Fallout 4: Laser Musket (Photo Heavy)

Aces · Aug 15, 2015

Being extremely excited for Fallout 4, I decided to make Preston Garvey's laser musket from the game. Hopefully I will be done before November 10th. So far I have sourced some parts, designed some pieces, and started cutting a few. Here's the first set of images:

Took apart an old hand crank drill for the straight bevel gears and handle.

Mock up of the gear assembly. I will need to do some modifications to both the gears, and the handle.

The innards of a hand crank flash light will be used for some of the lighting. For a consistent glow, I will need to keep the electronics and gears here mostly intact.

Bought an old Ruger 10/22 stock off Ebay to build the laser musket around. I will need to modify it for the large gears to be able to spin freely, and for the shape to better resemble that of the in-game weapon.

Finished printing the schematic I made to size. This took a lot more analysis of gameplay and screenshots than I care to mention. And the stock for scale. Here you can see some of the modifications I need to make.

Sizing out some pieces using cardboard.

Quick whiteboard diagram to work on a shopping list.

And my friend and I built a small workbench for extra room when working on our props (he is making the AER12 prototype from F:NV). Not pictured is the finished shelf, and mounted vise.
I'm planning on cutting out more pieces this weekend, and now that I've got my hands on some styrene, I can design and cut the gear case and trigger guard.

WA5TE · Aug 16, 2015

This is gonna be insane! Cant wait too see it finished, Im gonna have to build one myself.

Coldsnakevenom · Aug 16, 2015

Looks great so far!!

-Tom

Aces · Aug 17, 2015

So after driving around for about an hour and a half today looking for a clear plastic cup to use for the tube on the laser musket, I found... absolutely nothing. So I decided I would try to make one out of some scrap acrylic I had. It's not perfect, but I might refine the shape later. The plan is to lightly spray the inside of the tube with red paint to catch the light from the LEDs and get a nice glow.

Here are the pieces that I cut out last week. The acrylic detail layer was scored and then refined with a dremel, and lots of filing.

And here is what I cut today, straight from the jig-saw. I'll refine them later, maybe tomorrow. The piece on the left is the middle layer of the back-plate pictured above.

And here's another cardboard mock-up. once I'm done designing the piece, it will be cut from 1/8" styrene and bent with a heat gun. It will both hold the gears in place, and act as the foregrip for the laser musket.

Vault111 · Aug 20, 2015

I've been waiting to see a laser musket, and yours looks like it'll turn out great

- I've dreamed of making one ever since I finished my AER-9

. Do you have plans to possibly sell/release the blueprints at any time? Thanks!

TheDiscarded87 · Aug 26, 2015

Wow, just started buying parts for my own today!
Mind comparing notes?

That hand-crank light idea is very cool.

I'm using an old jam jar for the... clear thing. Whatever you want to call it. The whole scale of the project is based around this jar.

Does Preston have a unique stock on his musket? The reveal trailer showed the "sole survivor's" musket had a square stock made from a plank of wood.

Nice start! I'll be watching with interest

zapwizard · Aug 27, 2015

Subscribed, the laser musket is the first Fallout weapon I want to build. I love the mechanical aspect of it.
If you decide to release the schematic I would be happy to try to covert it into a 3D CAD file. (Got to finish my Pip-boy first)

Have you considered cutting a glass bottle to get the tube? There are lots of guides on cutting beer bottles into drinking glasses, its the same concept.

/Edit:
A long time ago one of very first PC mods ever used these crackle lightning tubes. They are about an inch in diameter. They would work great to create the charged effect at the center of the glass tube. (Sorry for the tiny images)

TheConanRider · Sep 10, 2015

Can't you just buy clear acrylic pipe? Also great work. If I get my 3d printer working again I am definitely going to try to make one too.

Aces · Sep 14, 2015

Sorry for the lack of posting, been busy being back in University.

@Vault111 As of right now, the schematics are still a WIP, and aren't even in vector format. Also I won't know how accurate they really are until November 10th, but I may finish them after, and possibly release them.

@TheDiscarded87 Sure! there are some components I'm not sure where I can find, so comparing would be great. From every screen shot we have of Peston's LM, we can't see the stock. My guess is that he has a custom stock as well (considering every other most likely modable component is modded on his), but I like the look of the walnut. I'ts similar to what the Sole Survivor appears to be using here:

On a side note, that's the only shot I know of that shows the bottom. Enjoy!

@zapwizard I've been following your Pip-boy work, seriously unbelievable. I may end up simply creating models and printing some components of the gun (large spinning "gears", need to be light weight, as well as symmetrical and with even weight distribution- something I can't make) with my school's printer, but having a full CAD file for the LM would be pretty awesome.
I had considered cutting glass, and when I was looking there were plenty of vases which would have worked well, but I don't think I have the means to cut it. Hadn't really considered following any tutorials, but the option is still open. The acrylic was left over anyways, so not really any loss if I don't need it.
Those crackle tubes would work awesome if I can find some, but then I would need to work around it to get the gears for the flashlight hidden in the laser rifle barrel, the only place they will (just) fit. Unless I work out a different system. maybe a spinning piece by the large "gears" could toggle a switch? I'd still love to have the slow fade in of the light that the flashlight provides. Any ideas?

@TheConanRider I've looked, but not in the size I need, which is a rather unusual 3 5/8" diameter.

Aces · Sep 14, 2015

Back to updating! So i finally got around to do some extra work on the LM after a bit of work adjusting the scale. The last circular pieces to hold everything together were cut out, and I can now glue, bond, and refine them:

One problem I have now is that the metal rod from the gears isn't quite long enough, and being 9/16" in diameter, it's not exactly a standard I can find a longer replacement for. I would cut off a piece from the other part that will be holding the crank and weld them together, but I don't have the tools for that. I'll have to come up with some solution.

Next I designed the laser barrel pieces, and cut them out. My power tool accuracy could use some work, but that just means more time spent refining later. oh well. Tomorrow I'm going to cut the vent pieces to be angled in, and finish the offset for the styrene barrel end. I plan on having the left side removable to access the batteries, electronics, etc, and I'll be needing to set some magnets in to get that working. After I figure all that out, I'll glue it all together and start on the rounded edges:

Also on the list is cutting out and bending the gear box/ metal guard running along the stock of the gun, working on the laser barrel grip, sanding down some pcb piping to be a hexagon (or maybe octagon? it's hard to tell from the screenshots) for the "barrell"/beam focuser holder since I cant find any hexagonal piping. Oh, and a lot more after that.
I'm planning on spending more time on this as November gets closer, so if anyone feels like nagging me to post more frequent updates, that would really help me move along

.

Thanks for reading

zapwizard · Sep 15, 2015

Apparently those crackle tubes I used aren't very common anymore. I didn't find any good ones when I searched. (Hence why I used my old project images). But using the crank flashlight is awesome, it will make it that must more authentic.

McMaster sells aluminum and brass Hex tubing, Onlinemetals.com sells hex solid stock.

Aces · Sep 15, 2015

I'd be paying 4x the price in shipping alone going down that route though. After doing more digging, I could get an aluminum hex bar from a local supplier, but now comes the question of weight. to have it hanging, supporting itself out the end of the stock, I will need to shape it to fit the ruger barrel slot on the stock and have it set in 7", which would leave it right beside the last circular piece with just enough room to slip wires out from the laser rifle barrel. So I would need to shave it down to less than half of its original size over those 7 inches, and i'd be looking at about 1.6 lb, with only 31% of that weight supported by the stock. I haven't ever worked with aluminum before. Any word on how feasible it is to drill through a 7/8" aluminum rod? If I can drill it into the stock, and manage to file it down to fit in there, it could still work.

It would be great to have it be metal, and my original thought was a copper tube before I noticed that it isn't a circle, but they aren't thick enough to allow for any kind of shaping. Maybe I will just take a wooden dowel or 1x1" length of lumber and sand it down to a hexagon. If I keep the beam focuser light, then it shouldn't have any problems supporting it.

zapwizard · Sep 15, 2015

Drilling into aluminum stock is easy, it is a soft metal. Just go slow and let the drill bit remove material. Aluminum shaving can combine together and jam the bit pretty easily.
So I usually drill a bit, back off, clear it, then drill some more. If you go slow enough you don't need coolant. You can drill up to 4" or so with a hand drill, any deeper and you need a lathe to prevent jamming the drill bit.

Aluminum is pretty darn light, you would be surprised, a solid rod may even be lighter than a copper tube. You could always shape the wood and then wrap it with aluminum or copper tape. Adam Savage has an awesome video showing how to use metal tape to apply metal over wood.

Aces · Sep 16, 2015

Oh I completely forgot about copper tape! As long as I can weather it, that would work great. I mean, that or just paint it copper. I think I will go with a wood dowel though, since looking again, It definitely appears to be an octagon:

I need about 22.5", so it will take a while to sand it down, but i think its possible. Thanks for all the help though.

Anyways back to updates. I finished the inset for the barrel end, and cut the vents, as well as the access piece on the left side of the laser rifle barrel. Looking at screen shots as well as builds of the laser rifle (primarily Harrison Krix's) I've decided on an angle that I believe is accurate:

I also drew out some cuts I will need to make to let the grip sit in properly. These will likely be made with the Dremel:

I still need to sand the side pieces of the rifle barrel to accommodate the angled vents since they are no longer forming a right angle, and I think I will work on designing the net for the barrel end, and grip next. Hopefully I will have time tomorrow to start on this. I also need to decide what tool I have at my disposal will work best to cut the styrene, since there are lots of pieces that I will need from it.

jellis359 · Sep 18, 2015

Guess what I started making. I'm doing a CAD file for the crank/ gear things. Ill post them for you when they're done if you want. Lol

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jellis359 · Sep 18, 2015

sorry for the double post. I just had a great idea for the rifle. remember those sparking kids toy pistols from the 90s. Would be perfect for the gear flywheel and charging mechanism. rip one apart and add the mechanism into the crank. much better than the flashlight don't you think?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Drn0MBHxibM

also from watching the e3 gameplay you can see the larger gear wheels spin slower than the center one with teeth, you should be able to do this by having them mounted on a separate collar on the center shaft and make them friction driven. easiest way without using gears.

Aces · Sep 19, 2015

@jellis359 looks great! a CAD file for the big "gears" would be awesome, maybe we can help each other out with the builds. I've never seen one of those toys before, but the effect is perfect! is the light just white though? maybe with the inside of the tube sprayed lightly red it would look good. Where might I get one of those?

Yeah I had already tossed the idea of different gear ratios for the spinning speed out the window, but I hadn't considered a friction driven system. Could you describe in more detail what you meant? One idea I was planning on implementing was having the gears start spinning separately, but at the same speed once they got going (in the video you can see the closest to the crank starts spinning first). I was going to do this with catches on the gears and the rod (imagine the lid and cap of a child proof pill bottle, with a curved incline and drop to catch on the edge), where the gears wouldn't be attached to the rod, but it would catch on the rod as it spun, each gear having less catches the further they are from the crank, making them turn sequentially.

One thing I don't think is possible appears to come with the laser barrel variant only. If you watch carefully in the leaked quakecon footage, the SS is using the rifle variant, which while being cranked up and before shooting has a spinning ring of lights at the far end of the tube (right before the laser barrel starts), an aspect that isn't present on the laser piston variant, which is in the official gameplay. besides having the lights fixed and a spinning cover, I don't think having constant contact on a spinning circuit is reliable, if even possible.

On a side note, what was your plan for these rails here:

I'm sure I've seen something like them before, but I'm not sure where. Bending pipe would work, but I'm sure you can buy something like them.

zapwizard · Sep 19, 2015

Those spark gun kits toys don't use electronics. They literally throw real sparks. They have a striker that hits a spinning friction wheel.

If the LEDs actually need to spin you can use a slip-ring to transfer power. SparkFun and Adafruit both sell them. You can make them yourself from a copper or brass tube and brushing from a broken power tool. I am using a PCB slip ring in my Pip-Boy design using a circuit with spring loaded pogo pins.

The other way you could simulate spinning LEDs is to run a chain of them and turn them on and off in a LED chaser pattern.

jellis359 · Sep 19, 2015

I meant the spark gun as a substitute for the crackle tube.

For the friction drive you place a slider on the main crank that has a free floating weight when the wheel is cranked centripidal force pulls this to the outer diameter where it can come into contact with a separate ring with a high friction on the other gears inside. By adjusting the weight on each slider you can have them contact at different times.
Only resource for ready made spark guns these days is eBay or edmundscientific.

Constant contact on a spinning piece can be made with 2 concentric non spinning circular metal contacts one positive one ground. Which contact identical concentric conductive pads on the rotating circuit. This way your lead in wires do not rotate.

Ill post some sketches soon to better illustrate these concepts if you want.

For the bars I was going to either use straws or pen tubes painted silver with shaved down pencaps as the ends. Do everything as cheap as you can. Remember this is a post apocalyptic game. People are putting this stuff together from whatever they can find so use a little bit of that for some creative license. Its a very lore friendly method of making things easier on yourself.

Instead of the kit just go buy some LEDs some 10 k ohm resistors and an old cd. even a small timing ic and you can save money and make something super similar.

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jellis359 · Sep 19, 2015

Here's a 2 minute sketch of the above. BTW do you have access to a 3d printer?
If not I'd use resin hardened porous foam for the gears to save movey.

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Fallout 4: Laser Musket (Photo Heavy)

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