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Philip J Fry
05-19-2012, 12:42 PM
I'm a college student who works in a machine shop. The awesome perk of the job is that when the shop is quiet and there are no people to help out I get to pretty much have free reign of the shop and make whatever I like. This is the saber I've been working on for the past couple months. Unfortunately I don't have a step by step process of how it was build from the initial sketches to the final product. My goal was to make a saber that was entirely machined by myself without buying any parts from TCSS. With the exception of the screws and the red switch, I machined the entire saber from stock aluminum/brass.

As far as the inspiration for this saber goes, many of my ideas came from the starkiller saber. The crystal chamber was heavily influenced by the superior craftsmanship of both slothfurnace's and boshwan527's chambers. The idea for the blade plug at the end definitely came from ARKM's blade plug designs, but since my goal was to machine the entire saber, I went ahead and made my own plug. As far as the rest of the saber goes, I pretty much doodled around with sketches until I found pieces that I thought best fit the saber.

Well enough with the introduction. Here is my first attempt (Definitely not last!) at fabricating a lightsaber. I hope you enjoy. :)

Philip J Fry
05-19-2012, 09:47 PM
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Here is the emitter with the blade plug I made. The turbine shaped cone was free handed on a lathe and then sanded to smoothness. The razor blade head I had laying around the house. The emitter itself was turned on a lathe and then the 4 slots milled out. The plug is attached to the emitter via a polycarbonate backing so light can pass through and light up the razor plug.

Philip J Fry
05-19-2012, 10:09 PM
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Alright. Unfortunately this is the huge step forward that doesn't have any photo documentation in between. However, this is close to the end and shows the beginnings of the crystal chamber. The shroud was all milled, which was difficult because it was so flimsy and rattled in the vise. I bought the red switch from TCSS and used the knurling tool on the lathe to make the aluminum casing that houses the switch. Also the knob on the bottom of the saber was fabricated using the knurling tool. The switch box is only going to be there for aesthetic purposes and won't actually do anything. The back end of the saber was a whirlwind of trips back and forth between the lathe and the mill, before I finally settled on something I liked.

Philip J Fry
05-19-2012, 10:17 PM
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Here some work was done on the crystal chamber. Brass spacers were added so that each of the brass fins were evenly spaced in the chamber. One of the pictures shows a crystal that I machined from polycarb. In the end I did not go with the machined crystal.

Philip J Fry
05-19-2012, 10:25 PM
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Alright. Here are some pics of the finished saber! Well at least the machining portion. This includes the finished crystal chamber with the actual crystal I'm gonna go with. Now the final step will be to wire it up!

Ty_Bomber
05-20-2012, 12:39 AM
You're well on your way! Looks great so far, I especially like the steps at the end of the emitter and the rear grip section. Very well done so far. Can't wait to see a final product.

Jhadious Aran
05-20-2012, 01:51 AM
love the look of this saber, great job.

Arryck Corso
05-20-2012, 06:57 AM
Great looking saber! I can definitely see the Starkiller influence in the design. And your shroud work is reminiscent of CC"s "Mantis" saber. Nicely done!

Philip J Fry
05-21-2012, 07:28 PM
Thank you everyone for your kind compliments! They are much appreciated!

I actually started another saber: I decided that Obi Wan's ANH saber would be an awesome saber to build. While I'm waiting to figure out how to wire up this one, I'll go ahead with the machining on the second! Woot!

brett
05-22-2012, 12:00 AM
Cant wait to see this second one, maybee you could take a few more pics of progress? Because your first saber is amazing! Love the shroud work, very original. And I really like your design for the crystal chamber, especially the cooling fins. Another wonderful saber I will keep in my files to look at when I need inspiration, and not inspiration to just build sabers, but to make me happy to face life too!

ARKM
05-22-2012, 01:10 AM
Very cool saber.

Crystal Chambers
05-23-2012, 08:08 AM
Well you can be sure I like the overlay!;) Nice machining!

Vlad Doon
05-23-2012, 02:26 PM
You're very skilled. I like your slothfurnace's style chamber. Great job

dustunite
05-23-2012, 02:33 PM
That came out great, crystal chamber is awesome!

hebert466
05-23-2012, 08:35 PM
it does look great!

xl97
05-26-2012, 07:22 AM
nice build.. nice machining skills too!.


looks like a collection of great features form other builds I have seen..

sloth styled chassis
whoever made those razor blade, blade plugs..
open chassis..


all good!.. execution is great too!

BigT_SOTF
06-25-2012, 04:03 AM
All around an awesome hilt. I like how you did the crystal chamber; very spiffy. ^.^