OK I’m thinking about starting to build my first prop pack and depending on how much it costs and how i do in the build eventually build and sell them to other enthusiast.
Now my question is which pack plans are the easiest and best looking pack out there to build?
-How much would it cost to get the necessary part for the plans?
-how long does said build take to complete? (with normal breaks)
What is the best and cheapest plans out there for a trap and PKE meter build that actually have a good end result?
-And how much are the necessary parts for the build?
-how long does said take to complete?
Sorry for all the questions and thanks for your time I hope to hear back soon from you guys
P.S
What tools will/should i have for a from scratch build?
Easiest Norm’s or Venkman71’s, most accurate Stefan’s
Anywhere from free, to several hundreds or even thousands…
Weeks, months, years…
Your choice, they all create decent results…
PKE ~ Anywhere from free, to several hundreds…
Trap ~ Anywhere from free, to several hundreds…
Weeks, months, years…
Honestly there are so many variables in your questions you can’t get real answers, build one how you want and find your own answers based on how you do it and what you use…
I have probably around $4000 or $5000 invested in parts alone (to build my personal GB props) and have not even started to build yet… While there are others that build packs for cheap, or nearly free…
Well most of the found parts you can’t simply buy as they have not been made for many years… Other parts are available but sometimes costly… Also a lot depends on how much you plan to build and how much you plan to buy already done by someone else…
The shop here is a great start, as is a few members sites and the for sale section here… Look around and start taking notes…
Stefan’s plans do detail pretty much all the found parts, although there are some errors on them like the Alkon(sp) fittings, they are actually Legris fittings…
good to know i will keep that in mind for future reference,
now I been looking around and put some thought into it, since i never actually did a build before and we should all start off slow before jumping a hypothetical cliff.
What is the Cheapest movie style pack build that has pretty good results, dont have to be super accurate i just need a jumping off point (i have seen some made with paper lol no thanks)
the cheaper the better since this will be my first build and i should start off slow and work my way up to 95-99% movie accurate builds.
Buy a couple 2x4 sheets of MDF, lets say a 1/4" sheet and a 1/2" sheet, get some 1/8" styrene and start building the pack, part by part, total cost maybe $20 or $30 to start with and you can get a large portion of the pack built… Now there is additional cost like tools, glue, paint and filer to name a few but it can be purchased slowly over time… On to purchasing some PVC and some other detail parts and you will be well on your way to building a wood pack…
What it costs depends on the materials you use to build it. I built mine from wood, bought an aluminum motherboard, hoses, real brass parts, real ion arm, real knobs, and some resin parts for the gun, etc, and so far it’s run me over $1500, but that includes my suit and all the stuff for that.
As for the time it takes to build, it took me around four full days to rought cut all parts for the spacer out of MDF, screw it together, and sand it down for a precise fit. Then it took another week and a half to build all the boxes and things out of basswood. And I haven’t finished my pack yet, but I painted the spacer and some temporary parts for halloween so I’d have a pack, and that took another day, but that was just one coat of primer and black, with no silver undercoats for weathering.
And before I could even start on that, I visited every hardware, electronics, plumbing, and craft store in the area looking for materials over the course of six weeks while I put together my suit. Of course, I started out intending to make a pack out of foam and was looking for ways to do that, and I was looking for cheap alternatives to the parts, because I didn’t intend to spend more than $250 on equipment when I started. I just wanted a cool halloween costume.
As for tools…
To make my pack, I used a power jigsaw to cut the MDF, a small x-acto saw from a craft store to cut the basswood, and one of those hole saws for a drill where you can select the size you want to cut some of the circular bits out. But you could just jigsaw those and sand them down.
I also bought a chisel, though that wasn’t really neccessary.
You’ll need at least one clamp and a set of sawhorses.
You’ll also want a respirator if you’re cutting MDF for six hours a day as it’s nasty stuff and very dusty and a cheap paper dust mask simply won’t cut it. It’s also good for when you’re spraypainting.
And of course, you’ll need a drill and some bits.
You won’t really need a hamer if you screw/glue everything together. The easiest way to do that is with a screwdriver bit on ta power drill. Btw, when you do that, clamp the stuff together, and don’t screw too close to the edge of the MDF or it will split. (Too close is less than an inch.)
A mitre box and a hacksaw will come in real handy for cutting the PVC pipe and dowels.
Oh and there’s a curved bit that goes underthe HGA. It has a beveled edge. You’re not gonna find that in a hardware store, so you’ll have to get a router and the right bit, or you’ll need to carefully sand it down.
Speaking of sanding, you can sand by hand, but one of those square handheld vibrating sanders comes in real handy when you need to sand down a quarter inch of MDF because all your jigsaw cuts were rough. Get the roughest paper you can get for doing that, and you’ll still be at it for hours.
The last things I can think of is if you get a cake pan for the cyclotron you’ll need to cut holes in that. And if you don’t cut them carefully, you may end up needing to get a grinding bit for your drill to grind the holes out. And you’ll need a small and medium spatula for spreading wood filler. (Get ZAR wood filler from True Value. I treid five different ways of filling wood and that’s by far the best.)
MDF means medium density fiberboard. It’ll be with the plywood at the hardware store. (Lowes doesn’t sell it, only Home Depot) It’s basically compressed sawdust held together with glue. Very heavy, but also super smooth. No splinters.
I’d only use that for the spacer. Basswood for the rest. Basswood is next to the balsa at craft stores. It’s light and easy to cut but much sturdier than balsa. Get it 1/8" thick. The 3/16" thick is uneccessary, makes measuring more difficult, etc. “Quick Dry Tacky Glue” works great on basswood and dries within a minute.
As for screws you’ll only need those to hold together the stacks of MDF for the spacer. Standard stainless steel wood screws will do. You won’t need many. Maybe eight or so, in varying lengths. Just figure out how thick the wood will be when you put it together and get a screw half an inch shorter than that. Helps to screw together a couple layers at a time too, which is where the different lengths come in.
I would just get some generic drywall screws… And for wood to wood, elmers glue or wood glue works well… For wood to plastic or metal I suggest 2 part epoxy…
No that would a sheet of plastic, but as GhostGuy suggested 1/8" bass wood would also work… Many of the details are 1/8" so you should have some 1/8" material and unfortunately it’s not a common thickness for MDF at most places, most places only carry 1/8" hard board (HDF looks like MDF but is much harder) and IMO it’s not worth the trouble to work with hard board when there are other easier alternatives…
(Please keep questions on the forum, I don’t really have time to answer a lot of questions right now, so you’ll be more likely to get an answer.)
$20-$30? Hell no. Forget any tools at that price.
MDF will run you around $5-7 a sheet, and you’ll need around three or four sheets for the spacer and motherboard alone. And basswood is much more expensive. That’ll run you $1 for one large sheet. “Large” in that case being like 2.5" wide, and 2" long. And you’ll need a whole mess of it, in various widths to make all the boxes.
And don’t forget you need to paint it. You’ll need at least a couple cans of paint and primer. Four cans of paint/primer will run you about $20.
You’ll also need sandpaper. And you’ll want wood filler.
If you want a REAL cheap pack, then you’ll want to make one out of foam, and hopefully you have some junk laying around like electrical boxes, computer speakers, and the like.
For halloween I built a real spacer/cyclotron for my final pack, and then made an MDF motherboard and everything else was bits of junk I had laying around:
It even lit up, with a glow stick and blinking red safety lights, and had sound with computer speakers and my ipod. But that might be a bit over your budget. The speakers were $30 and the lights were $5 each.
You could do something similiar to that for fairly cheap, if you can get ahold of some junk and make the spacer out of foam instead of MDF. You can’t paint foam though. You have to coat it in MOD podge, which is basically elmer’s glue. I bought some insulation foam from Home Depot to do that before deciding to make mine out of wood.
Anyway, that pack won me a costume contest and I was the life of the party everywhere I went. Your average joe won’t be able to tell the difference.
What I said was $20 or $30 will get you started, that was for some MDF and 1/8 material to get started not an all inclusive total cost… A large majority of the main pack body can be built with a 2x4 sheet of 1/4" and a 2x4 sheet 1/2" MD if you plan it right, and some 1/8" material for detailing…
For the 1/8" material you don’t need much, all the cosmetic plating and ribbing can be made from 3 or 4 sheets of bass wood… The rest of the pack can be made from cheaper 1/4" and 1/2" MDF…
And I also specified that tools and several other incidentals would incur additional cost…
i would suggest you read up on some other people’s build threads to see how they do it. there is not a real ‘order’ to building a pack. all the plans sort of have an order, if you go from page 1 to page X. i think following some builds would help you out a lot. it would answer quite a few of your questions.
The most detailed and accurate plans are Stephan’s plans. If you want to make a real movie accurate pack, then those are what you should use. If you just want to make a pack and accuracy isn’t a big concern, then Sean’s plans will do.
See that equipment tab up there? Everything you need to know is there. Reference photos, plans, data.
Also someone posted a good exploded view on the forums of how to put together sheets of MDF to make the spacer. I don’t know where it is, but I’m sure someone does. If you’re gonna use MDF you want to follow that. Makes it easy.
You got to have some basic building skills if you are going to scratch build a pack. If your father has a wood shop in his garage then I assume he knows a thing or two and this might be something you should speak with him about. There are no plans that say “Cut this line, cut this line, cut this line, now you have this shape, glue it to this other shape and there you have it!”. There are a set of measurements out there, and then there are a few plans that give you some tips, but none of them are going to tell you how large you need to cut something while working with 1/2" thick MDF. You’re going to need to know how to measure, and how to add and subtract - for example: Say I need to make a 4" cube. I can’t just go and cut six sides that are 4" square out of 1/2" thick MDF, I have to account for the thickness of the MDF to make sure all my sides really end up being 4". You also have to account for the thickness of your saw blade. If you have access to a table saw and a miter saw, then I’d use wood. If you don’t, then I’d get some 1/8"-thick styrene sheets, an exacto knife, and a ruler. That’s how I make most things.
first off dont feel dumb for asing questions…i ask alot. but i will say if you want a really nice pack (one to really show off and accurate) you are looking at a some work. i have been compairing and plans and builders for a few months now and i have barely started. but with in hindsight i am glad i done so much research it has seemed to help. trust me if you wnat a pack like that you are looking at a pretty good hobby.
