Hello!, great site and very informative. I love it. Any way, I am building my proton pack and I need just a bit of help. I want to ask some opinions of you all and see what you used. I need some insight into what you all used for the circular discs on the cyclotron, the red material inside the discs, and the bridge/frame on the attenuator and booster. Did you build these items, store bought, or what? I have tried several different items, but don’t like the look of the finished product. Any help? Thanks! 
Large washers from any hardware store will do the trick. The washers with the 1" hole diameter are cheap and look great, but they’re a bit smaller than what’s seen in the movie.
There’s several different options with this one. You can use red lighting gels, red acrylic, or just take a CD case and color it red with several layers of ink from a Sharpie magic marker.
The cylinders on the edges of the frame are made from a pair of pencils, but after that the choice of materials is up to you. Just study photos and plans of this piece and you’ll get some ideas. This part can be a bear to accurately scratchbuild and many people prefer buying a resin replica. (Buying and selling is temporarily halted on this site, however.)
Welcome to the site. I hope this helps a little!
Yeah, I thought about the washers, but I can’t find any with a large enough opening to look accurate enough. I tried finding some binder sleeves or some clear wrapping paper, but no real luck. I’ll try Staples or something and see what I come up with. The frame. Yeah, I’ve been staring at the plans for weeks now and I’m still drawing a blank. I’ll keep at it until I get something close enough. Thanks for all the help. It seems as if I just need to be patient and hunt around some more. Also, while I got you guys on the line-electronics. Lights in the power cell and the cyclotron. What did you use and how did you run the wire/bulb placement?? Thanks.
For the red area inside the holes I went to pep-boys and bought the red reflectors with the adhesive on one side and peeled the adhesive and the reflector part off. Than you just have a dark red plastic I shaped with a saw and sander around some of the bulb reflectors from the inside of the dollars store flashlights.
As for my booster/frame it is a blue electronics box from Home Depot. It’s a nice big square box, and was the perfect size to put the PVC into. I highly recommend a Dremel for cutting plastic. The electronics box cost about $1. It has a nice ladder look to the top part too. for the base I just used some scrap wood and the two little circles are from a wooden dowel.
For the circles around the cyclotron lights I used black crafters cardboard (not foam board) cut in perfect circles to mimic washers. Much cheaper, and adheres easier. for the lights just drilled out the aluminum cake pan with a hole saw that attaches to a drill. To make the cyclotron lights red I used lighting gels, and backed with clear plastic. If you take this route and want to fashion your own Ion knob(s) you can recycle the circles of aluminum as the center of the Ion Knob. I used a plastic lid with the aluminum circle on top with the screen accurate screw in the middle, and wrapped the plastic with rosin core solder (cheap, and very malleable). Good luck with your prop building!
I just want to say Lucas…your gun handle looks very innapropriate.
But it’s the only Proton Gun with a “tennis” grip 
I know. I need to paint it at some point. It works for me though. Wanted it to be a little different than all the other packs out there. I’m more into creativity than being exactly accurate. What’s “inappropriate” to you, may be just fine to me. Thanks for the input though.
I’m not commenting on the material or color… artistic licenece is always good.
But frankly dude it looks like a penis in the picture.
haha! oh man. Ok… Now I’m completely going to redo the handle… I never looked at it and thought that… But now I see what you mean.
Okay, there is the handle currently. I must admit I like it better black now. I also changed the top part a little. Eventually I may redo the thrower completely.
For the cyclotron lights… I’ve heard from others on the board these are getting hard to find but I got mine at Walmart. They’re battery powered and they do chase in sequence. Check out the thread here, movie included.
The new one looks very good.
For accurate lighting, head over to Hyperdyne Labs (http://www.hyperdynelabs.com). Not the Cheapest solution, but they’re accurate.
Okay!, I got the pack pretty much complete now, but it’s missing a few things. THE RAINBOW CABLE!! Where in the world do you find these? I’ve been to every Radio Shack, Best Buy, and Cuircut City in town and no luck! Any help or leads from you all? Please? I’m begging. Please. 
http://www.gbprops.com/parts/ribbon_cable/gb2/ Does this help?
You need to find a place (usually a GB fan that has extra) that will sell you the Spectra in 2-3 foot sections… A whole roll is a costly avenue…
I just shot him an e-mail. Thanks for the link. I don’t know why I didn’t find that on my own…Oh well, you guys are great and when I’m done I’ll give you some pics. Later.
For my red and blue lenses I just cut up a few cd jewel cases as recomended by a friend of mine. Then for reflectors inside the cyclotron, used the reflectors from cheap flashlights. It’s a dern cheap alternative that works quite well, I think.
I sent him an e-mail and it was returned to me as not in existance. I don’t know if he’s changed addresses, stopped selling, or what?!?! I’ll keep trying to find it. Thanks any way!
Check Proptopia, IIRC there’s at least one person there who sells it. There’s also a ribbon cable thread there that has some alternate ideas.