Hey.
Looking over the matierials list from Parnorman’s plans, it seems that the list isn’t really every needed to make the packs so I was wonder if anyone else can provide a list of additional material such as for the crank box, power cell, and the other conponents?
Those are things you have to build from scratch, out of wood or plastic or whatever you can find. If you want more precise measurements for those components, check out venkman71’s or stephan’s plans.
Thought so. What kind of wood should I ask for at Depot ( I would assume plywood. Do they sell boxes of wood?)? This is my first pack so forgive me for being naive.
Any kind of wood can be used really. For the cylinders that come down from the power cell, I used some dowel rods. If you sand and primer everything before painting, you can’t tell what it is. Though I suggest using something that’s already relatively smooth. Don’t use chipboard because you’ll never sand that into smoothness lol.
Sorry, I said boxes when I meant blocks lol. When getting the wood for the gearbox, crank box, etc, will I be able to get the wood in block form or will I need to get multiple quarter inch thick wood and glue it together?
Hey man don’t feel naive, I’m in the process of making my first pack as well. You just learn as you go. The boxes are such weird measurements that I don’t think you’d have any luck finding wooden blocks. I’m just making mine out of 1/4 inch plywood and gluing it all together like you said. It’s really not that hard unless you’re wanting to get it done in a short time period… waiting for bondo and glue to dry sucks.
Yeah, I’m also a bit unknowledgable on the use of bondo. :?
Unless you can find blocks of balsa wood, I would go the route of making them out of 1/4 inch plywood. The weight can add up when you start making things out of solid wood.
So it seems this thing will be made of 90% plywood. Fine by me 
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My boxes are made almost entirely out of Basswood, available at the local arts and crafts store (Hobby Lobby). Basswood is softer and easier to work with than plywood, comes in a wide variety of useful sizes, and is still plenty strong. I went with 1/8" to 1/4", depending upon the application.
Yeah, basswood is good stuff, it’s what alot of people learning to carve use just for that reason.
Hi Everyone,
After building my first pack using superglue and bostik glue and waiting for ages and swearing a lot after things ended up stuck to my fingers instead of the pack.
I took a trip to my local DIY store or in american terms ‘home depot’ and purchased a hot glue gun. What a life saver!!!.
Original poster - please please please believe me if I was starting out that would be top of my list.
As for the gearbox, gun mount, EDA and the powercell, get handy with a jigsaw and some quarter inch MDF and get hold of a decent workbench, be sure to make the gunmount out of something quite sturdy as you will eventually be hanging the gun off it.
Work on one piece at a time and carefully draw up your own plans after carefully studying venkman71’s or stefans plans,which sometimes get a little confusing,
U gotta give it to those guys though,- we are all eternally grateful for their endeavours, cheers lads.
I was going to use super glue on my pack, but then I found something far better. It’s a glue made by locktite, and it’s called power grab. You can buy tubes that can be applied by a calk gun, or a pressureized canister of it. The stuff’s pretty down low on the price too, and it holds pretty well even wet, once it dries, it’s damn strong. Case in point, I put my booster tube on my proton pack by this glue alone, and after it dried (about a day) I was able to pick up my pack shell by the booster tube alone, just a suggestion. Also, if you do it right, you can make a very convincing weld appearance, specially once it’s painted.