TheBigGuy's Scratch Build - HOMEMADE LIGHT KIT OPERATIONAL!

Equipment Proton Packs
1

Hello all!

I built my first pack at the same time as three of my buddies way back at the turn of the century (summer 2000.) They all looked the same, but were starkly inaccurate as we had extremely limited resources. I made some improvements to my original pack for Halloween of 2002, but was still unsatisfied with the general inaccuracy of the pack. I have been thinking about building another pack since then.

Fast forward to summer 2010. Thinking about my original pack, I decided that the biggest improvement I wanted to make in a new pack would be the lights. I figured that if I could build my own light assembly for the pack, that even closely resembled the FX from the films, then I could be happy with the level of accuracy of my new potential pack build. I ordered an arduino board, bought some LEDs and resistors at surpluss, and quickly learned barely enough about arduino coding to make a prototype. The video can be found here. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkOSXK5P7Tk . Happy with the initial results, I print out all of the three major pack plans and put them in a binder. I dwell on this from time to time for the following year.

Fast forward to summer 2011. School is out, grades are recorded, my classroom is cleaned, and I’ve got a couple of weeks of free time before my daughter is born. I start my build at the same place Sean’s plans begin; the gearbox.

I built the gearbox by nailing together 1/2" MDF and adding PVC pipe and laminate for small plates. The MDF made the gearbox very heavy… I knew at this point I needed lighter material for other pack components. Also, using bondo to smooth out the surface (which, consequently, also added weight)

image

Adding fins. I have found that stir sticks from home depot are great for stuff like this, easy to work with and FREE!

image

All fins on.

image

Primer on the gear box.

image

image

2

Love the stir stick idea. Good start on your pack.

3

So, as I started taking pictures a while back, the first several posts will be catch-up.

After priming the gearbox, I decided it made sense to start on the HGA.

Cut PVC and wood for cap.

image

Inserted wood cap and epoxied from the inside.

image

Used Bondo for a weld line. It turned out much smoother than I anticipated. Probably good or bad depending on your opinion.

image

First coat of primer on and socket cap screws in.

image

Second coat of primer.

image

4

Thanks KCGhostbuster! Really, the stir sticks come in handy for so many things, I grab a couple every time I’m at home depot. I figure I spend enough money there…

5

While at an electronic surplus store (which was rather more like a garage full of boxes than an actual store) I showed a picture of the Dale PH-25 to the two employees. Both told me they had never seen one in the store. I looked through all of the resistors and gave up. I then moved on to a shelf full of boxes of knobs to look for things that might be good for the wand or scratch building the Clippard valves… WHEN LO AND BEHOLD, I find a PH-25 in the corner of a box of knobs! It was marked 50 cents! And it is the model without the ring on the top!

This got me excited. The next day, I found a hydraulic systems supplier in Portland and went in to buy some SMC elbows and straights to sub for legris parts. My box of components is growing.

image

I decide to make my next build the Ion arm as I am excited to use some of my new fancy found objects.

After building such a heavy Gear Box from 1/2" MDF, I bought some 1/8" pressboard. It is much lighter and is also very smooth, so it should take less finishing.

image

Top and bottom plates of the ion arm are cut out

image

Adding some framing to the top and bottom faces of the Ion Arm. Once again using my trusty (and free!) Home Depot stir sticks!

image

Top and bottom of Ion Arm epoxied together with spacers.

image

All of the Ion Arm faces cut out.

image

All Ion Arm Faces are epoxied together. it looks a little like a crappy model of a minivan

image

Edges are Bondoed (???) and primer is applied. Ion Arm cap is pictured as well (two stir sticks layered.)

image

image

Ion arm is painted black and cap is painted silver. It is clear that some sanding and re-coating is in order.

image

The Hydraulics place where I found my SMC fittings did not carry Clippard stuff, so I located another air power place in Portland and bought my Clippard elbows there. I acquired both square and hexagonal L’s as, despite other difficulties I will face, I am choosing to build a GB1 pack.

I put a little more work into the Ion Arm and Cap and added all of the fittings I have so far. I found an 8" brass toilet float rod at home depot to use on the Ion arm. It is great because it is threaded at both ends, and it can be cut and used for both pieces. I’m not yet sure how to tackle the knurling…

image

6

Looking good

7

Okay, so while I waited for the weekend to head back to my garage/electronics surplus so I can finish my Ion arm, I decided to build something else. I figured it was time to go ahead with the motherboard so I can start laying stuff out and what not. I had a sheet of presswood that was about 1/8" thick and figured it would work for the motherboard.

Using a ruler, a square and a protractor, I drew in pencil the outline of the motherboard from Stefan’s plans.

image

image

Started attacking the board with my saber saw. Pretty happy with the results to start off!

image

I got a little over-jealous with the saw and accidentally cut off the piece of board that should back the Injection Receiving Module. Bummer. I guess there are worse mistakes I could have made. I’ll decide later how I’m going to fix that.

I cut out the whole board by just following the pencil lines with the saber saw, until I got down to the last cut. It’s the longest straight line on the edge of the motherboard, it’s at an angle, and I didn’t trust myself to make that long of a straight cut with the saber saw. I set up a jig.

image

I sanded down the edges a bit and was very satisfied with the results.

image

I sprayed the motherboard first with automotive undercoating. It was rubberized and did not give me the results I wanted. I sanded it down and shot it with regular black primer.

image

I think I’ll be moving on to the EDA and Booster next… should be interesting!

8

I’ve decided to work on the EDA next. I am building in in two main pieces. The first layer will be hollow and the pieces are pictured here. I cut out the front face of the lower layer section and drew some guidelines to add framing.

image

Next I epoxied some framing to the main face.

image

Added some of the side plating.

image

Added the rest of the side plates and epoxied all of the seams from the inside

image

Next, this component is going to take a lot of sanding and filling.

I planned on building the slanted portion of the EDA, where the PPD connects, by cutting it from one solid piece of wood, then boring out much of the inside to reduce weight. I decided to drill a hole near a corner of the block, then cut the block around the hole, to crate the curved mount for the PPD. As I continued to calculate measurements, I realized I had no piece of wood large enough to create this piece. Thus I glued three pieces of 2x4 together.

image

The baby is in need so it seems the project will sit like this until I can commit some more time in the garage!

9

Oh, also, I just got Crix’s sound board in the mail. I don’t have any of my switches or wiring yet, but I had to hear what this thing would sound like. I hooked it up to my Ryobi 18v work site radio and tested each sound by touching a jumper cable to the leads. Awesome sounds! I even just stood in the garage with my daughter asleep in the baby bjorn and listened to the GB theme song from the chip several times.

Putting a lot more thought into how I’ll wire this with my Arduino lights… This is going to be freakin’ sweet! Thanks Crix!

image

10

Really good job!

And no one can complain about the lack of pictures… :wink:

11

Great build, can’t wait to see it finished…

12

Looks good so far, cant wait to see more!

13

Thanks a lot guys! It is motivating to get thumbs up from others in the community about my build!

Going out of town this weekend, so we’ll see when I am able to get back to this.

14

Found this MRC cab controller at a local model RR store, grabbed it for ten bucks just for the knob. Was pretty stoked when I saw it in a box of old transformers.

image

15

awesome find on the knob, hadn’t thought to look at hobby shops for parts…

16

Had a little time tonight so I built the angled part of the EDA. Didn’t go with my original solid block idea. Next I’ll have to drill the pseudo-hole for the ppd, then fill in the seams and sand her down!

image

17

FREAKIN’ LOVE YOUR HGA! Why am I yelling? Going to steal the idea. I have never seen anyone ones Ion Arm, have rounded edges like that, but its your baby, do what you can. Also, you have me looking around my area of town for electronic surplus stores.

Keep up the great work.

18

Thanks for the enthusiasm! Regarding the ion arm, I was trying to seal my seams and create faux weld lines at the same time. It just all came out too smooth. I’ll decide what to do when it’s all together and I see the big picture. Did you leave me the comment on YouTube today?

19

Wow, this is looking really good even for scratch built, keep it up!

20

Looking good so far. +1 for coding your own damn lights.. now that is just something to take pride in ..

keep going! I hope this pack is done by oct’s famous day