construction

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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Why 3d printing IS a good tool when making props… if done correctly.

I must say that after a long hiatus, it feels good to be back to doing some actual building again.

The break was, of course, due to my daughters health, and even though the path to get her well again is long and uncertain, We still need to find these things in our lives that gives us strength, that gives us peace of mind and the energy to move on through these dark times.

For me, that meant taking on another project. I’m going to be a Ghostbuster!

micke_ghostbusters

(Costume still in progress)

Ever since I was 11 years old and went with my father to see this movie back in 1984, there’s been something about it that I’ve always cherished and held dear to me. A few years back I was happy to borrow a uniform and proton pack for the annual Sci-Fi convention in Stockholm and it was nothing short of awesome. Time to make my own!

The picture above is a work in progress of the costume. I am still awaiting arrival of my belt, but the rest of the gadgets that go on the suit have arrived… I just haven’t pictured them yet!

But, I digress. Apart from drawing and printing the hose connector (grey thing that holds the yellow hose) on the uniform, I’ve started to draw and print some of the things that go on the proton pack and gun… not to mention the fully 3d printed trap …

On the proton pack, I need to have what’s known as a Clippard Valve. I decided to make one on my printer. First off: time for some cad:

screenshot-2016-12-06-00-20-21

First print off the bed was not as smooth as I wanted, due to some of my export settings not being fine tuned enough for the circular top. I exported and printed a second one that was slightly smoother, but kept this for reference. It is a good reference of what a raw 3d print looks like, even when printed in good quality.

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What I don’t get is this: Many people that 3d print parts for costumes or gadgets never put in enough work with sanding and polishing the 3d prints, making them looking not good enough!

This is not going to happen with my Clippard!

I started off by sanding off the biggest irregularities, getting it fairly smooth, then a coating of spray filler … then sanding again to get it smooth.

A few places (most notably the top of the thumbscrew on the valve) was also hit with a few coats of Tamaiya Putty, to remove the print lines. Again, sanded away most of it, to get a smooth finish.

img_5855

Once sanding was done, I painted everything black. Two quick coats did the trick.

Although it is cold and freezing outside, I still painted them quickly and then used my fiancées hair drier to harden the paint just enough so I could bring them inside without smelling the place up.

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I then masked the top portion away and clear coated the majority of the body of the valve.

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My plan was to use Silver Leaf Rub and Buff for the metal part of the top of the valve, and as experience have shown me, this does not stick well on clear coated surfaces, but on raw painted surfaces, it fit just great! I also treated the top screw with Rub and Buff.

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Once that was finished, all that was left was to add a metal sticker on top of it, to create my finished valve. Please note that in the pic below are two different types of valves, so they should look slightly different. The one on the left was my 3d printed version.

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And … as a final comparison, here are the final result compared to the 3d printed raw print. The knurling on the screw could be slightly better, but it is only really visible when being very close to the valve, and I am giving you the full horror here…

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All in all, I am happy with the results, and this baby weighs just a few grams as opposed to the original, which ways about 100 times more. Every gram counts when you wear it on your back!

I will be back shortly with more about this new exciting project!

cheers,

Micke

By |2016-12-06T00:44:35+01:00December 6th, 2016|Ghostbusters|Comments Off on Why 3d printing IS a good tool when making props… if done correctly.
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Coming Soon: Building R2-D2 v2.0

As time progress, my R2 has seen a lot of action, and as such, he is in major need of spare parts.

Rather than just changing out the parts that needs to be rebuilt, I’ve come to a drastic decision: Time to rebuild. Time to fix the small things that I wish I had done while building him in the first place. Time to build R2-D2 v2.0!

And thats not all! While doing so, I will be doing a video blog about the ENTIRE build, so you can build along with me… just pop off to astromech.net (the official R2-D2 Builders club website, and register (it’s free) and you TOO can be an R2 Builder!

By |2016-12-06T00:00:01+01:00December 29th, 2015|Building, R2-D2|Comments Off on Coming Soon: Building R2-D2 v2.0
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