Perseverance - Saber build #4

[Johannes Huber]

Hi!

Just finished saber #4 so here it is. Learned a lot from this one: 1) Color coding wires does make things easier 2)Using a choke section and a "grenade" section means less internal room for all the electronics 3) when pre-tinning your tri-rebels, it's a lot easier if you've put them on a coffee mug heating plate for a little while first...

The saber is running a white/white/royal blue Tri-rebel
with a nano-biscotti board running Madcow's "flourish" font
with an 18650 Lith-ion for power. Stand by Sanjuro and
blade plug (totally blown out in the pictures...) by
Darkside Engineering

As Always, many thanks to all the people on the board sharing their knowledge, imagination and enthusiasm, it makes it a lot easier for beginners like me to join the fun:D
Thanks for looking!

http://i1067.photobucket.com/albums/u440/JohannesHuber/th_POST_3_4_Front_off_zpsed881929.jpg (http://s1067.photobucket.com/user/JohannesHuber/media/POST_3_4_Front_off_zpsed881929.jpg.html)

http://i1067.photobucket.com/albums/u440/JohannesHuber/th_POST_Side_off_zpsddd42e8a.jpg (http://s1067.photobucket.com/user/JohannesHuber/media/POST_Side_off_zpsddd42e8a.jpg.html)

http://i1067.photobucket.com/albums/u440/JohannesHuber/th_POST_3_4_rear_off_zpscb4d7a12.jpg (http://s1067.photobucket.com/user/JohannesHuber/media/POST_3_4_rear_off_zpscb4d7a12.jpg.html)

http://i1067.photobucket.com/albums/u440/JohannesHuber/th_POST_Lit_zpsb0baafe1.jpg (http://s1067.photobucket.com/user/JohannesHuber/media/POST_Lit_zpsb0baafe1.jpg.html)

Sorry about the lens flares, I couldn't get the camera to take photos of the "on" mode from some angles without them...

http://i1067.photobucket.com/albums/u440/JohannesHuber/th_POST_3_4_Front_on_zps2e39eb93.jpg (http://s1067.photobucket.com/user/JohannesHuber/media/POST_3_4_Front_on_zps2e39eb93.jpg.html)

http://i1067.photobucket.com/albums/u440/JohannesHuber/th_POST_Side_lit_zps3ec098c5.jpg (http://s1067.photobucket.com/user/JohannesHuber/media/POST_Side_lit_zps3ec098c5.jpg.html)

http://i1067.photobucket.com/albums/u440/JohannesHuber/th_POST_Up_Lit_zpsf9168213.jpg (http://s1067.photobucket.com/user/JohannesHuber/media/POST_Up_Lit_zpsf9168213.jpg.html)

http://i1067.photobucket.com/albums/u440/JohannesHuber/th_POST_Bot_lit_zpse10f1bd9.jpg (http://s1067.photobucket.com/user/JohannesHuber/media/POST_Bot_lit_zpse10f1bd9.jpg.html)

[DemonBunnyman]

Very nice looking specially the polish with the black

[Batosai]

a really nice saber. I like how you used the choke in combination with the shroud

[Starwinder]

Beautiful design and well executed! Really love how the polished shroud work gives it such a unique look.

[ARKM]

Nice shroud work.

[SithArts]

That's wicked! What did you use for a chassis to hold everything?

[Forgetful Jedi Knight]

Good work! I like the way it came out.

[Yoshi-Taka]

Impressive. I like how complicated it looks. Is it just me or are the accent leds really hard to see?

[amwolf]

Wow - Shiny! I really like the shroud work, and I shudder to think at the time spent radiusing those edges... but it's absolutely wonderful. Totally envious of the polishing skills you've got. I've tried, apparently not hard enough, so HOW?

[Renaissance Jedi]

This is an absolutely beautiful saber. So damn shiny. Amazing shroud work. That must have taken a really long time. Great job

[Silver Serpent]

Indeed. Love the layered look. Great polish job, and no sharp edges. That's a fantastic looking saber. I bet it feels as smooth as a stick of butter.

[Arkanjel]

That is a very nicely proportioned and refined looking weapon.

[Johannes Huber]

Hi all!

Sorry it took so long to get back but my computer conked out, leading to some rather frantic repair work... Thank you all for the kind words, they really mean a lot. This was one of those projects that kept having to be put down to deal with real life stuff and there were definitely times I wondered if it would get finished at all, hence the name.
Silver Serpent: it's funny you mention the tactile nature of the polish since that was the original reason I started polishing my hilts (I'm kind of dreading going back and having to polish and radius all the pieces on my first saber...), the shiny part was just a byproduct and I don't know any other way of "dehorning" that works as well.
Amwolf: Actually the idea of how I'm polishing comes from a variation on part of how Japanese swords are polished (I'm not a togishi, but working heavily in a sword tradition for some 29 years, you pick up a few ideas...). This time, I ran into some issues where I found certain things didn't work the way I expected, especially on the choke areas) so I have to call a friend who is an actual polisher and see if he knows where and why things worked out the way they did. When I start feeling that I have run into at least a few of the problems and gotten solutions for them, I promise I'll put something up on it, but it really just starts with 150 grit sandpaper and working down the axis direction of the hilt and then going up by about 100-200 grit or so, working in the same direction each time, until you hit 1200 grit. Then you start using sanding pads (Micromesh makes really good ones) that go 1500, 1800, 2400, 3200, 3600 and 4000 grit, still always going in the same direction. Around about 1800-3200 grit, the reflection will start to sharpen, but you keep going until 4000. Occasionally I've hit areas that start fogging over, which I can only guess is some sort of impurity or variation in the aluminum and then the only thing to do is cross one's fingers and keep polishing upward because it will go away at a certain point... It's really just brute force and stubbornness more than anything...
Sitharts: The chassis is made of some of Tim's acrylic disks for the "grenade" section with the 4-40 rods and the brass tubes covering them. That holds the NB and the 18650 battery very nicely and then some of the screws holding the shrouds double as a way to hold the chassis in place in front and back so it can't slide around...
Yoshi-taka: you're right, the accent lights are pretty dim since they are on branches of the wires driving the Tri-rebel instead of branching off the accent light pad. I've set up the tri rebel to be modular and have been experimenting with how hard the tri-rebel can be pushed so two of the dice (white and royal blue) have no resistor, the third (white) does have a resistor for color control so I don't lose the blue altogether, and there is a definite increase in blade brightness but at the cost of very little current seeming to make it to the accents. I'll try another module with resistors on all three dice and see how that works with the accents (I also had a GWW tri-rebel module I was trying to use for an "ice green" blade but it gets too close to a yellow green and I was hoping I could get something more like a hint of "forest green" in the "ice". No clue how to solve that one yet...)
Again, thank you all

[Silver Serpent]

Wow. That's a really labor intensive way to polish aluminum. If I might make a suggestion: try Mother's Magnesium and Aluminum polish. Get a decent sanding job on it, then try the Mother's. It'll cut your work time in half, at least.

[amwolf]

Wow. Thanks for the run-through - I have learned many things. Must learn more patience, as well, it seems. Thanks!

[Flyby Knight]

now that is a real beauty!

[Johannes Huber]

Sliver serpent: Many thanks for the idea of using the Mother's mag. Will have to try that and compare the tactile effect to the other method (lord knows I love sanding and polishing but...;) ). I just approached it from a swordsman's perspective of what one does with a steel blade. Never even thought there might be chemicals to aid the process on this sort of project...
Amwolf: It doesn't actually have to take long, the biggest time consumer is setting up the bevels on the shrouds when there are a lot of angle changes since I do that with files and sandpaper.
Flybyknight: Many thanks for the kind words!

[jedimastergarcia87]

Nice saber. Love the design. How does the Rebel Royal Blue look in person? My blade is just going to be a regular blue when I get to it.