UP GRADING MY BUCKET

[Darth Emphatic[CMD-DWM]]

Very cool. Can't wait to see this finished.

[Ruck[TX]]

Thanks Jim for all your help!! How are the pics? I think I'm getting the hang of this. Thanks Steve

[Ruck[TX]]

Hey Fella's, thought you might like to see these pics, a fellow brother took these for me

[Ruck[TX]]

Ok back to the build. In the pic of the sound board box you might have noticed a piece of foam, I ordered the foam from Granger and cut it to the right thickness and size for the boxes. The foam served two purposes one two hold the board from moving around and two to insulate it, like sound proofing.

[Ruck[TX]]

The next step was to cut the 9v battery hook up and extend the wires or make them longer by adding the dupont wires. I bought 9v battery boxes on ebay for like $5 so I didn't need the hook up the board came with.

[Ruck[TX]]

As you can see I didn't need the 9v hook up from the board. These boxes came with + and - wires and an on off switch.

[Ruck[TX]]

Here are the two boards and boxes, you can see the 9v hook ups with the green circles,. The orange squares are the Dupont wires I soldered into the mic points on the board where I desoldered the Mics from to put into the ears.

[Ruck[TX]]

At this point I needed to fit the boxes into the lid to get the right placement and to see where the wires are going to come out at. Plus I had to see if my head would fit inside the bucket with the boxes inside. From the advice of some wise men I used velcro to attach all my padding so I can move it around as i need to. this also is important because it hides the wires very well and holds them in position.

[Ruck[TX]]

I cut the foam inside the lid to accommodate the two boxes. Then I cut some foam from the Granger foam and glued it to the boxes then cut it to conform to the curve of the bucket, I also trimmed it down a little cause the fit was a little too snug. I attached velcro to the foam on the boxes then attached it to the bucket. It fit perfect!!

[Ruck[TX]]

Ooops!!! I just realized I forgot a step; the padding!! Ok better late than never.

[Ruck[TX]]

I ordered my padding from Arakyel on these boards. I saw some pics of what it looked like and knew I wanted it. It took quite awhile but I finally got it and it was worth the wait!! The padding came in four big pieces, here are three.

[Ruck[TX]]

They all fit in the bucket perfect!! one on top, one in back and one on each side. I did trim the bottom of the back one to accommodate the rubber hose. At the same time I took hose that I got from the Home Depot carefully measured it and cut it to length of course I cut it long just in case but I had plenty to work with enough for two or three buckets so it wasn't a big deal lol. I then cut it in half the long way.

 

 

 

 

[Ruck[TX]]

 

 

[Ruck[TX]]

Once I fit them all in I needed to make some adjustments. I needed to add a foam piece to the forehead. Again I used velcro to attach everything, I cut some foam from my Granger foam and velcroed it to the padding and I attached velcro to that to attach to the lid.

 

[Ruck[TX]]

Thats all we have time for today. Stay tuned for the exciting latest breaking news here…………… On The Ruck Show!!

[Griffin-X[501st]]

Very nicely done...! Okay, I now expect you to go for Specialist!

[Ruck[TX]]

Well ahead of you bro!! just waiting on my latex hand guards and some ABS for the belt everything else is ready to go!!

[Master Tej]

Awesome! This bucket is looking like one straight from the universe itself!

 

- Master Tej -

[Ruck[TX]]

Thanks Nick, I've worked really hard on this and put in a ton of time. It's nice to see that people appreciate the hard work that has gone into this. Thank you!!

[Ruck[TX]]

I originally bought some foam from the craft store that was a light cream like off white color and used black dye to color it black. It was thicker and softer. I was happy with the color but my wife wouldn't let me use it, she said the dye would come off on my skin. Well seeing that I've been married to her for 14yrs. and stopped questioning her on these things I opted to get different foam. I did a little searching and found what I was looking for at Granger.com. It was a dark gray foam that was more firm it worked perfect and was very easy to work with.

[Ruck[TX]]

As many of you might have found out when buying things to up grade your TK, TX, or what ever you might be looking for, most of the time the web is your best way to find what your looking for, you can shop all over to get what you want in seconds not hours. The draw back waiting for shipping. I have spent many hrs. shopping local hardware stores, hobbie shops, and some mega stores. For the time and money online is the best choice, just watch where your getting things from, if there from outside the US I have in most cases waited weeks, I'm not talking 1, 2, or 3 weeks I'm talking more like 6 to 8 weeks. It really sucks when your wanting to work on your armor and have to wait on parts that long.

[Ruck[TX]]

Ok back to it. In this segment we will be lining up where the wires will be going into the tubing, and putting holes in the sound board boxes for the wires to come out and holes in the tubing where the wires will go in.

[Ruck[TX]]

I used the same method as before putting the holes in the boxes, I took my wood burning tool with the bigger tip and melted the holes into the boxes. It is cleaner and makes a more uniform hole you just have to cut off the extra plastic. The holes should be a bit smaller than the wire loom you are using so they stay secure. Then where you marked the tubing melt the holes there and clean them up the same way.

 

[Ruck[TX]]

Measure and cut the length for the wire loom you'll need, you won't need much but make sure you cut it a little longer you can always cut extra off. You want it to go into the box and the tubing both at least an inch so it won't pop out when moving it around and you will be doing that trust me.

[Ruck[TX]]

Once you get that done set that off to the side you will be extending the wires again.