Hey all, I’m getting underway with my vac pack build and I need a few tips in a few areas. Thanks for any help at all.
I know the vac shell is pretty flimsy and I’ve seen mentions elsewhere of reinforcing them. How would I go about doing this? I figured I’d definitely need some wood on the inside of it to keep the Bumper, Ion Arm and Gun Rack stable enough. Any other areas I should be weary of?
More on the shell - how should I go about connecting the Spacer / Cyclotron to the top compartment? Just a lot of plastic epoxy?
Concerning the screws used to put everything on the shell - what kind should I be using and where exactly should I be using them?
For something that doesn’t get screwed down, such as the Crank Knob (I believe), what should I use to secure that? Plastic epoxy again?
How should I go about connecting the tubing to their perspective places on the shell? Will they stay attached just to the elbows and such themselves? Or should I be putting something inside the tube to keep them in place?
I think that’s about it for now. Sorry for the mass questioning. I tried to use the search function but I’d like some specific answers, especially to the screws and vac reinforcing questions. Again, thanks for any and all help!
I saw a thread a while back someone used fiberglass and fiberglass resin to reinforce their shell. Seemed like a great idea to me. You could look at KCGhostbuser’s threads as well he has one on how to use wood. I followed his method and it worked for me.
gEkX’s right… some use fiberglass cloth with resin to reinforce (that’s what I did with my cyclotron (the only vaccuformed part of my pack)) and some others use pieces of woods to reinforce the side to side and shoot some yellow expanding foam… if you search on different thread here on the forum you will find all the info needed…
If you’re using actual pneumatic fittings and tubing of the correct sizes, then you should be fine. Once connected, they will not come apart on their own.
For tubing where hiden behind a little loom boot… I used little screws trough the shell and pluged the tubes on… everything is hidden by the boot.. like the tubes from the injectors to the side of the spacers… but you can also use reel clippard fitting (but they will never be seen)
Thanks for the help. I’ll look into which method I want to go about reinforcing the shell. Leaning toward the fiberglass cloth and maybe a few pieces of wood to support the Ion Arm and Gun Rack and possibly the Bumper.
And I figured the tubing should stay together since I’ll be getting the right connectors and such.
I used blocks of wood in the corners and on the wall where the gun clip goes. I then used 2-3 layers of resin cloth to give the strength to the shell. I used strong super glue to bond the items that are not screwed such as HGA. Not sure on the cyclotron as my pack came with the cyclotron as part of the shell. I also used a mdf motherboard rather than a aluminium one as the vac shells are slightly smaller than the resin ones so I traced around my shell to make the motherboard. I have loads of pics of my build if you click on the link in my signature which might help you