Jetpack Braggin
New Member
First time poster, though I've been visiting these boards for awhile just to have a look around. Seeing a lot of great builds here gave me the itch to do something creative that wasn't drawing, and the perfect opportunity arose last week.
A friend of mine sent me a message that a co-worker was throwing out two nonworking chainsaws, one of which happened to be nearly identical to the Homelite XL from Evil Dead 2 and Army of Darkness (It's a Homelite XL Textron, which is pretty much the same thing). The other one was a Craftsman or some other brand; he's modifying that one himself.
Unfortunately I didn't think to take any real photos of it in progress, but I can at least give a run down of what I did.
The tear down went pretty much like everyone else's. The body of mine is plastic, so cutting it wasn't too much of an ordeal. I had neither the skill nor the patience to salvage much from the engine though. The chainsaw blade that came with it also wasn't something I desired, so I improvised.
The chainsaw blade and muffler were cut from MDF board and shaped on my scroll saw. The muffler itself was two pieces of MDF superglued together for added thickness.
The grill piece is also MDF. On that I secured two pieces with double sided tape and shaped it also on the scroll saw. Then they were separated with one piece cut up to form the grill, and glued back together with some additional shaping.
The wooden handle for the pull start was salvaged from a rake handle that someone threw in my yard last year. No idea who did it, but thanks! The side handle was already completely rubber or whatever, so cutting it off and shaping it was a cinch.
The top panel was leftover aluminum kick plate I used to make a star for my Captain America shield. I bought some lengths of aluminum for the top handle and brackets and shaped them into place on a vise. The blade and inside handle are secured on the same bracket, with the muffler piece on it's own. I'm not sure how others have done theirs, but mine is incredibly sturdy.
Fun Fact: Every bracket but the one holding the muffler was cut with a hacksaw by hand. I completely brain farted and didn't think to get a good cut off wheel for my Dremel.
Once I had the thing secured, the fun part was the weathering. Adding little details like some silver to look like missing red paint and glossy black around the fuel caps to simulate leaky oil gave it a nice touch (at least I think it did). Then I smeared the once silver painted blade with red and black paint and spattered some more glossy black over it for the finishing touches. A couple coats of enamel clear coat and that's all she wrote.
I hope this wasn't too long. I'd love to hear what ya'll think.
A friend of mine sent me a message that a co-worker was throwing out two nonworking chainsaws, one of which happened to be nearly identical to the Homelite XL from Evil Dead 2 and Army of Darkness (It's a Homelite XL Textron, which is pretty much the same thing). The other one was a Craftsman or some other brand; he's modifying that one himself.
Unfortunately I didn't think to take any real photos of it in progress, but I can at least give a run down of what I did.
The tear down went pretty much like everyone else's. The body of mine is plastic, so cutting it wasn't too much of an ordeal. I had neither the skill nor the patience to salvage much from the engine though. The chainsaw blade that came with it also wasn't something I desired, so I improvised.
The chainsaw blade and muffler were cut from MDF board and shaped on my scroll saw. The muffler itself was two pieces of MDF superglued together for added thickness.
The grill piece is also MDF. On that I secured two pieces with double sided tape and shaped it also on the scroll saw. Then they were separated with one piece cut up to form the grill, and glued back together with some additional shaping.
The wooden handle for the pull start was salvaged from a rake handle that someone threw in my yard last year. No idea who did it, but thanks! The side handle was already completely rubber or whatever, so cutting it off and shaping it was a cinch.
The top panel was leftover aluminum kick plate I used to make a star for my Captain America shield. I bought some lengths of aluminum for the top handle and brackets and shaped them into place on a vise. The blade and inside handle are secured on the same bracket, with the muffler piece on it's own. I'm not sure how others have done theirs, but mine is incredibly sturdy.
Fun Fact: Every bracket but the one holding the muffler was cut with a hacksaw by hand. I completely brain farted and didn't think to get a good cut off wheel for my Dremel.
Once I had the thing secured, the fun part was the weathering. Adding little details like some silver to look like missing red paint and glossy black around the fuel caps to simulate leaky oil gave it a nice touch (at least I think it did). Then I smeared the once silver painted blade with red and black paint and spattered some more glossy black over it for the finishing touches. A couple coats of enamel clear coat and that's all she wrote.
I hope this wasn't too long. I'd love to hear what ya'll think.
