ahahahahaha
Jesus Christ Flynn, you need to move out here! The overnight low’s this time of year are around 40 and the daytime high’s are around 70.
Ok, Exoray, again, you have raised the bar…again! Wow! Fiberglas, you say? We need SEVERAL packs for our movie, so it’s out of our budget (would save me dozens of hours of blood sweat and tears. sigh Don’t get me wrong–like your light kit, I am sure this shell is a thousand percent amazing, and I KNOW you are doing as fair a price as you can (silicone is expensive, and you will need like a gallon or more?) And you have to jacket the mold for stabilty,etc. Kudos, man!! Maybe someday. I don’t see why anyone who would be willing to shell out a grand for an MR (no direct offense to them) would not get this from you. Keep up the good work (even if you make us amateur’s stuff look more like ■■■■–LOL!)
As for the whole “movie accurate” thing, thanks to whoever posted the melted nutrona wand tip. these are Hollywood props, and it’s amazing that as much of the stuff survived as it did. Lucas LEFT props in Africa, and crazed fans flew there and braved desert sands to get the stuff. I will say this again and I don’t care who is mad at me—
THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A “MOVIE ACCURATE” PACK!!!
That’s like saying “here is a picture of Jesus” or “this is an accurate picture of a Unicorn”. The packs were made by hand, under tremendous time pressure. Stuff broke off, was hot glued/epoxied back together, slap some black paint on, film the scene, it’s Miller time.
There are people here like Exoray and dozens of others whose tool box I am not fit to carry. They lovingly, painstakingly, OCD-obsessively have tried to capture the “essense” of what a proton pack is. I am using THEIR plans. Their contribution to this community is beyond words. The people who flit about here can look at a pack and say “nice job” or “pretty close” or “wow”. Accuracy percentages (unless Sony releases a blueprint to the general public with the “official” measurements, but even that can produce arguments) are like comic book grading–subjective at best.
I hope that when my son grows up that GB Fans will be here if he wants to build a pack of his own. : )
5 gallons… My pushing numbers calculations put it at closer to 4 but there needs to be some buffer…
5 gallons? geez, I’m coming to your house : )
I hate to be a pest so soon after the holidays, but I was just wondering how the shells were going…I can not wait to finally start on my own pack, and I’m stoked that I’m going to have a gorgeous shell to work with thanks to you!
I’m not impatient, but I wouldn’t mind knowing how the shells are coming along. 
Is the weather still causing problems? Or are things moving along on this run?
Silicone is getting poured in the next 24 hours…
The first shell should be pulled this weekend and I will post a picture of it…
So how do you make a fiberglass shell anyway?
I mean fiberglass doesn’t seem like a super flexible material. It’s kinda like cloth if I’m not mistaken. Do you just lay it into the mold and use a paintbrush to tap it into place and brush resin onto it? How do you get all the kinks and folds out when doing this that would be inevitable? Carefully placed cuts? Or do you just sand them away when you’re done or coat it with a layer of bondo or something?
I’ve seen surfboards being made with fiberglass on Dirty Jobs, but there’s nowhere near the level of detail on those that you see on these packs. And the fiberlgass is placed over the foam core, not into a mold.
In short yep…
Patience, multiple pieces, patience, practice, patience, more pieces, practice, patience… Repeat…
If it was a smoother or simpler design you would vacuum bag it, and the bag would force/squish it smooth…
The first layer is a thicker resin with no fabric called a gelcoat, it’s sprayed (or brushed) into the mold, the fiberglassing backs this up…
In the end it’s a big pain in the #$!@#$
This video gives a pretty good overview of the process
Did you get a pull done last weekend flynn?
Just a quick update, Mother Nature is fighting me on these damn shells, another sub zero week in the Midwest has pretty much stopped all progress… I tried the other day to get the garage up to temp so I could at least do a test pull to show everyone, but after 6 hours full throttle on the 60,000 BTU heater the best I was able to do is to get the garage up to 55 degrees, not the 70 degrees I need to do fiberglass…
This week looks like it’s going to be in the 20s so I will try again in the next few days… Sorry about the delays, I knew winter was going to cause some issues, but I never expected extended subzero weather…
Well there’s your problem: You’re using british thermal units when you should be using imperial. :sigh:
That is an Imperial unit, joule would be the silly metric one : )
I guess I could have said a 63,303,351 joule heater…
No no no no, we know what the real problem is.
He lives in Antartica.
i live in the midwest and let me tell you these temps are crazy..it took 3 mins to freeze my bottle of pop i left in my car
I’m in south central Minnesota, and my water pipes froze for the first time. We were without water from Tuesday till yesterday…I agree that these temps have sucked really bad.
Well I am in NH and here it is a balmy 15 degrees.
It’s a freezing 66 degrees here tonight in Miami.
Well no hurry flynn. I got a trap kit coming so I can have something to work on.