Well, firstly hello! New here and stmbled across this amazing site when looking for a proton pack for a halloween party. Obviously I’ve conceded that idea for this year round (building a scythe instead for a grim reaper outfit), but building a proton pack has been a childish dream of mine since I was about 5 - so a good 20 years now!
I fanally have the skills and resources to do it, and figured what the heck!? If a whole bunch of otehr people can do it, and have made the palns and their experience available it’d be rude not to try.
So I’m in the preliminary thinking about the process stages. I’ve studied the plans and identified the parts I can’t scratch build, made the enquiries to epople as to how much they’d cost, and all seems okay. The main question i’d like to ask is MDF a suitable main material to use for cosntructing the pack box, motherboard, cyclotron, and space.
I’ve seen the spacer causes a lot of headaches for people, and have given it some though. I think it would be feasable to make from layers of thick MDF to build the correct depth, cut using an electric jigsaw and sanded to accurate shape. Would this be a good direction to take? As I’m not keen to trying to bend styrene and such. I guess this potentially does add a lot to the final weight, but in my silly mind that only adds to the realism - I’m sure a particle accelerator wouldn’t be a light piece of kit.
Also from anyones experience are there any hotspots a new pack builder should be aware of?
Many thanks in advance - I’m hoping to begin work in the next few weeks, and I’ll be sure to post some progress.
I constructed my spacer by scaling up the plans available on this site till they were correct, using them to pinhole and recreate the shape on a piece of 1/4" MDF and screwing that piece to another the same size. I then cut, sanded and made this sandwich till it was (almost) exactly right (I oversanded one small bit, but it’s not noticeable to my failing eyes…). I then seperated the two pieces, and put raising blocks made of MDF at key points on the spacer. (pressure points, places mostly likely to get physical abuse… The remainder of the side is being fitted with 4mm Styrene Gorilla Glued to 1/2" blue foam… so what should result is a nice solid but lightweight spacer. I will post pictures when the pack is complete, but for now I’m more worried about getting it completed. I will also be building other parts in a similar fashion (MDF/Foam/4mm Styrene with Gorilla Glue, as it should cut down on working time, provide a nicer painted finish and be a light pack. The wood spacers and bases will be a good thing to screw into from the reverse of the motherboard.
Considering that I’m in the midst of my first build, I thought I could offer some insight.
MDF will work well for this part. It machines well and it’s sturdy. But you’ll need the right tools. You can do it with a jig saw and some clampable fences, as I did mine. If you have a scroll saw with a circle-cutting jig, you’re golden.
But I wouldn’t waste your time trying to build up layers. Assuming you’re using quarter-inch stock to make something about 3-inches tall, that’s 16 times you’ll have to cut the part. Instead, do this: Tack one sheet on another and cut them at the same time. Then take some scrap blocks, cut them to the height you want the spacer to be and glue them in between. For side walls, go to a hardware store and buy some styrene For sale signs. Cut to height and glue to the sides.
I mentioned this before in another thread. In the Paranorman tutorial, he mentions using a 12’’ embroidery hoop for the shape of the spacer and then styrene wrapped around the hoop and cut to the right height. I made the mistake of using 3 hoops in my spacer, stacking all the inner and outer hoops on top of each other. This actually proved to be a benefit because all the hoops stacked together equaled the perfect height for the whole spacer, plus provided a more stable base for the cover. Just my two cents.
Hmmm, all seem like good ideas! I was just really hoping to avoid working with styrene. My initial thoughts were to use thicker MDF, I thought I’d be able to buy it in 1 inch sheets, and stack three together, with an appropriate hole cut for the wiring of cyclotron lights. I thought this might save a lot of time in the way of cutting, bending, and gluing styrene?
I can see I shall have to give this part some more consideration before I set out to start construction.