First saber....

[KuroChou]

I want to start off with a huge thanks to Tim for running such an awesome shop.
Saved me countless hours, that would otherwise have been spent aimlessly planning/shopping.

I want to throw out another big thank you to the community here. I'm about as green as it gets, and having spent a a couple weeks reading around, I'm finding all my questions quickly answered, without having to contact anyone.

I've wanted to make a custom metal lightsaber for a couple years now, and just never really found the time or motivation to get it done....
Until mid November, when I stumbled across an nice tuto on Instructables (EDIT: it was vadeblade's). Reading through it in depth, it was immediately clear, that if I was serious about this, TCSS was the place to go.

After a quick read through of the parts I would need, I did some "window" shopping, for a quick brainstorm, and some rough dimensions.
I'm happy to say that I'm 96% finished with my all-steel hilt, without the use of any MHS parts.
A lot of the final work was held up by the necessity of actually having the internal parts in hand, to finish layout and assembly.
(another huge thanks for speed, and ease of checkout).
I'll get pictures up soon, but here's a basic description/list of parts/dimensions.

Dimensions
--------------
11-3/4" length
1" ID
1-1/4" max OD
~46oz.
balanced 1/4" above choke

Parts
---------------
1995 Hasbro Luke Skywalker ROTJ board
White P4 (kit)
4xAAA
TCSS speaker
TCSS clash sensor
1 PC case thumbscrew
2 T-8 HDD case screws
1 1" 5mm Hex screw
Rubber grips recovered from an old vacuum cleaner
and
Roscolux Gels

Price so far = $30.67

I haven't decided what to do for the switch yet.
All other parts were hand made from varying sizes of scrap pipe and roundstock that I picked up for free, and cut out using a lathe, bandsaw, drill press, and tabletop belt sander.

[Yama-Blu Kitsu]

I want to start off with a huge thanks to Tim for running such an awesome shop.
Saved me countless hours, that would otherwise have been spent aimlessly planning/shopping.

I want to throw out another big thank you to the community here. I'm about as green as it gets, and having spent a a couple weeks reading around, I'm finding all my questions quickly answered, without having to contact anyone.

I've wanted to make a custom metal lightsaber for a couple years now, and just never really found the time or motivation to get it done....
Until mid November, when I stumbled across an nice tuto on Instructables. Reading through it in depth, it was immediately clear, that if I was serious about this, TCSS was the place to go.

After a quick read through of the parts I would need, I did some "window" shopping, for a quick brainstorm, and some rough dimensions.
I'm happy to say that I'm 96% finished with my all-steel hilt, without the use of any MHS parts.
A lot of the final work was held up by the necessity of actually having the internal parts in hand, to finish layout and assembly.
(another huge thanks for speed, and ease of checkout).
I'll get pictures up soon, but here's a basic description/list of parts/dimensions.

Dimensions
--------------
11-3/4" length
1" ID
1-1/4" max OD
~46oz.
balanced 1/4" above choke

Parts
---------------
1995 Hasbro Luke Skywalker ROTJ board
White P4 (kit)
4xAAA
TCSS speaker
TCSS clash sensor
1 PC case thumbscrew
2 T-8 HDD case screws
1 1" 5mm Hex screw
Rubber grips recovered from an old vacuum cleaner
and
Roscolux Gels

Price so far = $30.67

I haven't decided what to do for the switch yet.
All other parts were hand made from varying sizes of scrap pipe and roundstock that I picked up for free, and cut out using a lathe, bandsaw, drill press, and tabletop belt sander.

I'm pretty new here too but here's my thoughts>

White P4, best way to go white...will you be using color filters with this or just white? Be aware the a white led with color filters wont be as bright as a colored led.

I'm not sure how easy it is to wire that sound board, but I would also check out Skytrackers forum on wiring a Force Action lightsaber soundboard, about $21 bucks. Its very doable for a beginner.

I didnt see anything too specific on what your using for the hilt...it depends on how complex you wanna start off. Tim sells 1.5" and 1.25" sink tubes that you can use with MHS adapters that screw onto MHS parts. Or you could do a basic 3 MHS set up, I'd suggest the MHS builder for that. I like the use of household parts, gives it some diversity.

Looking good so far, just make sure you do enough research;)

[KuroChou]

I've already worked out the wiring for the board. I want to do some more tests with my meter, to see exactly where the excess current is going, but the board is handling being overdriven by 200% just fine.
My guess is that it's scaling up the current going through all outputs. The speaker seems substantially louder, and the original output for the tungsten lamp is enough to power the LED with or without a resistor.
I checked the voltage on that yesterday and came up with about 5.68V.
That saves me my original process of using a transistor switch, using the the + light wire as my signal switch. I'll do some more testing to check a difference in the brightness of the LED before I make my final decision.

As for colors, I'll be picking up a Roscolux swatch book for free on Monday.
Roscolux produces Gels (filters) for stage lighting, and the rough dimensions or their swatch books are ~1"x5". They have different kinds of swatch books available, some of them showing every available Gel in a specific light, some of them in specific saturations, and some of them showing a general overview of almost every color available.
I'll be picking up that one.
40-70 saber colors, in a tunable range of brightness and saturation, for free.

If you hadn't noticed, that's kind of the theme here. Free.
My family's been pretty much the definition of "hard up" for three years now.
There's no extra cash anywhere. It'll be another month before I can order a blade, because $30-40 is my realistic spending limit.


EDIT: I am in fact aware, as well, that a filtered P4 will never be as bright as a pure color LED, but that's an unfortunate fact I was willing to sacrifice. There just aren't enough cheap options for more exotic colors. Filtered light will give me precise control, without the pricetag of an RGB. The swatch book I speak of, includes a very detailed data sheet on every included color. This includes a Kelvin measurement, a spectral graph, and a dimming factor given in percentages, as well as many other small and irrelevant points of data.

[KuroChou]

I'll apologize in advance, these pics were taken with my phone, as apparently every digital camera in the house is broken right now....
With luck, I'll get into the studio next week to take some decent detail shots.
I'll get some shots of the completed electronics ASAP as well.
Keep in mind, I hand machined everything seen, minus the screws.
The finish is 100% hand polished/brushed steel....

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n143/shigiriu/First%20Saber/0116001001.jpg
General shot of the hilt.

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n143/shigiriu/First%20Saber/0116001002a.jpg
Focus on emitter.

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n143/shigiriu/First%20Saber/0116001001a.jpg
Pommel, belt clip button, and sound port.*

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n143/shigiriu/First%20Saber/0116001002.jpg
Other side of emitter.

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n143/shigiriu/First%20Saber/0116001003.jpg
Focus on grip, and other fasteners (the T-8's).

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n143/shigiriu/First%20Saber/0116001003b.jpg
Focus on decorative heat-sink and knurled ring.


*The button actually fits in a custom magnetic belt clip I fabricated. A single hole may not seem like much for a sound port, and there's no resonance chamber behind it. That being said, the volume is still excellent, and the near direct contact of the speaker has the added bonus of the saber not needing a rumble motor for ambient vibration. Yes. It's that powerful.

[ecko]

Looks Awesome!

~S~

[Yama-Blu Kitsu]

Really nice work:cool:, great job!

[VeggieJedi]

Nice work man! I wish my first saber looked this good! :D

[gundamaniac]

I am a huge fan of your magnetic covertec-style button. It just looks beefy and strong.

[KuroChou]

I think I've decided to name it "The Apprentice" because of everything it is, and everything it stands for.
In deciding on my overall design theme, I wanted to keep it simple.
The object here, wasn't for a classy master/noble/royal saber.
I wanted to keep it ornate, but still rugged and industrial, emphasizing the fact that as elegant as the technology may be, it's still a militarized instrument of death.
This also reflects the simplicity lack of refinement one would expect of a first build padawan saber.
The overall contrasts between rough/polished, curved/straight, silver/black, and metal/rubber, were intended to reflect the neutral alignment of someone new to the force, which is also implied in the symbolic and practical ambiguity of a white blade.

[Count Malik]

:)looks great!

[KuroChou]

The knurled ring in the lower third is no longer purely aesthetic. After a real PITA notching out 1/8" solid steel, using only a 1/16 drill bit, and some jewelers files, I have a method of mounting a bipolar slide momentary underneath the ring. Simply twist to activate. I'll post some pics tomorrow.

[DarthJim]

Looks great. I have a question. Could you possibly show how you wired your soundboard? I have a 2002 Luke ROTJ board, and I'm pretty sure they're the same thing. I think I've got it figured out how to wire it to the batteries but not to the LED. Could you please show a diagram or something?

[KuroChou]

I don't actually have the board wired anymore, as it has since been replaced by a 2010 obi-wan, but if/when I get a chance I'll make a diag. for you.
If you follow the original wiring, it should be mostly the same as one of the 2010 diag.s, the only notable differences being that you'll only have one lamp positive, instead of three, and you'll have to solder your switch to the pads underneath the original silicone switch.

[DarthJim]

That would be very helpful. Yeah I noticed that there's only one lamp wire and that the switch is built in. I was originally thinking of using that but now I'm thinkin it might be better to attach a new one. Just not sure how to go about that. Also is setting up a currant to the LED as much as a PITA as it looks...Yeah I feel stupid. If you could post that diagram you would have my many thanks...for what that's worth.

[KuroChou]

I found the board, so I'll probably post pics/diagram tonight or tomorrow.

[DarthJim]

sounds great thanks