Obi-Dar Ke-Gnomie
09-10-2007, 08:18 PM
My first saber is pretty much finished. It turned out pretty good, but there are a couple of things that I learned that I wanted to pass on to any other beginners out there.
First, I had ordered an MHS hilt and blade holder, but didn't order a pommel because I had found an Armitage Shanks hand wheel on Ebay, and I thought I could make it work and be authentic too.
I made it work, but it was a bit of a PITA. I had to make a sleeve to glue into the pommel, and then secure it into the hilt with a thumbscrew. It would have been so much easier just to screw in a pommel from the store. Now that Tim offers the pommel #3, I'm going to order one on payday.
Second lesson concerned the thumbscrews. Again, I didn't order from here because I had some thumbscrews in my jars of nuts and bolts in the shed. I had bought a tap and die set cheap at a garage sale, and although it was missing a couple of taps, I thought I had all I needed and tried to save a few bucks.
Well, guess what? All my thumbscrews were 8-32 thread. Guess which tap was missing from my kit? Yup, 8-32.
8-32 tap and drill kit from Tim = $3.75. 8-32 tap and drills, (sold separately of course,) from Canadian Tire = $9.88.
I looked on the package for the tap and it said that I needed a 9/64" drill for an 8-32 tap. This is wrong. 9/64" was too big. I was still able to cut the threads, but the screws are sloppy in their holes.
Now I'm going to have to drill them out and put in 10-32 thumbscrews. (From Tim of course.)
The moral of the story is this: Just buy everything from TCSS and don't try to cut corners. Everything has been thoughtfully designed to work together, and you'll save yourself a lot of hassles.
First, I had ordered an MHS hilt and blade holder, but didn't order a pommel because I had found an Armitage Shanks hand wheel on Ebay, and I thought I could make it work and be authentic too.
I made it work, but it was a bit of a PITA. I had to make a sleeve to glue into the pommel, and then secure it into the hilt with a thumbscrew. It would have been so much easier just to screw in a pommel from the store. Now that Tim offers the pommel #3, I'm going to order one on payday.
Second lesson concerned the thumbscrews. Again, I didn't order from here because I had some thumbscrews in my jars of nuts and bolts in the shed. I had bought a tap and die set cheap at a garage sale, and although it was missing a couple of taps, I thought I had all I needed and tried to save a few bucks.
Well, guess what? All my thumbscrews were 8-32 thread. Guess which tap was missing from my kit? Yup, 8-32.
8-32 tap and drill kit from Tim = $3.75. 8-32 tap and drills, (sold separately of course,) from Canadian Tire = $9.88.
I looked on the package for the tap and it said that I needed a 9/64" drill for an 8-32 tap. This is wrong. 9/64" was too big. I was still able to cut the threads, but the screws are sloppy in their holes.
Now I'm going to have to drill them out and put in 10-32 thumbscrews. (From Tim of course.)
The moral of the story is this: Just buy everything from TCSS and don't try to cut corners. Everything has been thoughtfully designed to work together, and you'll save yourself a lot of hassles.