Madmaxx presents his Opus

[madmaxx]

Howdy yall and welcome to my little photo log of my new saber 'Opus'.

Lets start with the specs:
2x3.7 trustfire li-ion batteries
Igniter R2 and Tru-color boards
BGRW led engin
Kill key in pommel
8 accent leds..(3 in pommel-blue, 3 in side-green and 2 in the switches)
2 SPST short AV switches (1 blue ring the other blue dot)
2W bass speaker
Rumble motor
Blade holder #24
6" double female connector
MHS ribbed extention
Pommel style #1
Activation box #3

Here are the MHS parts with the shrouds added..
http://forums.thecustomsabershop.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=7459&d=1344694664
Here are two of the three shroud peices nail polished up for the salt water etching..
http://forums.thecustomsabershop.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=7460&d=1344694775
Here is the etching in progress...using a car battery charger as my power source because a D cell was taking WAY to long
http://forums.thecustomsabershop.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=7469&d=1344695461
This is the hilt with the etched shrouds added
http://forums.thecustomsabershop.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=7461&d=1344694844
Ok now for the Igniter boards..Having never used anything better than Novasound 3.0's this was a total nightmare for me at first..i must have read the manual 50 times before i had the nerve to wire it up....
http://forums.thecustomsabershop.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=7468&d=1344695401
More to come folks!

[madmaxx]

Here is the finished product..yay
http://forums.thecustomsabershop.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=7462&d=1344694925
http://forums.thecustomsabershop.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=7463&d=1344694993
http://forums.thecustomsabershop.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=7464&d=1344695058
http://forums.thecustomsabershop.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=7466&d=1344695194
http://forums.thecustomsabershop.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=7465&d=1344695118

[shmoetech]

WOW.........No I mean WOW!!!!!!!!

[madmaxx]

And afew glams of the blade colours for your veiwing pleasure
http://forums.thecustomsabershop.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=7457&d=1344694502
http://forums.thecustomsabershop.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=7456&d=1344693518
http://forums.thecustomsabershop.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=7455&d=1344693514
http://forums.thecustomsabershop.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=7454&d=1344693344
http://forums.thecustomsabershop.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=7458&d=1344694588

[madmaxx]

I hope you like my Opus and thanks for looking.

[shmoetech]

I'll say it again WOW!!! I love this saber, by far one of the nicest sabers i've seen!

[CGompertz09]

Wow! Looks awesome! I have to ask, how does that etching work exactly?

[Dahi Esmeva]

I'll have to agree WOW, the etching on the shrouds is really nice!!

[madmaxx]

The etching was easy to do...after alot of research i found a sword forging site that explained it all.I used nail polish to draw the design onto the shroud peices then put them into a salt water bath.Attach the positive terminal from your car battery charger to the shroud peice and then i used a bit of coat hanger wire attached to the negitive( see bottom picture).make sure the shroud and the coat hanger wire DO NOT touch in the water and turn it on!It takes afew hours to etch and i had to change to water afew times(1 tbp of salt to 1 cup of water).Then i scratched off the nail polish with my finger nail( you could use nail polish remover but i was lazy and a little bored) and then just sand and polish

[Ty_Bomber]

Wow. My jaw just hit the floor. This is a spectacular piece. Many, many kudos to you, sir.

[Machinimax]

"Hot dam!" That is a pure Old Republic design and I LOVE IT!! Nice work.

[Jay]

Wow. My jaw just hit the floor. This is a spectacular piece. Many, many kudos to you, sir.

+1 to this. This is an awesome build.

[Batosai]

that's a really nice saber, the overall look is just sweet.

[Johannes Huber]

That is an absolutely gorgeous saber. Could you put up a link to the sword etching tutorial you mentioned (assuing that the board rules permit it)? Thanks!

Johannes

[ARKM]

Nice saber. The etching looks great.

Johannes, I posted a saltwater etching tutorial on this forum some time ago. It might be of some help. Here's the link...

http://forums.thecustomsabershop.com/showthread.php?13430-ARKM-s-Saltwater-Etching-Tutorial

[captain_mills]

Like everyone else, I am most amazed by the etching. Not that the process is difficult to do, but how awesome it looks on this saber... very cool!

[amwolf]

Great googly moogly... that's totally sweet! Beautiful work on the leather wrap too.

[jedimastergarcia87]

Nice saber. I think it looks awesome in purple.

[madmaxx]

ARKM is right. It was his tutorial on salt water etching and that spurred my research and gave me the idea for the etched shrouds so i owe ARKM a note of thanks..Thanks ARKM. It just shows that no matter how many times you read through the forums on this site,you always find something new to think about! I love this hobby

[ARKM]

Thanks. I'm glad it was of some help.

I am looking for new tips and techniques to better my etching skills. As such, I have some questions about how you did your etching. In one of the pics you posted, it looks like there are two coat hanger rods in the saltwater, each with their own negative lead. Is that correct? Also, does the coat hanger rod just go straight down into the water or did you shape it any way to encircle the part being etched?

[madmaxx]

good question ARKM. i noticed that the etch was more noticable on the side of the coathanger wire and i had to turn the shroud around afew times so i made a U shaped negitive so the etch would be even...Didnt make all that much difference because it was a further distance from the shroud,but in saying that if i had used a narrower glass jar it would work better.I even thought of trying a spiral of wire but never got around to it...i may do so in the furture though just to see if it works better.The car charger worked great though, much faster than the battery packs

[ARKM]

Thanks for the info.

Using 6V, it only took me 30 minutes for a .014" deep etch. I had a ton of salt in the water and only etched a few small designs so that may be why is didn't take all that long to do. I like your idea of a spiral of wire to attach the negative lead to. That could be very interesting.

[Lucien Kane]

This is too good! and helpful as I have been studying saltwater etching for the last few days for a similar design. I won't be doing scroll work but it will be a similar idea I had... Perfect execution, and design although I am biased towards Old Republic style designs.

If my build turns out half as good as yours I'll be one happy guy.

[mrknify]

very well done, i've done some "ageing" with bleach, salt, and vinegar, but this is.... a hell of a lot safer.

[captain_mills]

Stupid question to both ARKM and Madmaxx... when you do this etching, do you have to cover the edges and the inside of the piece? Or does this etching method miraculously only etch the outside?

[madmaxx]

I taped up the inside just to be safe and did see a bit of etching where the alligator clip touched the shroud so just to be safe I would say yes

[ARKM]

Yeah, it doesn't hurt to protect the inside, the edges and MHS threads (if they are MHS pieces being etched) with electrical tape. I did not tape up my test pieces in my tutorial but they had flat bottoms and the tops were above the water line so that may be why they did not get etched.

[thejedilestat]

7485 7485

[madmaxx]

Lol all too easy ( wheeze wheeze)

[Darth Ryo]

That is an amazing peice of art really, most impressive :o

[Arryck Corso]

http://img515.imageshack.us/img515/1284/k36qur.gif

[DarkarNights]

Just pure awesome. Can you link to the site where you learned how to do the etching?

[Ripper]

AWESOME is just the beginning of how i feel about this bad boy!!!! I GOT to copy this saber in some way! I got to have it!!!! MAAAN!!! that's SICK!!!!

[madmaxx]

I looked at afew sites for etching info, apart from the 2 or 3 tutorials on here I found some useful info at http://www.navaching.com/forge/etching.html .There is also a method for small projects at http://forums.dfoggknives.com/index.php?showtopic=17602 . I tried this as a test first and it works surpriseing well and due to the control you have very fast but is only good for small jobs as i said. Hope these help

[brett]

A beautiful saber, and thoroughly educational. I think you may have inspired many potential etchers today!

[Darth Odious]

That is absolutely amazing, as much as I can't STAND that blade holder (even In ToR I hate it), you did it justice.

I'm defiantly convinced, I have to try out that etching.

[Lord Dottore Matto]

I love the Artistic feel associated with this saber build. very good work man!

[madmaxx]

Thanks everyone for the awesome comments you have left for me! lol i am stokked that something I have done has impressed so many people whom I consider to be Sabersmiths in every sense of the word.It makes me happy to know that my work is getting better everytime i build a saber but i think this 'Opus' will be my last for a while....the wife will kill me if i funnel anymore funds into this for now lol.I do plan of making a stand for the five sabers i now have so at least i will have something to do. I will post afew pics of that when its done.It will be a vertical spiral that holds the sabers upright in the order that i built them i think...now that will be fun

[MrCafe]

That is one ***y saber. I never thought of etching for a saber.

[Kevin Starwaster]

Nicely done.

[Vlad Doon]

This is an awesome saber. IMPRESSIVE. Thanks to share this technique with us

Congratulations again, gold medal

[nartules]

Hoo wee doggy, that dun there is a perty little thing you don got an dur made. I tell yer, youm city boys sure know how to live it up. Perty, just plain perty.

Great work :-P

[Nichos Seastrider]

I kept forgetting to post a reply, but I didn't this time! This is stunning. I've got all the parts for putting my saber together, I've just been trying to make the time to do so. What's been holding me back has been the design for the salt-water etching I was going to do. Seeing the etching done, especially as well done as this, is making me want to get off my duff and finally get mine together.

[madmaxx]

The etching was all done free hand with a nail polish brush.... So that should tell you how easy it was.i didn't have a real design I just let the brush free on its own

[Kevin Starwaster]

The etching was all done free hand with a nail polish brush.... So that should tell you how easy it was.i didn't have a real design I just let the brush free on its own

The design was always there, on the hilt. All you did was etch away anything that didn't belong, eh? ;)

(paraphrasing the old bit about carving an elephant out of a block of stone...)

[madmaxx]

Lol that's about the size of it yes ;-)

[Crystal Chambers]

Nice job. I'll have to give it a go myself. I'm guessing you went with the submerged, larger battery version correct?

Sounds to me like letting the tools do the type work they do well naturally.

[madmaxx]

thanks Crystal and yes the submerged version was my choice....It was like watching grass grow but i had never heard of the idea before and was surprised at the ease it was to do.A great example of trying new things i guess

[shmoetech]

double posting......man i love this saber!!!!!!!!!

[YoRn Mangers]

Hello good Sir, Props on a beafitul saber. I was curious as to the technique you used to weather your etching.

[madmaxx]

thanks I'm pretty happy with it. as for the weathering all I did was sand through the different grades to get it shiny then used the Polish compound I got with the dremel.all the dark smudge from the Polish wheel stuck to the etched pattern and gave it that blackened look

[cannibal869]

Most excellent job with the etching, and a most impressive saber!

[YoRn Mangers]

Very cool. Didn't think it would be that easy.

[RenegadeFury]

I just wanted to echo the praise the other's have already given. An awesome concept brilliantly executed. You have every reason to be very proud!

Now get your saber swagger on. :cool:

[Hakuno]

Just...outplayed. Gotta love that shroud and engravings!

[mongo]

Amazing work ----I absolutely love it:D

[IvPalmer]

First of all, congratulations! Your saber looks really beautifull!

Just a question, what is the black material you're using to cover the hilt? Is that leather? You tied it together yourself?

[madmaxx]

yeah its some italian leather i got on evilbay.i looked up a four strand round plait video on youtube and that was it.It was a shame because the very next day an old guy at work gave me a 40 year old peice of black elephant hide!!now that would have looked wicked

[rogue9607]

Not sure how I missed this! I really like how the salt water etch came out. I'd avoided this method because I thought there'd be an issue with uneven etching on the side of the lead, but your multiple leads plus turning looks great! I may give this a try with my next saber. Does this method work on brass as well, or just the silver metals? (I can't seem to keep all the etching options straight)

[Jedi_Knight_Zekk]

"Hot dam!" That is a pure Old Republic design and I LOVE IT!! Nice work.

+1 to this! I really love the design of this saber. To me, it looks like something right out of TOR. You should be very proud of yourself for this wonderful build. Truly great.

[madmaxx]

thanks rouge and Zekk for your comments and i am proud of this saber mainly because i had a nightmare of a time building it! as to etching brass i would imagine that it will work but would depend on the conductivity of the brass...that being said i think the effect would be very very nice and i just might do a test on this in the near future.The etching was easy to do as said before in this thread and i must give credit to other more experienced sabersmiths for their tutorials and knowledge on this subject.i wouldn't have tried this at all if it wasn't for the fact that i already had a car charger to play with! fortune I guess

[Invisas1979]

I'm real real late on this one, but the etching is great. Good job my friend.