By Jonobiwan
#4957316
Hey all,

So…after a good few years of not touching my proton packs, I’ve finally got them out of storage and looking to start building this week.

My newest pack is a Benofkent kit which is going to be my main pack.
My question is, which of these bumpers do you think I should use…
I have a Nickatron bumper and the Benofkent bumper that came with my proton pack kit.

Bens bumper is slightly shorter on the arms than the Nickatron bumper but which would you say is most accurate…how big of a space should there be between the bumper and the cyclotron??

Also, is it best to drill the holes and mount the bumper to the pack and then use the central hole of the bumper to drill through the cyclotron? I’m worried that drilling a central hole in the cyclotron won’t match up with my bumper.

And one last thing, below are the bumpers mounted on loosely.
It almost seems to me that Nickatron bumper is further over to the left. If you look at the top right of the square of the bumper, you can see it’s further over to the left than the Benofkent bumper. I know this can sometimes be down to warping…what do you think??
Which looks better to you? I’m swaying towards using the Benofkent bumper.

Sorry for such a stupid sounding question, I’m just really worried about this part of my build and want to get it right first time.

Thanks in advance! 👻

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User avatar
By Lowberg
#4957323
Yo dude! Nice looking stuff. I haven't personally touched any BOK's stuff but the bumper does look good. I have used several of Nicks bumpers in the past, they are also really good. Every makers shells vary slightly in dimensions so it's very possible BOK's bumper was designed specifically to match his shell the best. As far as accuracy between the two, they both have really accurate front face and rib shapes, I'd say both are very close to real spec in overall shape. So I'd just go with your gut feeling.



As far as drilling goes, this is how I've done it in the past.

First drill the hole on the front face of the bumper. You can use a ruler and draw a "X" from corner to corner on the face of it to find the center. If you have a drill press, it will be helpful to use that to get the hole as drilled straight as possible.

Then mark your screw holes on the bumper arms and drill those, drill press is helpful here too.

Once you have the bumper itself fully drilled you can use a sharpie marker or fine tip pen to stick through the bumper holes and mark the exact spots on the shell that need to be drilled. I think in the past I've also done this with the furthest back 2 side bolts first, attached the bumper to the shell with those 2 bolts before drilling the rest of the shell holes with the bumper partially attached. Helps keep it from moving too much.

You want about a 3/4" space between the cyclotron and the back of the bumper, but it may vary slightly depending on the shell. I believe I drilled the center shell hole last with the bumper fully drilled and attached, but I've always made custom spacers to fit underneath afterwards that each required some filing to have a tight fit.


Hope this helps!
Jonobiwan liked this
By tobycj
#4957324
The arms on the BoK bumper are too short to get accurate spacing between the back of the bumper and the face of the cyclotron. The end of the arms should be level with the bottom of the shell, if you do this then the back of the bumper is pretty much touching the cyclotron, so you end up with a trade off of which you want. I personally swapped mine for a GBFans bumper which was a better fit.

Also worth noting that if you are doing a GB1 pack the bolt for the bellows didn't go through into the cyclotron, it was just through the bumper. It was retrofitted for GB2 to go all the way through into the cyclotron as well.
Jonobiwan liked this
By Jonobiwan
#4957329
Thank you @lowberg and @tobycj
Both great bits of advice!

I’ll probably give @lowberg suggestion a go and maybe stick with the BOK bumper.
As much as I love Nickatrons bumper, it does seem to be slightly off on the pack. As you said @lowberg the BOK bumper was specifically made for that pack so it’ll no doubt fit better.

And @tobycj I had seen that the GB1 bumpers weren’t drilled through to the cyclotron. I do want a GB1 pack but I’m sort of left wondering if I should drill it right through for that extra protection and sturdiness!? Hmmm…I dunno.
I’m so damn indecisive!
I might move the BOK bumper slightly forward to give a bit more of a gap between the bumper and cyclotron. The only thing is that it won’t obviously be flush with the back of the pack.
DECISIONS DECISIONS!!! Lol
tobycj liked this

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