First saber

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This is my first saber, built using a board from a 1999 Hasbro Electronic Qui-Gon Jinn Lightsaber. It has a charger port (a Canon 2.1mm). The outer body is a 38mm (1.5") sink tube, and the inner body is the same, cut down the middle and "squished" to fit inside, and covered with a thin sheet of copper. The switch is a guarded momentary switch identical to the one sold at TCSS, the battery pack is 4 AAA Ni-MH batteries, and the speaker is one I found at a local electronics shop. The LED is a Luxeon III. The blade holder is a TCSS Style 3. The grip strips are something I found at my local hardware store and used as-is. There's no pommel. When I cut the pipe, the cutter "pinched" the cut edge just enough so that the 36mm strainer I used as a speaker grille wouldn't slip out. I just glued the grille to the film case that houses the battery pack and speaker.
Not bad for a first try, huh?
(Note that photos are in reverse chronological order.)
Major shock: the MHS adapter and blade holder won't fit in the hilt! The inner diameter of the Japanese 38mm pipe I bought is just 0.5mm or so too narrow.
So close, yet so far.
Update: Problem solved, if not elegantly. I made a vertical cut at the top of the underside, trying to make it seem like part of the design. I had a hell of a time getting the MHS adapter in, but it's in. Now if anything goes wrong with the inner electronics, I'm in for a struggle.
  1. Finally, here's the pattern I made for this blade. Blue represents ares to be cut out, yellow indicates spots to be drilled, and gray represents...
  2. Morning! Sunshine! And freshly polished copper!
  3. Not so bad, huh?
  4. Front
  5. Side
  6. Back. So the Covertec clip is a bit off center. Big deal.
  7. The whole saber. Whoops! Almost forgot the Covertec clip.
  8. Displayed. It's nighttime, so I can't get  decent photo.
  9. Another angle.
  10. And another angle.
  11. For every problem there is a solution.* I made a discreet (?) cut on the underside that gave me just enough leeway to jam the adapter in. I tried to...
  12. Complete! Beautiful cyan!
  13. The copper sheeting has already taken a beating from the struggle with the MHS adapter.
  14. The MHS sink-tube adapter doesn't fit in my tube!! The inner diameter of my tube is just about 0.5mm too narrow!
  15. Darkness sets in.
  16. So close, yet so far. 
But wait!
  17. It's here! Can you believe the package finished its week-long journey across the ocean and arrived at my door just 20 minutes after I took that last...
  18. Oh, rapture!!
  19. Oh...sh*t! The adapter!
  20. Still waiting. A view of the pommel-less hilt bottom.
  21. Still waiting. <sigh>
  22. The lonely connector awaits its mate.
  23. The inner sleeve installed. This looks better than I had imagined it would.
  24. All ready and waiting for my package to arrive from TCSS.
  25. Still waiting. I left the pattern on the top, because it includes guides for the MHS adapter retention screws.
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