FenderBender
06-20-2010, 08:58 PM
Hello Saberland!
Well as some of you may know, we are big fans of Randomsabers and they were and continue to be a big inspiration to us here at the Vault :D So when presented a chance to put our spin on a design they did, we jumped. The original design is a beautiful combination of machined copper and aluminum with wood grip accents, a dash of knurling and some milling to box in the switch. You can view it here:
http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q169/AJFenderBender/clarion.jpg
We wanted to keep all the design elements that made the original great, but put our own spin on it so you can tell it came from us :D Since we're fresh out of soul to mortgage for real copper, we went with the next best thing: Translucent copper powdercoating over polished aluminum. This allowed us to retain the look without having the cost reach Negotiator level ;) For the wood grips, the original seemed to have a more "plain Jane" wood grain pattern, though the coloring went well with the copper. We chose a nice burled maple in a similar color to complement the copper. Doing the wooden grips was no picnic. Though it came out nice and was great to finally incorporate this medium into a build, it is a LOT of work to get them right. Hats off to Random' there!
On the rest of the hilt, we added back in the other features: small tasteful knurled band, milled area around the switch and a copper ring to help tie in the pommel with the emitter.
The pommel on the original was a 3 piece design, similar in construction to the Obi TPM pommel. To save time and cost we went with a single piece construction on the pommel and with some creative lathing, milling and powdercoating, it came out fantastic.
For the switch, we of course went with our signature flush mount anti-vandal with the lighthound PCB to activate the MR Jedi board. Since I didn't want to punch anymore holes than necessary in the hilt, we put the recharge port in the pommel ;) On to the specs and pics!
Quick Specs:
Full custom hilt
Trans copper powdercoating
Burled maple grip strips
MR Jedi board
Seoul P4 Blue LED
Flush mounted antivandal switch
4.8V NiMh battery pack
Pics:
http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q169/AJFenderBender/th_025-17.jpg (http://s136.photobucket.com/albums/q169/AJFenderBender/?action=view¤t=025-17.jpg)http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q169/AJFenderBender/th_042-13.jpg (http://s136.photobucket.com/albums/q169/AJFenderBender/?action=view¤t=042-13.jpg)http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q169/AJFenderBender/th_044-8.jpg (http://s136.photobucket.com/albums/q169/AJFenderBender/?action=view¤t=044-8.jpg)http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q169/AJFenderBender/th_045-9.jpg (http://s136.photobucket.com/albums/q169/AJFenderBender/?action=view¤t=045-9.jpg)http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q169/AJFenderBender/th_039-13.jpg (http://s136.photobucket.com/albums/q169/AJFenderBender/?action=view¤t=039-13.jpg)http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q169/AJFenderBender/th_037-10.jpg (http://s136.photobucket.com/albums/q169/AJFenderBender/?action=view¤t=037-10.jpg)http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q169/AJFenderBender/th_036-9.jpg (http://s136.photobucket.com/albums/q169/AJFenderBender/?action=view¤t=036-9.jpg)http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q169/AJFenderBender/th_029-21.jpg (http://s136.photobucket.com/albums/q169/AJFenderBender/?action=view¤t=029-21.jpg)http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q169/AJFenderBender/th_046-13.jpg (http://s136.photobucket.com/albums/q169/AJFenderBender/?action=view¤t=046-13.jpg)http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q169/AJFenderBender/th_047-12.jpg (http://s136.photobucket.com/albums/q169/AJFenderBender/?action=view¤t=047-12.jpg)
Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2gPHcRth2g
Well as some of you may know, we are big fans of Randomsabers and they were and continue to be a big inspiration to us here at the Vault :D So when presented a chance to put our spin on a design they did, we jumped. The original design is a beautiful combination of machined copper and aluminum with wood grip accents, a dash of knurling and some milling to box in the switch. You can view it here:
http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q169/AJFenderBender/clarion.jpg
We wanted to keep all the design elements that made the original great, but put our own spin on it so you can tell it came from us :D Since we're fresh out of soul to mortgage for real copper, we went with the next best thing: Translucent copper powdercoating over polished aluminum. This allowed us to retain the look without having the cost reach Negotiator level ;) For the wood grips, the original seemed to have a more "plain Jane" wood grain pattern, though the coloring went well with the copper. We chose a nice burled maple in a similar color to complement the copper. Doing the wooden grips was no picnic. Though it came out nice and was great to finally incorporate this medium into a build, it is a LOT of work to get them right. Hats off to Random' there!
On the rest of the hilt, we added back in the other features: small tasteful knurled band, milled area around the switch and a copper ring to help tie in the pommel with the emitter.
The pommel on the original was a 3 piece design, similar in construction to the Obi TPM pommel. To save time and cost we went with a single piece construction on the pommel and with some creative lathing, milling and powdercoating, it came out fantastic.
For the switch, we of course went with our signature flush mount anti-vandal with the lighthound PCB to activate the MR Jedi board. Since I didn't want to punch anymore holes than necessary in the hilt, we put the recharge port in the pommel ;) On to the specs and pics!
Quick Specs:
Full custom hilt
Trans copper powdercoating
Burled maple grip strips
MR Jedi board
Seoul P4 Blue LED
Flush mounted antivandal switch
4.8V NiMh battery pack
Pics:
http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q169/AJFenderBender/th_025-17.jpg (http://s136.photobucket.com/albums/q169/AJFenderBender/?action=view¤t=025-17.jpg)http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q169/AJFenderBender/th_042-13.jpg (http://s136.photobucket.com/albums/q169/AJFenderBender/?action=view¤t=042-13.jpg)http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q169/AJFenderBender/th_044-8.jpg (http://s136.photobucket.com/albums/q169/AJFenderBender/?action=view¤t=044-8.jpg)http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q169/AJFenderBender/th_045-9.jpg (http://s136.photobucket.com/albums/q169/AJFenderBender/?action=view¤t=045-9.jpg)http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q169/AJFenderBender/th_039-13.jpg (http://s136.photobucket.com/albums/q169/AJFenderBender/?action=view¤t=039-13.jpg)http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q169/AJFenderBender/th_037-10.jpg (http://s136.photobucket.com/albums/q169/AJFenderBender/?action=view¤t=037-10.jpg)http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q169/AJFenderBender/th_036-9.jpg (http://s136.photobucket.com/albums/q169/AJFenderBender/?action=view¤t=036-9.jpg)http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q169/AJFenderBender/th_029-21.jpg (http://s136.photobucket.com/albums/q169/AJFenderBender/?action=view¤t=029-21.jpg)http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q169/AJFenderBender/th_046-13.jpg (http://s136.photobucket.com/albums/q169/AJFenderBender/?action=view¤t=046-13.jpg)http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q169/AJFenderBender/th_047-12.jpg (http://s136.photobucket.com/albums/q169/AJFenderBender/?action=view¤t=047-12.jpg)
Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2gPHcRth2g