Slow Saber Build Thread: A Sentinel Called Sorrow

[Jenny]

TL;DR - I got the shipping email this morning for my first order of MHS parts, and it's strangely exciting. This order is comprised of:


MHSV1 Blade Holder Style 7
MPS8 MPS Pommel style 8
Cclip MPS Clip
MPSI12 MPS insert style 12
MHSchokeRL MHS choke style


The main body will require some custom milling, so I put it off for next month. Pictures when I get the parts in a couple of days. This will likely be a slow build thread. Why? Well, if you want to know, read on.

******

I'm an older geek. I'm also of mixed-race Japanese / European-American heritage. In 1977, my family was living in a very rural area of Arizona -- so rural, our town didn't even have its own grocery store, just a gas station / convenience store. So when my mother heard that there was a SciFi movie out that drew heavily on the influence of Akira Kurasawa, she tossed a ten-year-old me in the car and we drove the couple of hours to The City to see it. We both loved it, and I at once wanted to be a Jedi Knight. (And got in a lot of fights about whether or not a girl could be a Jedi). My first lightsaber was just a flashlight with an inflatable blade. (No foolin'. you can see the advertisement for it (https://youtu.be/uEsOqEpNF0k). Notice how all the kids playing with it are boys? My friends did).

Fast forward a number of years, until I was a grown up geek. I was in the Navy and attended a local SciFi con where I saw that they were play-testing a new role playing game based on Star Wars. Intrigued, I got in on the session, and played an Alien Force User because there were no Jedi in what would become West End Games' d6 game... or at least, that wasn't the part of the rules they were testing, and that option wasn't available to us. (My AFU, by the bye, was limited to touch range, and her big special attack? Touching people on the shoulder and putting them to sleep. Yes; I crossed the streams. But I digress).

A few years later, I got the chance to play the D20 version of Star Wars RPG, and this time, Jedi were included. So I rolled up a Consular, thinking that I'd make her a Jedi Healer. Just for kicks and giggles, though, I took a couple of skill ranks in pick lock, because you know... sometimes, evil hides behind locked doors. Thus Sorrow was born. She was a four-lekku blue Twi'lek who had been orphaned as a small child and taken to the Jedi Temple. She couldn't remember her name, and the Jedi who found her nicknamed her Sorrow because of her woeful countenance. Over time, it stopped being a nick-name and became her name. In honor of a great Jedi of the past, she eventually appropriated the family name Sunrider.

Well, the campaign went on, and at a key point, Sorrow saved the party by using the Force with her lock picking skill to open a door and an avenue of escape. (I rolled a natural 20, and the GM gave it to me). This led to joking that I should cross-class into a less upright profession, and I started thinking about Jedi Sentinel. Sorrow turned away from healing and toward investigation. The campaign ended before I could get the pre-reqs together, but I went on thinking about her, and in my mind, she went on to become a Sentinel. She retained her original lightsaber, though, so hers has a cyan blade (reflecting her path between Guardian and Consular) instead of the more common golden blade of the Sentinels. (Aside from which, if you light up a gold-blade lightsaber, you're pretty much flashing a badge, and Sorrow works more in the shadows than that).

So when I started building my own lightsaber, I decided I wanted to start with Sorrow's. Because it's a saber from the height of the Jedi Order's power and influence, it's more refined and finished than the later-era sabers.

Why did it take me so long to start working on building my own saber? Because I was a nurse, working 12-hour shifts and taking care of my Uncle's wife's parents on my days off, so I had no time. Then I was diagnosed with an autoimmune disorder, and couldn't work, so I had no money. But now, finally, I have some money and some time, so I'm starting work. I do, of course, still have Lupus, so I don't do very much at a time, and my income is based on disability, so it's not very much money. Both of which mean that this will probably be one of the slower build threads -- it may take me six months or a year to get everything together.

But it promises to be a heck of a ride, and I'd like to share it with my fellow saber enthusiasts as I learn things and approach my dream. I hope you'll find something of interest as we go forward.

[NaasadTal]

Sorrow sounds like an interesting character. I love reading backstories like this & I can't wait to see what her saber will look like!

Don't worry about the time it takes to complete your build, this hobby isn't going anywhere anytime soon & as the saying goes, "anything worth doing is worth doing right" My Starkiller build took me almost a year, I started the design stage back in May last year, ordered my first parts in September & finished it up a couple weeks ago.

One of the best things about TCSS is that you can build yourself a high end saber without having to drop the high end price all at once, you can spread our your part orders as you have the money for them.

Good luck & I for one will be following your progress!

[jbkuma]

Great story! I look forward to seeing Sorrow Sunrider's saber take shape.

[Jenny]

I actually received the parts on Thursday, but this has been a very trying week, and I didn't get to photograph them until today. So... stand by for picspam!

Here we have the emitter and pommel. The taller one is MHSv1 Blade Holder style 7; the shorter one is MHSv1 pommel style 8. The emitter has been media blasted -- my initial idea was that I wanted it to look as though the emitter had discolored over time due to the tremendous energy of the blade. I'm not sure it accomplishes that, but it does look nice! The media turned the normal glossy silver into a fascinating matte gray, slightly pearlescent. It picks up schmutz like whoa... I think I'm going to need to find a nice matte clear-coat to put over it, if I don't decide to color it.

http://res.cloudinary.com/ljuruqdid/image/upload/c_scale,w_600/v1492274749/Lightsaber/20170415_122125.jpg

My previous saber was made by a machinist who boasted that no two of his sabers were exactly alike. I forget if I found him on eBay or his own website, but I bought the saber below and, though I had dreams of lighting it, I've actually just put a polycarbonate rod in it and used it as a bokken for a number of years. It's pretty, and I might still electrify it, but it taught me that I wanted a longer hilt, because my training is in a two-hand style, and this one? Definitely a single-hand hilt.

http://res.cloudinary.com/ljuruqdid/image/upload/c_scale,w_600/v1492274743/Lightsaber/20170415_122504.jpg

So I also ordered a choke style 3 long. Here you can see it with the emitter screwed in, which shows nicely the difference between the plain aluminium and the media-blasted, I believe.

http://res.cloudinary.com/ljuruqdid/image/upload/c_scale,w_600/v1492274747/Lightsaber/20170415_122337.jpg

I don't have a double-female piece at the moment, so I removed the emitter and screwed the pommel in.

http://res.cloudinary.com/ljuruqdid/image/upload/c_scale,w_600/v1492274744/Lightsaber/20170415_122428.jpg

Someone else made a comment that, with a double-female adapter, the choke 3 long would make a decent shoto all by itself. I am kind of interested in making a matching shoto for my daito, but that's down the road... and I'm kind of thinking that maybe an MHSv2 hilt would be better, if Tim ever makes any of those again.

http://res.cloudinary.com/ljuruqdid/image/upload/c_scale,w_600/v1492274749/Lightsaber/20170415_121751.jpg

Anyway, the last bit of fun was the pommel insert. I'm waffling about this -- I want to keep the lines of the saber as clean as possible, and my initial thought was to put an activation button and recharge port in a box 9, and use the pommel insert to hang the saber from a hook on my belt. But Sorrow was a pre-fall Jedi, and the D-rings are sort of a New Jedi Order look. In our game, Sorrow's lightsaber had an internal, force-activated switch, so no one who wasn't force-sensitive could turn it on. I don't at the moment know how to do that (though I am tossing around some thoughts regarding RFID chips) so it has to have a switch. I'm waffling between having a 16 mm AV switch in a recessed hole on the side, with the recharge port in the pommel insert; or putting the switch in the pommel insert and having the recharge port on the side.

I guess it's going to come down to whether the covertec kill-switch that fits in the recharge port is strictly cosmetic, or if it's got enough friction to actually hold a saber in a clip. Anyone have any thoughts on that?

Or maybe I'll just shove the saber through wraps on my belt like a katana through an obi. I dunno.

[NaasadTal]

Looking good so far!

As far as the switch, there are magnetic switches that activate when a steel ring is brought in close proximity, you might look into one of those for your "force activation"

For your belt hanging method, personally I would not hang my saber from the recharge port, that much weight might ruin the RC port. I also have never been a fan of the d-rings because I use my sabers for heavy dueling & d-rings flop around & make a lot of noise.

[Jenny]

As far as the switch, there are magnetic switches that activate when a steel ring is brought in close proximity, you might look into one of those for your "force activation"

Hmm. A reed switch would also have the advantage that, if I were disarmed, the blade would shut off. I'll have to think about that a little more.


I also have never been a fan of the d-rings because I use my sabers for heavy dueling & d-rings flop around & make a lot of noise.

You know, for some reason, I didn't even think about the noise the D-ring would / will make. Thanks for pointing that out!

[Anoril]

Hi!
Really interresting! I'm looking to see it fully mounted! :)

[Jenny]

Have any of y'all played with the Luxeon K LED array (http://www.ledsupply.com/leds/luxeon-k-led-array)? They're not individually addressable, so FoC and such wouldn't be practical, but... up to 1075 lumens from a 21.75 mm PCB? That has its own attraction. Slip a piece of theatrical gel color filter in there, and you've still got upward of seven hundred lumen. Am I missing some disadvantage?

[Greenie]

I also have never been a fan of the d-rings because I use my sabers for heavy dueling & d-rings flop around & make a lot of noise.

Wrap a little piece of tape around the ring before assembly for a snug fit. Bingo! No more rattling.

[Jenny]

Hey, y'all. Quick, dumb question: Chassis discs designed to lock in between threaded sections. I read that they're 0.2 inches thick, and will only fit with parts that have a 0.4 inch male threaded section. Is that the standard length of male threading on MHSv1 parts, or something I need to look for specifically?

[BZWingZero]

Hey, y'all. Quick, dumb question: Chassis discs designed to lock in between threaded sections. I read that they're 0.2 inches thick, and will only fit with parts that have a 0.4 inch male threaded section. Is that the standard length of male threading on MHSv1 parts, or something I need to look for specifically?

That is the standard length of MHSv1 parts. Some older parts were .5", but anything since TFA (and probably earlier) has been the .4 standard.

[NaasadTal]

Pretty sure 0.4 is the standard length of the male threads...I also learned the hard way that those discs (& the LED housings) clock the parts weird so if you have holes or need something to line up in a specific way, put those parts in before you measure.

[Jenny]

Put in my order for my main body -- a 9" DF extension with MB style 4 grooving along the entire length. Quite excited.

A friend of mine who is an electronics engineer and works with LEDs for a living made me a buck-boost board for a tri-star which will fit inside the choke section, and included a reed switch so that I don't have to have an external switch. Photos when the board arrives in the mail.

Now to come up with a chassis design I like... one which puts the recharge port inside, with enough room for a kill key, so the sabre can go into long-term storage without its guts hanging out.

[jbkuma]

You can also sand things carefully with high grit to fix the clocking. I have some printed parts and adapters that I designed a little thick intentionally to allow for adjustment.

[MasterStoddard]

Like your character's back story. Good luck with your build. Looking forward to seeing it finished.

I know the slow build process as well. I only recently was able to order a few parts for my saber "The Outcast." Haven't really got the character backstory worked out yet.

[Jenny]

One of the down sides of SLE is that sometimes you feel well enough to do things, and sometimes... sometimes, you just don't. I'm in the latter place right now.

But I did want to mention that yesterday, I got the package containing the last of my MHS pieces, and today, some little bits'n'bobs I'd ordered to be able to design around them. I went to the craft store the other day, as well, and got a piece of basswood to make my chassis from -- balsa didn't seem resilient enough, but basswood seems perfect: light enough to cut even with gimpy hands, and firm enough to keep its shape, even when if I do wild things with the saber.

I decided that I needed to make a couple of changes to my initial ideas. In addition to having the recharge port and space for the kill key, I need to design in space for a RICE port. I know I'm starting with a Pico card, and they don't really have RICE capacity, but I probably won't stay there forever... I'll likely end up with a Crystal Focus or Igniter board in the fullness of time. So might as well just make the connector have room from the get-go. I also decided to put a type 17 switch on the chassis. I don't plan to have an exterior switch at this time, and the switch my EE friend is making me is just a momentary switch based on a reed switch or a hall effect switch. Since the Pico switches between LED configurations using long presses on the switch, though, I need to have a switch that accepts / generates long presses. So teeny switch on the chassis.

The MHS part I received is a thing of beauty. I trained in Japanese sword arts when I was younger and healthier, and I want/ed a long hilt to use the forms I'm comfortable with. So instead of a seven-inch main body, I got a nine-inch double-female adapter, and had Tim machine grooves all the way along from end to end. It looks fantastic, and with a little bit of CLP, the threads on all the pieces go together like buttah. With the long choke, and the longer main body, this thing comes in at almost seventeen inches, which is long for a lightsaber of the modern era, but goodness, does it feel right in my hands!

Anyway. Photos in a couple of days, when I feel well enough to get out of bed for more than a couple of minutes at a time. For now, I'm taking meds and going back to sleep.

[Jenny]

First, let's have the beauty shot. This thing is massive... shown here with a familiar book for scale, it's nearly seventeen inches long. It's definitely a two-handed hilt, which was exactly what I wanted.

http://res.cloudinary.com/ljuruqdid/image/upload/c_scale,w_500/v1494712633/Lightsaber/20170513_163045_-_Edited.jpg

Okay, note for experienced saber builders who are easily bored. The rest of this is going to be really basic, and really lengthy, because I'm an utter noob and had to figure stuff out as I went along, and I figure there may be other utter noobs lurking who would like to know what I figured out. So if you're easily bored, now would be a good time to go read something else.

I bought the pieces in two batches. The previous batch, as you may have read further back in the thread, had the blade holder, choke, and pommel. Because my training in sword art is mostly in Japanese styles, I wanted a longer hilt. So I ordered a custom-milled double-female 10" extension (3" longer than a standard main body, and I asked for the grooves to run along the entire length), along with some incidental other bits.

Below, you can see the four primary pieces lined up from emitter to pommel, which gives a sense of their relative sizes.

http://res.cloudinary.com/ljuruqdid/image/upload/a_hflip,c_scale,w_500/v1494709452/Lightsaber/20170513_163301.jpg

I apologize for lens flare and other artifacts. My hands tremble very badly, which made some of the pictures in the first batch blurry, so I bought a tripod this time... but I'm still using my camera phone, and I got lens flare. Many indeed are the arts of which I am not a mistress.

Below, we have the blade holder / emitter (I use these terms interchangably). One of the incidental bits I bought this month was the heat sink, TCSS Version 3 (http://www.thecustomsabershop.com/MHS-Heat-Sink-V3-P782.aspx). Here you can see the copper heat sink screwed into the aluminium lens holder, next to the emitter.

http://res.cloudinary.com/ljuruqdid/image/upload/a_hflip,c_scale,w_500/v1494709416/Lightsaber/20170513_163353.jpg

The lens holder has a little bit of a lip on it, so you drop it into the emitter, copper side toward you:

http://res.cloudinary.com/ljuruqdid/image/upload/a_hflip,c_scale,w_500/v1494709435/Lightsaber/20170513_163403.jpg

and screw on the next most southerly piece. The lip on the lens holder is perfectly scaled to lock in between the male and female threads and stay in place.

http://res.cloudinary.com/ljuruqdid/image/upload/a_hflip,c_scale,w_500/v1494709393/Lightsaber/20170513_163429.jpg

One of the few parts I did not source from TCSS is this blade safety plug. I just loved the heat-patina look of it. Why is it called a safety plug? Because the LEDs we work with are technically class 2 lasers, which means that direct viewing for more than a quarter of a second can cause damage to your eyesight. Even if you think that you're not the kind of dope who will stare directly into a laser, get a blade plug -- accidents happen, and we have not yet reached the point where we can grow you new eyeballs.

http://res.cloudinary.com/ljuruqdid/image/upload/a_hflip,c_scale,w_500/v1494709339/Lightsaber/20170513_163624.jpg

The plug dropped right down into the emitter. It sits on top of the heat sink's lens holder, and the blade set screw holds it in place. Here's what it looks like, looking down the bore of the emitter:

http://res.cloudinary.com/ljuruqdid/image/upload/a_hflip,c_scale,w_500/v1494709323/Lightsaber/20170513_163816.jpg

Assemble the emitter / choke to the next piece south:

http://res.cloudinary.com/ljuruqdid/image/upload/a_hflip,c_scale,w_500/v1494709306/Lightsaber/20170513_163924.jpg

Now, if you read my earlier posts, you may recall that I initially ordered the d-ring pommel insert, and then decided that it wasn't quite what I wanted for this particular saber. So I ordered a couple more:

http://res.cloudinary.com/ljuruqdid/image/upload/a_hflip,c_scale,w_500/v1494709288/Lightsaber/20170513_164056.jpg

I decided to go with the one threaded for a recharge port, even though I'm not putting my recharge port there. I didn't like the idea of people looking up inside the hilt through the pommel's perforations, so I went on eBay and bought a quarter-yard of "acoustically transparent" speaker grill cloth. I cut a circle, and put it behind the pommel insert, and secured it with the snap ring.

... is what I'd like to say. But the truth is, I discovered that forceps weren't up to the job, so I bought a pair of cheap snap-ring pliers from Harbor Freight, and the snap ring straight up bent the pliers as I was trying to pull it in tightly enough to engage the groove in the pommel in which it's supposed to sit. So lesson: cheap tools aren't, because now I'll have to spend more money getting another pair of good pliers, whereas if I'd just done that in the first place....

I hope you found that entertaining, and perhaps learned something with me. My next step will be grabbing a bench power supply and some 6061 T6 aluminum tube, and experimenting with anodizing, coloring, and plating. I'll post those results, but it'll probably be a couple of weeks at the very least.

[Generic Jedi]

I got these snap ring pliers (https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B000TG80SY/ref=mp_s_a_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1494858553&sr=8-4&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=snap+ring+pliers&dpPl=1&dpID=41fAM3TvSwL&ref=plSrch) off of Amazon. They work pretty good on the shorter pommels. They work for the longer pommels too, but need a bit of jiggling.

[Therion Jinn]

Nice backstory for the character.
Your saber is definitely going to be massive, almost like a single-bladed saberstaff.
Should be a pretty hilt, though

[Legume]

http://res.cloudinary.com/ljuruqdid/image/upload/c_scale,w_600/v1492274744/Lightsaber/20170415_122428.jpg

Someone else made a comment that, with a double-female adapter, the choke 3 long would make a decent shoto all by itself. I am kind of interested in making a matching shoto for my daito, but that's down the road... and I'm kind of thinking that maybe an MHSv2 hilt would be better, if Tim ever makes any of those again.


Could you actually fit anything into the choke 3 long to make it function even as a stunt saber? I love the idea, but that would be some serious cram-fu. Also, switches?

[Jenny]

Well, one of the reasons I haven't posted anything in this thread recently is that a friend of mine who's a triple-E professional who works with LEDs for a living is making me a custom circuit board which will go in the choke section. It contains buck/boost for the LEDs, and a reed switch that turns the saber on / off in the presence of a magnetic field, so I don't have to have external switches, just wear a magnet in my ring. (Easily available, due to quack medicine claims about magnetism).

Could you do a more standard stunt saber, with a non-custom board? I think so. Put the switch in the pommel (http://www.thecustomsabershop.com/MPS-Insert-style-10-P526.aspx). You'd have to do something like just putting O-rings around the battery, as the slightly-over 20 mm interior is larger than the nominal 18mm width of an 18650, but only barely so. You'd need your resistors padded as well, if you're going to do any sparring with the stunt saber. But yes; I think there would be room for that, and the heat sink / LED / Lens.

Cram-fu? Yes. Possible? Yeah, I seriously think it would be.

[Legume]

Thanks! I'm a complete noob to building my own sabers but I'm really tempted to give it a shot. I love the idea of the smaller, thinner hilt.