[edspengler]

I was able to get a little bit of work in today after the day job. I had painted the lever retention disk and done some finishing work along with the rear cylinder. I ended up filing one hole out of the wand body slightly to accommodate the bolt pattern of the oddball cylinder. Took my time and did it carefully so as not to make the hole bigger than it has to be.


Was able to get the cylinder mounted and inserted the lever as well. I replaced the grub screw in the retention disk with a socket head bolt to match the setup of the Spengler wand.


We’ll see what additional tasks I can get around to performing this weekend. The real job is heating up and progress on this build might slow down even more

[Couture]

Looks great! Love your weathering.

[edspengler]

I was able to finally get something done today. I removed the ion arm and booster tube, created a bolt pattern and boxed them up to receive their Spengler weld. Next time I see these pieces they will be ugly welded together. At that time, I will also have a new Spengler HGA. Slowly but surely this pack is coming together.

[edspengler]

Thrower grips arrived and I am very happy with them. These were made by Tom Morris. I had ordered one set and he was kind enough to throw in a bonus set! I guess I have no choice but to save the spares (and all my other extra parts) for a future build. I’ll have to order a pop riveter now to get these in appropriately. Now all I need is the front assembly at some point. One grip set is a bit lighter in color than the other, I will likely choose the darker set for the current build.

[edspengler]

Looks great! Love your weathering.

Thank you! I am trying to have a subtle weathering, I feel like less is more when it comes to that. Worst case just take all the paint off the thrower body and start over

[timecatalyst]

Hi Ed,

Can I ask how you went about finding the center line for drilling the mounting holes into the booster tube? I'm currently trying to figure that out on my build. I have a few ideas, but trying to keep my options open. Thanks!

[edspengler]

Here are some additional pictures of the process that I didn’t post for drilling the mounting holes in the booster tube. I laid the tube onto the shell and marked on the edge of the tube what looked to be the center that rests on the shell. From there I used my square to project a line down the back of the tube and placed some tape along that line, and marked the hole spots at an interval that seemed reasonable. Hope that helps!

[timecatalyst]

Haha, that's exactly how I was planning to do it too. What caused me to doubt myself was how the booster tube cap protrudes a bit from the top of the tube. It felt kind of awkward (but possible) to place the square off-center to get the center line down the tube, but it looks like that worked perfectly for you, so I'll give that a go as well.

Thanks for the help. Your pack is looking great!

[edspengler]

I was able to address a minor detail today, I removed the injector tubes and filed down the welds on the lower portion to be more in line with what is seen on the Spengler pack. While not perfect, the difference is noticeable as the corners are sharper than they were before.




Obtaining perfectly sharp and square corners may be beyond my capabilities at the present time, but I am happy with the difference for now. I will also work on the finishing of this piece as my finishing skills have improved since this build began, but I have to leave that for once the new paint is cured. That’s all for now…

[timecatalyst]

Another quick question for you:

Looks like you're using the same GBFans wand body and wand track that I am. Did you have any trouble affixing the track to the bottom plate for the wand body? The pre-drilled holes are in the correct locations, but the outer ones are too small to accept the hex bolts from the wand track. I was just going to widen the holes myself, but then I wondered if there was something else I was missing: https://ibb.co/Msh7XsF

[edspengler]

Another quick question for you:

Looks like you're using the same GBFans wand body and wand track that I am. Did you have any trouble affixing the track to the bottom plate for the wand body? The pre-drilled holes are in the correct locations, but the outer ones are too small to accept the hex bolts from the wand track. I was just going to widen the holes myself, but then I wondered if there was something else I was missing: https://ibb.co/Msh7XsF

I looked at the listings on the Mack’s Factory website and they list the screw sizes. I swapped out some screws based on that, which ones I don’t exactly remember anymore. But swapping out screws is an easier route than drilling.

[timecatalyst]

I looked at the listings on the Mack’s Factory website and they list the screw sizes. I swapped out some screws based on that, which ones I don’t exactly remember anymore. But swapping out screws is an easier route than drilling.

Ah, okay! Based on your pictures, I suspected that's what you did. Thanks for the info!