Led assembly for PVC hilts.

[Darth Midian]

Hello everyone. A few weeks ago Ingchao suggested to me to try & use a 3/4" copper pipe end cap for a heat sink. I thought about it & figured why not. It's multi purposed. I saves room in your 1" pvc hilt, it's a heat sink, & blade stop. You just have to drill 2 holes in the back for the led wires to go through. Here are a few pics on how I did this.

3/4" copper end cap, lens & holder, led, & scrap piece of blade stock cut so it will be flush with the opening of the end cap when it's inside the assembly, & a 1/4" notch cut out of it. It acts as a spring clip to hold the lens in place.
http://i866.photobucket.com/albums/ab227/DMidian/led1.jpg

Insert the led, lens holder & lens, & your make shift spring clip. Everything fits perfectly inside. You'll have to sand the corners of the led holder a little. It's real snug, you sand the corners down & you'll be able to remove the holder without any issue.
http://i866.photobucket.com/albums/ab227/DMidian/led2.jpg

Insert the led assembly into your 1" pvc, where you have your threaded insert in place.
http://i866.photobucket.com/albums/ab227/DMidian/led3.jpg

Once your led assembly is in place just tighten down with a thumb screw or button head screw. Your led is secured & you have a blade stop.
http://i866.photobucket.com/albums/ab227/DMidian/led4.jpg

Last pic was a little blurry, sorry. Thank you..

[jin starkiller]

thats exactly what i've been doing for my pvc hilts....:D

[Knighthammer]

Great idea - so do you glue the led in or anything like that? (thinking of jay-gon's tut)

[Darth Midian]

That's cool Jin. It saves a ton of room in my hilts. I wish someone had told me about it earlier. Knighthammer, no glue. The bladestock spring clip holds everything in place, & the set screw holds the led assembly in place.

[Knighthammer]

Knighthammer, no glue. The bladestock spring clip holds everything in place, & the set screw holds the led assembly in place.

Ok, sorry for the dumb question, The set screw just pushes into the side of the pipe end and basically pins it to the sides of the PVC right?

[jin starkiller]

correct

[Knighthammer]

Like I said...dumb question.

Thanks =)

[Darth Midian]

There's no such thing as a dumb question. I'm more than happy to clear things up. Sometimes I can make things sound a little more complicated than they really are, or I don't expain things enough. But as Jin said you're correct.

[Knighthammer]

Thanks for the help & the tip for a PVC blade holder - I will definately try it out.

[Darth Midian]

Thanks for the help & the tip for a PVC blade holder - I will definately try it out.

Hey, you're welcome. Never underestimate the power of PVC.:)

[JRD1]

Hey, you're welcome. Never underestimate the power of PVC.:)


Thats pretty kool, this just answered how I was going to do my 3-up saber... Oh and my crystal chamber will be on my next build, the one I told you about. Good write-up, thanks for sharing.

[vargose]

Does the blades stock spring clip hold with enough force to keep things in place during some heavy dueling? Or just in general?

This is a great idea by the way, and can be applied to aluminum tube based sabers as well.

[Darth Midian]

Does the blades stock spring clip hold with enough force to keep things in place during some heavy dueling? Or just in general?

This is a great idea by the way, and can be applied to aluminum tube based sabers as well.
Thank you Vargose. In pvc the led assembly acts as a blade stop as well. The blade will be flush against the copper end cap or led assembly. So the spring clip will stay in place. I also removed the blade & slapped my hilt against my palm 100 times & slapped it against my thigh 100times & it stayed in place. someone was concerened about it staying in place when you remove the blade & wear it on your belt. If it should move, when you replace your blade, your blade will put the clip back in place. I don't remove my blades,so it's not an issue for me, but when I did the slap test it didn't move.

[RevengeoftheSeth]

I finally found the copper caps you were talking about. They were hidden at my local hardware store ^.^ I'm going to try assembling my first setup like this this weekend.

[Darth Midian]

I finally found the copper caps you were talking about. They were hidden at my local hardware store ^.^ I'm going to try assembling my first setup like this this weekend.
Good deal. Cut the blade stock so when you put clip inside of the copper cap, it will be flush. The one I have in the pic is a little short. I cut a second one a bit thicker than that one. The thickness of clip should be just under 3/8". Good luck

[Ingchao]

Nice tutorial!

I'm really surprised this isn't well known.
This trick has saved me many $ over the last couple of years.

[Jedi-Loreen]

Then why didn't you share it?

Keeping to yourself? http://www.rebellegion.com/forum/images/smiles/eyebrows.gif

[Ingchao]

Then why didn't you share it?

Keeping to yourself? http://www.rebellegion.com/forum/images/smiles/eyebrows.gif

I did. Just ask Darth Midian.;)

[Darth Midian]

Hello everyone. A few weeks ago someone suggested to me to try & use a 3/4" copper pipe end cap for a heat sink.

Ingchao, is the person I referenced to in my original post. I'm sorry Dude, when I posted this I didn't really know your were a member here, Sorry:(. I will edit my orignal post. This is a great idea, I thank you again for telling me about it..:D

[Ingchao]

Ingchao, is the person I referenced to in my original post. I'm sorry Dude, when I posted this I didn't really know your were a member here, Sorry:(. I will edit my orignal post. This is a great idea, I thank you again for telling me about it..:D

No apologies needed! I was just responding to Jedi Loreen's post and there are other sabersmiths on this forum who discovered this trick also. Even though I thought I came up with this, a few months ago i was modifying another sabersmith's saber only to discover the same set up.

Thanks for the credit, it makes me feel good that I could help someone with your considerable skills!:D

[FenderBender]

Yep, a lot of us have used this method over the last few years. I know that I've mentioned it several times and to several people here as well. It's a great module for LEDs, we've used them on all of our stunts both the PVC and the aluminum ones. A few tips on them: Use a punch to start your holes, it'll make drilling them a LOT easier. If it feels loose in the PVC/aluminum hilt you can wrap a small bit of aluminum tape around the outside to shim it as well as still conduct heat. If you plan on doing more than one of them make sure you buy the contractor pack (Lowes/Homedepot) it'll save you a good bit of $ on them.

[Darth Midian]

Aluminum tape is great tip, Thank you Fender.

[vargose]

I used this LED assembly on my most recent aluminum saber shown here http://forums.thecustomsabershop.com/showthread.php?13619-The-Forge

[Ka'getsu]

Hello D.M. I'm wondering which led's you would recommend with this particular heat sink set up, I'm thinking that a rebel star or similar led's would be a bit much for PVC hilts, but if i can't find any lower powered LED's I'll just make a slight modification to the original design to accommodate a standard heat sink. Just wondering what your thoughts would be.

Thank you for your time

K

[cardcollector]

I have used Rebels, LUX III's, and P4's in PVC hilts. Haven't had one come back yet with any problems. So any 3W LED, as long as it is Properly heatsunk, will work fine.

[Ka'getsu]

Thanks for the info Cardcollector... much appreciated :)

-K-