Ghostbusters Project: Mounting the pack
Since I received my motherboard, I could start working on attaching the motherboard to the frame, and the shell to the motherboard.
One of the first things I simply had to try, was to fit the speakers on to my laser cut grille, and they matched up perfectly!
Next up was drilling the holes into the Alice Frame, which was a lot harder than I thought, but it worked out fine.
Once the motherboard was attached, I started attaching the L-brackets that holds the shell to the motherboard.
I used very strong magnets to hold them in place while I gently pushed then around with the shell to get where I wanted them, then drilled through and riveted from the back, as per the original packs. When they had been placed, I taped them while I carefully marked the positions for them with a sharpie.
Note that I let the L-bracket underneath the mount point for the thrower lie down, in order to make proper space inside for the metal reinforcements I will put inside.
Of course, not all of them were a perfect match, as I don’t have a proper work bench or drill press. One of them moved around a bit, but with a little filing, it fit just fine.
With the pack clamped down on top of the brackets, I drilled through the shell (going backwards first) with a 3mm drill, then continued in into the L bracket to get the hole at the precise correct place.
Once the guiding hole was done, I drilled upp to 5mm on the brackets..
.. before I hand tapped them to 1/8″.
Tapping is hard work, and with aluminium, it is important to lubricate (I used isopropanol) and go forward a turn, then back half a turn, lubricate, and repeat.
Just look at these lovely blue Pyle speakers. They will make my pack loud!
Once all holes were tapped, I screwed the motherboard in to place..
And had my (bored) fiancée take the obligatory first pictures of me wearing my work in progress:
Let me know what you think. I think it fits well, and looks like it has a good height on me.
One thing that bothers me though, is I think my shell is a bit wonky, turns out that there is a gap…
With a little mild pressure, it closes nicely, however. I’m not sure how to solve this. I think there might be a place on my shell that needs a bit of filing, but I might also make some bracket that this can hook in to from the inside. We’ll see.
I am not too worried, though.
Finally, as a closer, I also received these:
