictive hobby :lol:
Enjoy it!
Oh …and post pics! We all like pics 
Well thank you, irricanian, and you’re right it’s quite addicting, I want nothing to do with anything but my pack. My mother is under the impression that there will be bloodshed should I not complete it lol. However, I have for you all, a treat! As promised! PICTURES!!! YAY FOR PICS!
Here is the (not so perfectly cut out) Motherboard, made it from 1/4" hardboard. $10.67:
Here is the Oh-so-grand-of-grand-sweet-deal-on-this-bad-boy A.L.I.C.E. pack frame. $24.99 (Thank you ebay):
Here’s a double shot, hey, loooky you can see my ghostbusters quilt!:
Sorry the pics aren’t very big… I was forced to use photobucket, since geocities decided to refuse uploading anything for me.
Now, you may notice, a few of the cuts on the motherboard are… less than precise, let’s just say I don’t intend to have my mother assist me with the power tools anymore… I’m gonna clean it up tomorrow after I get the synchronous generator penciled and cut. I’m so looking forward to adjusting adjustment after adjustment on that lol. Ah well, I never expected building this to be easy… can’t imagine what Egon and Ray had to go through…
If all goes well I will have updated pictures of the motherboard, and pictures of my synchronous generator up tomorrow night.
Untill then…
“When you wish upon a star… you’re wasting time time that could be spent on getting things done.”
Guess what, more progress… AND PICS!
Here’s the piece I just cut out:
Here’s that, along with the motherboard (I’m pic crazy!):
Here’s a close up of just HOW off my cuts were…:
Here’s a close up of the top of it, wich I kinda messed up, but I think it still looks ok… maybe…:
Here’s a double close up of my mother’s cut from hell:
All in all… I don’t think it’s turning out too bad, a few nicks on the lines here and there, but seems pretty spiffy at the moment.
Next on my list is the flats to actually SPACE the spacer. My question is:
“Do they need to be thicker than 1/4” or am I fine to use the same, material. Also… how do I space it where there are no flats, like at the top of the circle, and up the right side/around the top/down the left part."
1/4 plywood is what i used on 95%of my pack.with styrene,and pvc pipe here and there.
Hey guys, sorry I havn’t been keeping updated recently… I had my internet, phones, water, and almost my sewer and electricity shut off, I’m actually at the local library right now. As for my proton pack… no progress unfortunetly, I’m low on cash (like WAY low) and can barely feed myself, so untill I can get ahold of the pricks at the human resourses at home depot and get a job (wich means discounts WHOO) I am pretty screwed untill then. Either way, I should pose up my question… Should I just use the styrene for spacing the spacer, or go with the emboridery rings, wich is better… pros … cons… that sort of thing, thanks guys.
(I’m even lower now because I just bought a library card with free internet access…)
