My son wanted to go as Jet Jones from Royden Lepp's Rust graphic novel for Halloween. You can't do Jet Jones without the jetpack, so I set about figuring out how to make one, with working fan and lights. I purchased an external usb fan for cooling gaming stations and some LED string lights. Initially I had planned to wire them to an Arduino, but time conspired to work against me and I wend with a much simpler solution.
Starting with a stovepipe I cut and riveted it to the correct size for my son. I also cut in a control / exhaust panel for the pack and a hole for the usb plug for the fan.
After securing the fan with Sugru and the exhaust ports (old curtain rods, cut) with exhaust patch material (what I had on hand - but definitely adds to the industrial look) I moved on to adding the cone pieces and riveting them in place. I printed the exhaust port before adding the downside cone and glued the 2 together. I attached all of the lights with the switches near the exhaust so that I could reach them.
Adding straps from old canvas belts and using rivets again, with metal for support so the rivets didn't pull through was a challenge to get right. I needed to add a spacer to the lower back brace so that the rocket aligned correctly. I used a usb charger as the power source for the fan as it was compact enough and powerful enough to run for a few hours.
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