First Saber - Imperial Knight

[wildcatsfan]

Okay I am officially in awe of some of you who can crank out a light saber in a weekend. This thing took me months of wiring, rewiring, learning about resistors, replacing components, cutting and sanding aluminum tubing and redoing the powder coating (sorry Tim, the original powder coating you did was scratched all to Hell when I was working on the shroud). All in all I am happy with the result and think it will definitely pass for an Imperial Knight saber. For those who would say "the switch should be in the pommel", it was originally in the pommel and all of the wiring had been done for that set up. However, that setup felt very awkward so I went back to the drawing board and put a white ring av switch on the bottom where I drilled the hole for the recharge port. Igniting it feels much more natural now. The components are all MHS (pommel style 1, pommel insert 1, custom 10" extension with the main body style 2 groove pattern added from top to bottom, blade holder 12), aluminum tubing for the overlay and the sound board is a cheapo Hasbro board from a $19.97 Qui Gon Jinn saber I found at Target. I won't even tell you how many "cheap" light saber sound boards I went through while building this saber. Suffice to say it would have been cheaper to buy a NB or PC board by the time I was done lol. Anyways, it's done and now I can move on to my next project...Imperial Knight Armor... Enjoy!

Edit: I wasn't happy with the look of the pommel so I pulled the old pommel apart, powder coated half of the MHS pommel starting just past the threads then cut a new aluminum tubing overlay to give myself about a 4mm gap between the main body shroud and the shroud covering the pommel. Then I simply drilled the hole, screwed on the belt clip and put it back together. I think it looks a lot better now but when I go back to my dad's house I will cut the D ring off the belt clip and replace it with a welded circle ring.

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[Ari-Jaq Xulden]

Very impressive first build. BTW Welcome to the forums. Let me say, despite the fact that you may have spent more money on the economy sounds boards, it was a wiser investment. Soldering well takes parctice, and those are good boards to practice on. Had you messed up a PC or NB you would have been heart broken and felt anger for the hobby. Also kudos for learning to powder coat right out of the gate. I suspect we will see more things to come from you. Congrats and enjoy.

[Forgetful Jedi Knight]

Welcome to the Forums! That came out great for your first time around. Keep up the good work! :D

[wildcatsfan]

Thanks! I have been lurking here for months looking at the build threads and wiring diagrams. Y'all just amaze me with some of the things you can do. Ari-Jaq, I agree with you 100% on the sound boards. They aren't that expensive individually so I didn't get too upset when one or two got messed up but after the third or fourth one I was like wtf lol. And yeah my dad and I had fun learning how to powder coat over the Christmas holiday. After I did the black insert part of the light saber he decided to powder coat random items in the tool shed. It was rather comical ... he found a new toy.

[Starwinder]

Welcome to the Forums and congrats on your first build! It looks like all the trouble you went through was well worth it - that is one great-looking saber! I've always liked that Imperial Knight design, and you've done very well by it. Looking forward to seeing more of what you churn out in the future!

[Ripper]

Welcome! Great build bro! I only wish I could powder coat! Kudos for-real!!

[Boj-Vaati Mau]

Well done! I've wanted to do one of these (and the costume) for a while now. Let's see what you have up you sleeve next. shall we?