I spent the better part of yesterday evening laying out the main body of the pack. I had several bad starts as I was trying to figure out the best way to progress through the build. I remember very little from my mechanical drawing class back in junior high, but drawing through my intended points and not erasing the excess construction lines saved me. As you see in the photo below I'm going to be folding the Sintra almost like a Pepakura except that the entire piece isn't connected. There is a piece on either side that will form part of the back (as it's worn) that connects to the main section via a 2" piece. I had some difficulty figuring out how best to lay out this piece until I noticed that I had left my construction lines in place on the main section. I used a compass to recreate a triangle that let me get a foothold and something to work from. I finished laying it all out and went over the lines to be cut or grooved with a sharpie. Solids = cut, dotted = groove.
Today I purchased a V-groove cutter for foamboard and picture frame mats. It wasn't exactly what I needed but it is sufficient. The blades don't cut a very deep groove in the sintra. I did some test bends and it still worked well enough to do the job. When I returned home, the uncut armor pieces on the sintra were staring at me coldly so I cut them out. They're happy now and will be even happier when I make it to the armor party in February. Back to the pack...
A lot of cutting, and more cutting. Then carefully using the groove cutter where the folds would be. Broke out the heat gun and started heating the first fold, which didn't turn out as well as I had hoped. I overheated it a tad too much and it started to curl. Quickly turned off the heat gun and grabbed my cheap plastic speed square from Lowe's and used it to make my 90 degree fold. The first couple folds are a little rough but serviceable. The folds for the more critical pieces that fold up and over were much better and I'm satisfied with how they turned out. Here are the results, I will have to fill those gaps and fair the curled pieces at some point.
The 4" PVC sewer pipe I cut from a piece lying around in my dad's hoard of scavenged materials that me might use 'someday'. In the V1 pack I had intended this piece to be a tube as well but got impatient to build it and made it a box instead. There isn't much to say about the last pic except that this is the current state of the build. The pipe is being glued to the rest of the main body and will sit like this overnight while the glue cures. The ruler laying across is to keep the pieces laying flat instead of pitching up. There is a bead of glue down the entire length of the bottom of the pipe and glue on the inboard corners of the pieces the ruler is laying across.
So now I have some questions, Should I fill and fair the gaps and seams on this piece before building and adding the next one? The next piece will be the piece that runs up the center. Given my terrible Bondo skills, should I use something else to fill the gaps and fair the curled pieces smooth or just go with the Bondo?
Comments and advice always welcome, Thanks for looking.
