The Find
This year at Lowe’s hardware, the diamond plate cargo gift card box is no longer available. It was replaced with a metal box made to look a bit like their miniature tool chests.
Of course my brain went immediately to “Astronaut’s Oxygen Pack”. And that it certainly can be. But I went in a way that really could be used for various purposes, so I will call it my Hi-Tech Communications Pack.
Luckily I had a reel of ABS plastic filament for my 3D printers that closely matched the cobalt blue of the Lowe’s box. I started immediately to think of how to adapt it. First, I needed to cover the bottom, which is recessed, and contains the UPC code and other information.
Then I had to cover the Lowe’s logo on front. No problem.
Then I knew I would need antennae. So I modeled and printed a mount on top for two antennae.
And of course it needed a harness. I had produced a harness for my Action Pack Heli-Jet, which works nicely for most cases, but the front chest clasp was too complicated.
While designing a new flight pack for Joe (A Wing Pack coming soon!) I adapted the chest clasp to be far simpler to construct, and much less bulky, while still allowing a cover plate for a logo of some kind.
Using a single length of .9mm elastic I created a front piece that allowed me to thread it through in two directions, then into an upper frame piece, down the backpack, and into a lower frame piece, then on to the body where there are standard strap adjusters and two clasps which fit nicely into the front piece by friction and holds very strongly.
I am comfortable saying that this is my new harness design and most of my future backpacks, be they flight packs or simple backpacks, will use this new clasp, and not the bulky old one which had to be screwed together to work. (This cap snaps on nicely, and can even be removed, as the simple clasp frame is not too ugly by itself.)
The Final Product
Here it is, my Hi-Tech Communications Pack posed on my Club Exclusive Super-Articulated 12″ Super Joe that they produced last year.
I love it I will need at least one
The catalog came out this week. I’m working on them right now.
As always Sean, your imagination impresses. Keep this stuff coming, love what you and Cots keep cooking up.
Thanks, Bill!
Is there any way I could get the harness you made in yellow? I have a vintage Turbo Copter that the harness is missing and the one you made looks awesome and especially if it were in yellow it would match the turbo copter. Also, have you ever considered doing ATV tracks for the Trouble Shooter? I have one that I was going to paint blue and I need tracks for it because they were missing. You do awesome work.
I was hoping to make a Turbo Copter harness. I’ll have to do some more research with my original yellow Turbo Copter. I think I can just make it work with the harness I have now. It’s one single piece of elastic (1cm) fed through the central hub, then to the copter, and then to the strap adjusters and clip. I’ll be working on it.
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Hi Sean,
Recently I thought of your stories and wanted to re-read them.
I sent an email through that page, but got no response.
The main page still shows up, but none of the links work.
I’m guessing you have moved on to other things, like the
works you have shown on this page. Were you the one doing
3D printed items for Cotswold? I saw on a forum someone
that had the RACCS system mounted on the back of a Trouble
Shooter vehicle. I loved it, and wanted to get the same for mine.
But it seems Cots doesn’t have them anymore.
Anyway, I was hoping to re-read the stories you had posted,
but the links don’t work anymore. I guess I won’t be able to
re-read them anymore?
Yeah, sadly, the adventureteam web site got away from me. The guy who runs it lets me keep a top page there, but I lost any way of updating the site.
So I moved as many of the pages as I could to this WordPress site, and if you click on GI Joe in the top bar, and then click the GI Joe logo, it should take you to an incomplete (but hopefully mostly complete) archive page of my GI Joe stuff. Sadly, a lot of the links there are broken, and I haven’t had time to fix them, but you can certainly read the stories I did. They should all be there.
I still make stuff for Cots, but I have always only made small batches, when I had time. This past year has been hard, so I haven’t done a lot for them, but I am currently working on some stuff.
Hey Sean,
After sending my message I found this site. I was able to re-read a couple of stories, which I really enjoyed.
I had asked Cotswold about the RACCS system, they told me they didn’t have them in stock. I only learned about them recently, after seeing a post on a forum that had them. The one I saw was on a Troubleshooter, it was the base with the drones and wrist controller, and what looked like a radio unit. I loved that set, and wanted one for my Troubleshooter, since I don’t have the original unit that goes on the back of it.
I have enjoyed your AT website for some time. And your AT conference room.
I had no idea until a day or so ago that you were the one that did the RAACS system. I under stand that 3D printing takes time. I have seen it done on a small scale. And it took a few minutes just to make a small item. I can totally relate to the past year being hard. It’s been hard for a lot of us.
But I’m really glad that I can read your stories again! I hadn’t seen them in a while. I’ve always enjoyed your AT pages. I’m glad that I can see them again.
Daryl