On Halloween night after successfully trick or treating the area around our home we packed into our van and headed over to my parents house so they could see my boys in costume and so I could show off my pack which they hadn’t seen yet, unfortunately after arriving there as I was putting the pack on one of my shoulder straps let go and my pack crashed to the ground causing the HGA & Clipard valve to disconnect from the pack and the bottom of my Throwing Chicken proton gun to come off from the body too. Luckily the damage was only minimal and I was able to screw the Clipard back into place and reattach the HGA without issue, and I thought the gun bottom was secured back to the rest of the gun as well but unfortunately I was proven to be wrong.
This morning while watching tv with my youngest son I heard a noise come from my bedroom so I went to check it out because the the room was empty, and upon looking around my proton pack which I have displayed on a couple of hooks in the wall caught my eye due to the gun no longer being attached to the pack and laying on the floor minus the bottom which was actually still attached to the pack via V-Hook. It turns out not all the screws that attach the bottom to the body weren’t as secure as I thought they were and because of this the body detached from the bottom and now I have some minor repairs to make to my gun.
There is only one thing that I don’t know how to fix on my own and am looking to you my fellow ghostheads for help with, and that is after this fall I can’t get any of the screws that attach the bottom of the gun to the gun body to hold, so aside from glueing the bottom to the body how can I fix this problem? As always any help is welcomed and much appreciated.
You could see if it’s possible to find some brass inserts that would fit the screws, this would hopefully resolve the issues of the screws fitting tightly into the Gun Box. It would require drilling the Gun Box and enlarging the holes, which hopefully won’t be an issue, and obviously the inserts could be glued in place for added strength - assuming the material would accommodate them easily.
Whilst I’m not familiar with the specifics of TC’s kit, I can report that the MMM kit I used to have, which had significantly thick resin walls, happily accommodated a set of brass inserts which helped keep the base plate in place. Circumstances may vary with TC’s kit, but I think there might be room for some inserts to be put into place.
Edit: Having looked at the TC kit, the walls may be too thin to accommodate the brass inserts without some modification.
I’m hoping that people aren’t using machine type screws with resin parts. They’re not compatible. With movent, 24 and 32 screw thread will eventually shave off enough resin to smooth out the hole and it won’t tighten anymore.
If there are no inserts, you have to use coarse thread. This is what resin kits should come with.
Yes, I put some brass inserts in my TC kit for a more secure fit. I found them at my local Ace Hardware store. However, if you go this route be extremely careful, work as carefully as possible and take your time. While I did not have any problems in the end there were a few points during the installation process I was concerned the resin would split. I am not sure what the brass inserts were made from exactly but a few times they actually snapped halfway when screwing into the gun box (by hand).
The trick that worked in the end was carefully drilling a hole, placing the bolt in the brass insert then screwing it into the resin by hand. Brass inserts will not work in all the holes I found. In my case 3-4 holes took well to them while the others are just the resin holes. But overall to date I haven’t had issues, the less you need to keep going into the gun box the better (that just my opinion).
I think the reason for the snapping of brass threads could have been due to the threads being set so far apart (if that makes sense). Ace only sold threads like these and nothing else.
If they’re splitting. The predrilled hole is a bit small. I think those are for wood, which is more flexible than resin. Also avoid screwing them in one shot, go in, back out a little, repeat a few times as you go. You’re trying to cut the threads, just like tapping.
Also, if you have a dremel with a new cutting wheel, make some tiny “teeth” around the first two threads of the insert. It will help the threading and lower the chance of splitting the resin
If too much of the resin has broken away, I’d recommend using JB Weld steel stick. I’ve used a few different two part epoxy putties (apoxie sculpt, mighty putty, etc) and a lot of them, while good for smaller stuff, aren’t reliable enough for anything structural. Just follow the directions on the container, cram a good enough sized piece (to fill gaps/rebuild the spot that was there) let it cure, then drill it out for the inserts. You COULD put the inserts in and build up around them as well if there’s enough resin to get the insert sitting, but not structurally sound. I used Apoxie Sculpt on the inside of my Throwing Chicken (it’s an older model, so the posts weren’t big enough to accommodate screws) and to be honest I’m terrified it’s going to shatter/chip and my gun will plummet. I don’t trust it for stuff like that at all, but in the Halloween rush, you make due haha.
I know its been a while since this thread has been posted in, but out of nervousness and paranoia of messing up I’ve put off doing my repairs until I finally manned up earlier this week. Unfortunately for me using the super glue to try to make new threads in the holes like TC had suggested did not work as hoped. Maybe I should have used CPU64’s suggestion of the self tapping screws instead.
