I figure I’m a little more than half done with my first pack… As you can see, I still need to do a lot of filling & sanding to what you see here. It’s mostly 1/4" MDF and weighs a ton. In retrospect, I should have just saved up money for a fiberglass shell. I still stand by my statement that they’re a lot of money, but probably would have been worth it for weight reasons alone. But, I’m so far along, I don’t see any use in stopping now.
And I’ll give a bit of advice for anyone considering an MDF pack… you better have the right tools. I don’t know WHAT I would have done without my stationary disc sander… Probably would have given up by now.
Looking good! Don’t worry too much about the weight, with the Alice frame it’s not that bad. My first pack was made with MDF (weighed about 30 lbs. +/-) The Alice frame distributes the weight nicely.
that looks great. i used mdf also, and agree with irri, the alice frames helps with the weight. anyway, how did you make the synch generator, layers of mdf?
Yeah, I layered the MDF for the sync generator and the cyclotron.. I then used a handheld belt sander to round the upper edge. It’s not perfect but it turned out pretty good. I also bought a pie tin for consideration with the cyclotron but the MDF version looks sooo much better… No contest.
That isn’t the clippard valve actually.. I added a little nub to the top of the vaacum pump base where the hose connects that will allow me to snuggly attach vinyl hose that will run inside the 1" loom.
unless someone can convince me otherwise, I was planning on filling gaps and seams with bondo, then using plasti-kote sandable primer, followed by a silver coat of paint, then a flat black coat. Then I’ll sand through some spots to expose the silver.
Thats the route i went.. primer, silver, black. you could also use the mustard method to get get the weathered effect as well. The pack looks great keep it coming !
More progress… I gave it a coat of primer so I could see the defects better. This week, I’ll give it a thin layer of Bondo and then sand it, and re-primer it. I need to find some aluminum washers to replace those steel ones. I can’t seem to find em anywhere I’ve looked.
