[PssdffJay]

Interesting, how much room is it going to take up?

[PssdffJay]

Finished off the connector. Here are a few more angles.

[PssdffJay]

Paint isn't completely dry on the shell yet. I just put a nice fingerprint on it. Luckily it will be covered by the injector tube bracket. The paint on the aluminum is more dry. I did get the ion arm reassembled. Pictures tomorrow when hopefully it's dry enough to put together.

[syckotheklown]

I'm digging your connector. PVC is a wonderful thing. Great minds think alike

[Mat]

Looking good, Jay.

This is winning.

Charlie Sheen would be proud.

Hahaha! That's because I primed it with tiger blood!! Mua ha ha!!!

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand there goes my coffee. Great!

[PssdffJay]

It's 2:30 in the morning. 11 hours straight. Cursing, bleeding, headache, burnt out LED, shell chip, frustration... And it was all f****g worth it!



That's all you're getting, for now. More to follow, but I need to sleep!

[Venkman's Swagger]

You tease

[robpenfold]

11 hours...Jay, that's dedication. Looking good.

[Hoot]

Have a beer brother. You....you've earned it

[35FT_TWINKIE]

Drinks all around!!

[Cadger]

Nice! The ribbon cable looks really good.

[Hijacker]

Have a beer brother. You....you've earned it

I'll drink to that!

[PssdffJay]

Huge success tonight!

I'll leave this here.



More details and photos soon!

[Mat]

Looks like you guys had a blast!

[bishopdonmiguel]

I'll leave this here.

What are you supposed to be, some kind of a cosmonaut?

To borrow a phrase from my childhood, those photos are so boss, man!

Your pack is truly outstanding and your uniform is spot-on! I bow with humility to your pack-building mastery & prowess. Well done, sir. Well done indeed.

[Hijacker]

I'll leave this here.

What are you supposed to be, some kind of a cosmonaut?

He's an exterminator. Someone saw a cockroach over on 12th.

[35FT_TWINKIE]

PHOTOSHOPPED!!!

[NoodleMaps]

Looks great!

[Hoot]

Shenanigans. None of this ever occurred

Well done brother. Now get that hero wand done. Get that "toy" off that work of art.

[pyhasanon]

Man, that pack looks so firckin' awesome... So jealous right now... Great job, Jay, was a joy watching you put it together, and I'm amazed by your achievement... looking forward to seeing you get all the electronics in there!

[syckotheklown]

Very nice brother. Looks great. Love those pics btw.

[Smeghead]

Very nice work sir!

[halliwax]

jay it looks great!! i havent been on all week, what a surprise! i didnt think you were that far ahead on ur pack!

i love the group photos too!

[PssdffJay]

Phew! I needed a few days there to recover and also catch up on some work. The late night on Tuesday building and then the actual drive in movie and event on Wednesday really knocked me out. So lets see what I remember fro those crazy couple of days.

*(Ill add the photos in after so if you read this and there are no photos, give it a few minutes while I edit and add them in)*

On Monday I had put all the parts onto the ion arm but I noticed the paint wasn't quite dry enough to do much else.

On Tuesday the paint still hadn't fully cured, but I wasn't leaving finger prints in the paint anymore. It did kind of push out from where parts were attached to the shell, but I figured these are never coming off again, so only I would ever notice.

Ill find a photo of what I mean.



I attached all the parts and everything was going smoothly until I got to the injector tubes. I wanted to go screen on these and rivet them in, so I riveted the bracket to the tubes and then started to attach the tubes in with the bolts in the power cell area. The problem I had was when I drilled the bracket to the shell originally. I didn't do a very good job and it was a little to far out, but it was ok on the dry fit because it pushed the tubes out plum rather then without it and they leaned in towards the shell. Make sense? That was fine because it wasn't attached to the tubes yet. When I started to tighten the bolts to the shell, I couldn't flex anything to get the rivets to go through the brack and the holes in the shell. we were talking like 3/32 out, I figured I could flex it enough like when i did the dry fit. But it just wouldn't. I ended up reaming out the mounting holes for the bracket and the tubes and with only a slight flex it fit nice and snug! I should have taken a photo of this before I attached the ribbon cable, but I was flying through the final assembly and pressed for time and didn't want to keep stopping for photos.




I got all the tubes run and hoses on and in the end I did go with my real legris straights rather than the GBFans replicas. What I did to make sure the tubing was tight, because I didn't want to glue it, was stick a small piece of a Q Tip stick in the tube and it firmed it up enough to fit in the straights. But that was too thick to fit in the legris elbow replicas, so for that I wrapped a small bit of of scotch tape on the end. It was a trial and error process, but I found slightly under a full wrap was enough to hold it. Any more and it would bunch up when trying to go in. I did have to super glue in a few of the fittings in so they would have the proper orientation. The Ion arm cap, beam line (or filler tube I never remember which is which) and the the 2 on the HGA.



With the pot for the crank knob, I used Bishopdonmiguel's tip on sticking a piece of metal in the gap to stop it from squeezing together. No photo on this, sorry, but all i did was find a washer that was the right thickness and grind it down to the shape I needed. Perfect fix! No more wobbly crank knob!

The 2 little holes I drilled in the attenuator discs, looked pretty good in the end with paint. Almost like I had used rivets. Close enough anyway.



Lesson: Let the paint dry!!! Don't rush it!! I'm still not sure if it's completely cured yet.

[PssdffJay]

Ok, on to the ribbon cable. What a pain in the ass that is trying to get it to twist. I wasn't trying to replicate any specifically, but its probably closest to Ray's I suppose with the colours on the left.

I traced out the curve of the clamp and put 2 marks for the screws going through and cut it to match and drilled 2 holes.





A test fit.



Then lots of cursing, bleeding (I cut myself with a pair of scissors trying to cut off a zip tie I didn't like) and more cursing, I did actually get it through the hole in the shell. Here you can see the paint wasn't cured and the cable really did a number to paint as I tried to force it. In the end I wrapped it with some green tape on the end to get it through. The plastic by the clamp end is doing this weird wrinkling thing, is that common? Its from the last GBFans run from last October-ish.





At the moment, I took the extra, folded it over and zip tied it on the inside of the shell. I'll sort that out later when I start to do the electronics.

[pyhasanon]

How is the wrap usually applied to the cables? Did you get it from Eric? I'm pretty sure he can help you with the wrinkling if it's not common... maybe a heat gun?

[bishopdonmiguel]

Love seeing these update pics. Great work!

I did actually get it through the hole in the shell.

How large is the hole in your shell? Do you think the hole is a good size or should it have been smaller/larger?

[PssdffJay]

I wanted to have the power cell lights and the cyclotron lights going so I faked those inside. I did a couple small tacks with hot glue on the red lenses and the blue lens because I want to remove them when I properly start on the electronics. I used some flashlight reflectors and duct taped them down and the leds in, and then I used some cardboard and made a shelf that I attached the power cell lights to and taped that in place. No photos of that mess, but I will show you when I open it up again.

The second from the bottom of my power cell leds was burnt out though. Already talked to AJ and its all going to be taken care of once I take it back out.



The cyclotron lights are going anticlockwise, because I didn't think backwards when i was putting them in. Lets see if I can get the video to work. Micah (Loki) is wearing my pack at the moment in the video to give my shoulders a break.

https://flic.kr/p/oMngP2
(Couldn't figure out how to make it play, follow the link.)

This worked enough to at least have something going. I used a 9 volt battery and gaf taped it to the frame and ran some wires out the loom hole wrapped in electrical tape to hide it. I did try and wire in a switch, but the contacts on the switch were finicky and wouldn't maintain contact.

[PssdffJay]

How is the wrap usually applied to the cables? Did you get it from Eric? I'm pretty sure he can help you with the wrinkling if it's not common... maybe a heat gun?

It was before Eric's run. I'm going to get one of Eric's later on for another build, but that will be another project later on. I'm not sure about the heat gun. I could give that shot tonight.

Love seeing these update pics. Great work!

I did actually get it through the hole in the shell.

How large is the hole in your shell? Do you think the hole is a good size or should it have been smaller/larger?

The hole was the right size at 3/4". I had even confirmed with Vinny and he said 3/4. The scratching was definitely from the paint not being dry enough, and I hadn't wrapped the end with tape yet at that point.

[NoodleMaps]

I had the same issues getting my ribbon cable through the shell. Was a real pain!