Building one item at the time...

Ghostbusters Project: Cutting up the N-Filter

Earlier, I had marked where the round N-filter would go on my proton pack.

My first thought was to cut open the Fiberglass shell and insert the N-Filter inside, but for some reason, I decided to go down another path.

My thick, aluminium N-filter had to be ut to match the profile of my proton pack!

This is definitely a scary prospect as I don’t have a proper metal workshop, and a failed result would be harder to patch up. Never the less, time to get cutting.

I started by making a paper profile by wrapping around the N-Filter and slid it off and cut where I had to cut the metal. Once I was happy with a good starting point, I taped this down firmly onto the N-Filter and made a few futile attempts to cut the thick metal with a small metal blade. I quickly decided that using my dremel was the way to go!

The corners were done by drilling down with a step drill until I got close enough, and then filing down with a sharp file until I reached my cut outs.

I cut sparingly, making sure I had plenty of material left that needed filing and sanding down to make a perfect fit.

Just to give you an idea of how thick the material is, check this out:

Once the base cuts were made, I spent quite a lot of time by filing and testing, testing and filing. Repeat ad infinitum, it seemed. I made up a simple basic program to describe the process better:

10 sand and file
20 test fit
30 goto 10

After a while, I came up with this:

The more alert eyes see that the cut-out is not perfectly straight, but that was the result of test fitting, as the fiber glass proton pack is not 100% straight at times.

It did, however fit quite well:

The last step is of course to paint this and insert the mesh inside and finally bondo it to the fiberblass surface. I will need to drill a hole in the fiberglass shell where this sits at some point, in order to add smoke coming out of the filter, but that is another exercise for another day.

 

By |2017-03-27T00:16:37+02:00March 26th, 2017|Building, Costuming, Ghostbusters, Ghostbusters Proton Pack|Comments Off on Ghostbusters Project: Cutting up the N-Filter
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Ghostbusters Project: Prepping the shell

So, a while back, I finally received my beautiful Nick-a-tron fiberglass proton pack hero kit.

At the core, the basic shell is what I’d use to work from, but even though it is amazing, there is still a lot of work to do on it!

First off, I drilled out part of the holes used for the lights in the cyclotron. (it is these holes here thad I already had done a quick drill through with my step drill.)

As you see, they are far from perfect, but I had planned to spend a little time with the shell and my trusty dremel!

Armed with a sanding drum, I went ahead and sanded those round.

It is a pretty messy work, so it is definitely recommended to do this outside. Also recommended is to wear some sort of dust protector or rebreather. VERY recommended, in fact.

We had one of our first really sunny nice days outside in a long while, so it was perfect to spend a little time on the shell while my wife had a friend over and Emma played with her daughter in the mean time.

Once sanding was done, it was time to put on the cutting wheel and cut open the slot where the blue LED’s are going to be in the future. A steady hand and going slow made for a pretty decent result.

I also spent a little time removing some of the artefacts from the casting process to get my shell as good as can be. I will still need to bondo and sand parts of it more, but at least I have started.

During the evening, I also found a little time to plan for where I would place the N-filter… I think. I marked it out with a sharpie after gently scratching the outside of the N-filter into gel coat with a scalpel. If I end up moving it, a little bondo will cover these marks without issues before painting.

I also ended up making a holder for the split loom (the hose going to the gun portion) that is not exactly 100% screen accurate, but it will hold the loom in place wonderfully. I 3d printed this out of reinforced PLA. (Normal PLA would do, but I had reinforced PLA loaded, so it will be nice and sturdy.)

I designed this a while back before actually having the split loom in hand, so a few minor modifications was needed… and it ens up holding the loom perfectly.

My plan is to to put threaded brass inserts into the bottom portion, allowing me to use M3 bolts to hold it together and have no fatigue in the plastic.

More to come another day! 😀

By |2017-03-27T00:17:13+02:00March 20th, 2017|3D Printing, Building, Costuming, Ghostbusters, Ghostbusters Proton Pack|Comments Off on Ghostbusters Project: Prepping the shell
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Ghostbusters Project: Modifying the Clippard

One of the features on both the proton pack and the thrower (the “gun” if you will) on the Ghostbusters costume from 1984, is a Clippard Valve. It is apparently used for something in the real world. In the Ghostbusters world, it is a thing that looks cool.

A while back, I 3d printed a copy of a clippard to keep on my proton pack to keep the weight down, and sitting right next to the real deal, it looks pretty good!

The twist knob still needs a little more work, but I’ve got a resin copy of that coming in, but what I’m devoting THIS post to, is modifying the original Clippard (The one that is supposed to go on the gun) to work as a volume controller for my proton pack.

After first opening the clippard and taking it apart, removing everything on the inside, I had to first saw off the round tab on the bottom  and drill a hole, allowing the cable to run through.

I also 3d designed a huge spacer/holder for the potentiometer that was to be placed inside the clippard.

I needed to cut down the pins on the potentiometer in order to make it fit properly, and once it was cut down and the wires were soldered, this what I was left with.

In the picture you can also see a spacer that I threaded and had screwed in place, and blue painters tape on the threads and rotary part of the potentiometer. You’ll see why shortly…

To make sure I had enough room for the solder joints, I drilled out the top of the inside of the Clippard with a stepper drill, just to give some more space. The enclosure will be held in place 6 mm further down where the inside diameter will match the 3d printed enclosure perfectly.

The potentiometer fit like a glove into my 3d printed enclosure.

Pushed down into the Clippard with the cable going out through the hole I drilled in the bottom:

When I started to put the clippard together, the thin axel of the potentiometer didn’t exactly look like the original… so I had to do something here. I took the original threaded part that was hooked up to the clippard and the rotary knob, and put it in my power drill with a metal blade to cut off a small piece.

It was still larger than the potentiometer on the inside, so a few turns with painters tape was just right to center the brass bit.

Finally, attaching the knob at the top again, and I now have a potentiometer for the volume built into my Thrower Clippard!

Can’t wait to actually fit this on my pack in the (hopefully) near future.

By |2017-03-27T00:17:37+02:00January 5th, 2017|3D Printing, Building, Costuming, Ghostbusters, Ghostbusters Proton Pack|Comments Off on Ghostbusters Project: Modifying the Clippard
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