It might.. but to tighten it up, you’ll have to crush the foam core completely, otherwise your hook will be loose.
In my experience at least, the guns already take the most wear n tear. Thats why I went with solid blocks on my gunmounts.
Yup, same here… Our gun mounts are made from trusty, readily available and cheap 2x4 wood block. Does the thing nicely…
When I mounted my v-hook, I had the layer of foamcore on the block too but I made the holes in the gunmount foamcore slightly bigger and slipped metal spacers on the mounting bolts. Still a tight fit without crushing anything.
Doable, sure, but it’s honestly easier to just make it out of solid wood.
Man, the upper assembly looks like a city skyline model when it’s unpainted! lol
Keep it up! If I do a second pack it’ll be foamcore, so I’m watching!
G
Gaval, I would recommend foamcore for a second build. It’s very easy to work with and easy on the wallet.
Anyways, some progress: started on the fins today. Cut them out of 1/8" basswood last night and began gluing today. The top small parts on the gearbox are not done as I realized the ones for the sides of the gearbox were a smidge too long and came up too far. I will sand them down tomorrow and place the top parts on.
The photo is a bit blurry, but I am VERY happy with the bottom portion fins on the gearbox. My father and I used a handsaw and an xacto knife for the channels, then a bit of sanding and voila!
And lastly, the powercell. Very pleased with this one. A light sanding tomorrow and we’re all set.
Thoughts? Opinions?
Another small update. Did some work on the booster and PPD. Also made an HGA out of some PVC and plywood. Very pleased with the results so far.
That’s all for now!
So, did some more work. Cut out the plates (?) for the sync generator out of basswood. I actually did this twice. I used too much glue on the first batch and they all warped badly, I had to rip them off and put new ones on. Less glue the second time and we’re in business!
Made some injectors out of dowel as per my last pack. I’ll attach them to the rest of the pack with the appropriate L-bracket for support.
Made an ion rod as well.
Also, took the advice of a few people here and went solid wood for the gunmount.
Some sanding and a few fins later and voila!
Decided to make my own clippard after seeing Valentino’s scratch build as well. Not finished yet, but so far so good.
Thoughts?
Looking very good. Keep it coming.
looks good so far and going with the all wood gun mount will pay off in the end trust me that thing will be holdin a lot. good luck and keep us posted
The Louisianna Hot Sauce I grabbed for the cap is only like 58 cents at the store… a nice price.
After I took the initial picture of my clippard for my build thread, my kid accidentally broke it, so I reglued and repainted it. In the repaint process, I used masking tape to cover the cap since it wasn’t damaged.
Then the tape took some of the paint off. :walterpeck:
So my suggestion is to use silver krylon fusion to bond the paint to the cap better… but you may not have that problem.
That sucks about the breaking and paint mishap Valentino, but glad to hear you’ve got things on track.
My father and I did some work on the N-filter today, made from two PVC joiners (?). First we did a test run using cardboard to get the cuts done correctly.
Then we slipped the cardboard over the two PVC joiners (glued together) and traced the pattern. Turned out well.
Some basswood for the top cap.
Fits on well. Will look great with a “weld”. Also put on some metal washers yesterday. Cyclotron is coming along well!
And here’s where we stand. You can see the cap on the clippard, made from a marker. Slightly smaller than accurate, but barely noticeable.
Thoughts? Opinions?
Looking good. What size PVC joiner did you use?
Nothing but respect to the crazies who manage to pull off a foamcore pack.
It’s made to join 2" PVC, so the outer diameter is like 2 1/2" or thereabouts (I don’t know the exact outer diameter at the moment).
Foamcore is actually very easy to work with. I would recommend it!
I just love this line…!
Alright, so finally got around to making the motherboard. Made out of a sign I found (1/8" thick and aluminum) it was almost perfect…but about 2" too short. Thus, with some bolts and ingenuity, my father and I managed to make it work.
Managed to get the two main sections of the pack attached to the mobo. The sync generator is just screwed on, with the screws going into the wood reinforcements inside the sync generator. The gun mount, a solid block of wood, is screwed in place as well. The top main section (powercell, spacer, ion arm, etc.) is secured in three places using wood blocks with nuts (?) in them and bolts, as seen here.
Slowly but surely, it’s coming together. Thoughts? Opinions?
Man that looks good dude…
You kind of put a bolt where a decal needs to go though man… 
The build is very similar to my basic build.. and this looks great! I love the mb, and even the added detail with the bolts on the bottom, but I’m, not feeling the love for those attachments bolts in the last few shots. The two bottom facing ones will probably be well hidden one the pack is all painted black, but the top one (where the red label goes) just doesn;t look right to my eye. Maybe you can countersinc it, and then hide it with the label on flush? If you ever need to get at it again, you can remove the label.
Shiiiiit, I forgot about the label. God dammit!
But thanks for the kind words guys.