crashmann

A little more progress today. The E-6000 seems to have bonded the cap very nicely, but the true test will be under the heat and pressure of the vacuum forming plastic. To ensure the sides mate up, I create a "riser" out of MDF to raise the mold off the forming platen. Otherwise, the plastic bows out where it curves to turn the 90° corner from the side of the mold to the platen surface. The riser is cut at an angle to ease the transition. Here you can see I've rough cut the riser, but it needs to be snugged in tighter to the edge of the mold. After a little work with the belt sander, they should be ready for production! Charlie

The other day, I extracted the second mold from the silicone: Then I checked the reference photos and realized the canteen lid was totally wrong! So I cut off the lid of the mold Then I took one of the stinger caps and split it in half and tested the fit A glop of E-6000 to connect the caps to the body, and some extra long clamps, and they should be ready to form tomorrow! Charlie

The silicone was a little old, and was acting weird as I was scooping it out of the container, so I gave extra time to cure. Finally, I pulled out the canteen last night: So then I stirred up the vacuum forming resin for making the production mold and poured it into the silicone: This morning, I extracted the casting and was very pleased with the results! Next I'll cast another half of the canteen, then it's off to the vac table! Charlie

Continuing on with our Canteen for the Stinger build log, and now moving into phase 2 of the production. Build a box for your canteen: Troop a local Cub Scout Blue and Gold dinner (Sorry, no Sandtroopers, but that's me in the Imperial Officer uniform doing duckface): Now take your spare canteen, and fill in all of the imperfections with non sulfur based oil clay. It is important to fill in areas that will allow the silicone to flow in and get trapped: Be sure to fill in the concave bottom and make it nice and smooth: Also fill in the shoulder strap holes and the neck where it meets the lid: De-gas your silicone in a vacuum chamber, being careful not have it spill over the sides of your bowl: Begin the "warm sticky goo phase" by pouring the silicone into the box, then drop in the canteen: Now we play the waiting game. Charlie

I'm not happy with the lumps from the canteen deforming as I was pulling plastic over them, so I'm going to make a silicone mold, then cast resin into that to create the production molds. It'll be a few more days to complete that process. The price will be around $25 including shipping in the US. A little more for overseas. Charlie

Since the oval hard shell cold weather faucet covers are no longer available, I've been on the hunt for a replacement for the Sandtrooper Backpack Kits. Also, with the instructions from George Lucas that the troopers have a field backpack for desert conditions, one of the first things you would bring is a canteen. ============= The For Sale thread is here: http://forum.mepd.net/index.php?showtopic=13661 $35 plus shipping via USPS ============= I've found a canteen that is very close in size to the faucet covers: Plus, it's already got the shape where the hose/antenna sticks out! You can't just vacuum form directly over the canteen. It needs to be formed one half at a time, otherwise the canteen would be trapped in the plastic due to the undercuts. So I built a riser to taper off the sides of the bottom half of the canteen. Here's the top level Then the lower levels all stacked up Then I glued it all together Tonight I sanded the sides smooth I've pulled a few tonight for my backpack customers, and I'll be using these first pulls to cast the production molds. Once I've got the production molds working, I'll offer the new canteens to MEPD troopers. Charlie

Read the second customer review. Like others have stated, what you see on the Internet is not what you get!

Wow, that looks great! Very nice work Doug!

Do you mean this one? http://forum.mepd.net/index.php?showtopic=6942&hl=pandatrooper It's a great build log, full of hints, tips, and recommendations! Charlie

Scootch, you hit the nail on the head! The faucet covers could be vac-formed, but the price would be a bit more than what the originals sold for at the hardware store. I was thinking the mold would be three pieces. Two parts would be half of the faucet cover laying on its side. Then the top to match the canteen shape. You would glue the two halves together and clean up the seam, then glue the cap on top. To get a good quality pull on the vac table would require a full sheet of plastic, and that's where the increased price comes from. Charlie

Wow, that's pretty awesome! And it's already got some dirt on it Very nice find! Charlie

Cha-chiing! Payment sent! Thanks for hosting the dirtiest website in the galaxy! Charlie

Hi Ed, DirtyBoy is right, it is more important to have the tube in proportion for the rest of the pack, especially if you are building your own from scratch. I've been using 30" for the tube length for my kits. Good luck! Charlie

Hi Heatray, you've got an incoming message regarding the trio of radios Charlie

Hi Kimberly, If you are able to get the right kind of faucet covers, I would love to order a bunch! Please let me know how it turns out Charlie

Hey Seann! I'm glad to hear you're still rockin' the backpack I worked with Zenix to create a replica of the Sonix Victory 75 radio, and it turned out great! I would be happy to send you just the parts you need to change out the radio faceplate. The dimensions are very close to the vacuum formed radio, but the new one is just a little bigger. Check your Inbox for more information. Charlie

I looked in three Home Depot's and a Lowes, and could not find any of the classic faucet covers. Considering it is almost spring, in spite of the snow we had yesterday, it would be logical for the stores to cut back on their inventory of them. However, looking at how the new ones are shaped, and how they stack inside the cardboard box, I don't think we'll ever see the old style again. You can easily fit three times the number of faucet covers in a shipping box: The 70's canteen that Quartermaster found looks like a very good replacement. Although it's a little tall. That can be easily fixed with a saw Charlie

Head over to the Project Orders Forum, and at the top of the list you will find the Radio Decals thread by Retnuhha: http://forum.mepd.net/index.php?showtopic=8998 Charlie

Hi Gang, and yes I'm still offering backpack kits. As parts have been identified and new sources found, the backpack kit has continued to evolve. I'm not nearly as busy as Dirty Boy or Quartermaster, but I'm still able to help the supply lines Here's a photo gallery of the Sandtrooper Backpack Kit: http://tk386.com/sandtrooper_backpack_kit The Wet Ones bottles have been replaced with plain white bottles. Time for another photo session Here's a video of me and Seth B pulling parts for the backpack kits on my old vacuum forming table way back when the garage was new (2007): The garage is a little messier now Charlie

It depends on who you ask There are two Tupperware pitcher lids available. One is a little over 4" and the other is 5" Some folks strongly believe the smaller lids were used on screen. Others think it was the larger lid. I don't think we'll ever have the resolution in the screen captures to make a definitive measurement and declare which size was used. You could use the tube as a reference point, and declare it is a 2" diameter. However, that would be a 2" inner diameter. How thick was the wall of the tube? Is it 2 1/4" outside diameter, or 2 1/2" ? Just like the number of licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop, the world may never know Charlie

Needs more lens flare!

To mount the radar dish to the pipe, I use a 1/4" x 3/4" screw with an acorn nut painted white. Surrounding the dish should be a 1/8" (maybe as big as a 1/4" ) black lip, just slightly larger than the ribbed lid. There's a ton of great reference photos for the backpack here: http://www.elitestor...erence-pictures Charlie

Celebration VI has been a blast! It's really cool to finally talk to folks in person, without having to use a keyboard Here's a few pictures I've taken so far: http://tk386.com/celebration_vi I'll need to get more sandy pictures tomorrow... Charlie

I was able to capture the Space Shuttle Discovery circling Washington DC yesterday and have posted the video on YouTube: Enjoy! Charlie

I've got a bunch of mortar control panels in the garage. They're rather challenging to pull of the mold since the detail for the fins is really defined and they don't want to let go. Sometimes they don't survive the demolding process. I leave them a little long so that you can match the length of the particular pack you are recreating. They are pulled in white ABS, not brittle HIPS. Here's my reference photo: $10 plus shipping for the mortar control panel. The end caps are an additional $10. Charlie