Order of 'quality' parts/items... you rate 'em!!

[Novastar]

I was thinking a lot about what the most important aspects of a saber would be. NOTE: this doesn't mean, "Well, duh.. the light, Novastar!!" No, no... what I mean is:

Where do you feel the most money should go?

That is to say... if you had to spend $20 on a saber tip vs. $4... or $150 on a driver vs. $30... or $250 on a hilt vs. $50... what would be your most important parts?

For me--here's how it goes:

1. Driver board
2. Speaker
3. Batteries
4. LED (not that expensive in the first place)
5. Emitter/heatsink/blade mount
6. Blade/tip/diffuser
7. Hilt

I'm not going to count things like switches, wiring items (like WIRE and connectors or recharge ports) or hilt design items like O-rings, paint, and whatever.

[Angelus Lupus]

I'd probably put hilt a little higher but otherwise I agree with your order.
Personally I don't like the idea of a saber that has all the top-notch electronics if the hilt is a pile of poodoo

[Ghostbat]

At this point I think I would place it thus:

1. Hilt
2. Driver board
3. Emitter/heatsink/blade mount
4. LED (not that expensive in the first place)
5. Speaker
6. Blade/tip/diffuser
7. Batteries

My first priority is that it looks and sounds good, after that that it is durable enough to take some punishment.

I think my initial focus is different though, I would concentrate on the hilt out of the gate, then the blade, and upgrade the guts later.

[ArkaiHalon]

Using your list...

1 Hilt
2 Emitter/heatsink/blade mount
3 Driver board
4 LED (not that expensive in the first place)
5 Batteries
6 Speaker
7 Blade/tip/diffuser

reasongs behind my thoughts.

Being that my sabers so far have been more for show than anything else, I'm more concerned with how it looks. also,to date none ofmy sabers have sound, nor do i have anyone to duel with, so speaker and a poly blade are not that big a deal. Gotta have a good led,and good batteries to power the whole thing.

[Maliki Skywalker]

For me:

1. Driver board
2. Speaker
3. Blade/tip/diffuser
4. LED
5. Batteries
6. Hilt
7. Emitter/heatsink/blade mount

The main reasons:
For the Blade/tip/diffuser im going with what Xwing said, "blades are the key to luxeons people!" and the main two, driver board and speaker, they are to me the main thing that makes a saber. :D

[xwingband]

Yup, making a lux look good is in the blade.

I don't think I could rate them. Take switches... a bad switch can ruin a saber and you didn't even think of listing it.

Hilt is at the bottom too... a badly done hilt design can lead to bad things also. If your electronics layout is just shove it in the tube you may run into issues.

If I had to nail down one, batteries always seem to take the hit to me. Not enough room to get what we'd ideally want. If I had my way I'd put c-size li-ion in everything, but space, voltage, etc... all get in the way.

[Darth Zecks]

I'm with Ghostbat on this. To me the hilt is numero uno.

1. Hilt
2. Driver board
3. Emitter/heatsink/blade mount
4. LED (not that expensive in the first place)
5. Speaker
6. Blade/tip/diffuser
7. Batteries

[Novastar]

Take switches... a bad switch can ruin a saber and you didn't even think of listing it.Actually, yes, I did.

[Novastar]

You all missed the point regarding the hilt, and have equated a "good" hilt = high cost. This is systemically incorrect in almost every case I can think of.

One example--are my Flange hilts. All I hear are compliments, and that they look incredible.

Another example--get yourself an MR hilt. Cheap enough on their own, yet "pretty" enough for some.

Graflex... I don't know much about these, but I guess that's not hard. Probably not super-expensive.

Sink tubes + all sorts of "cheapo" parts. I've seen some Luke-ish and Obi-ish sabers that were made of sink tubes and greeblies and o-rings or whatever.

So... the moral of the story is... a hilt does NOT need to cost $500... in order to stand out and get people to say "wow... that's cool!"

A lot of people point out my Flange III sabers when they come by my house, as they are sitting there against a wall. They are not even ON at that point, and people are asking "wow, those look like artifacts... so detailed... did you make those?" etc.

[LAN-ED-TUL]

graflex's? oh you betcha there expensive. you can get really lucky once in awhile tho on ebay with a good price, but mostly theyre high dollar items. i have like 4 of them myself, all real deal original handles all converted into sabers that can be used, except my very first one.

it sits in a display case converted to ANH luke style.

[xwingband]

Take switches... a bad switch can ruin a saber and you didn't even think of listing it.Actually, yes, I did.

Listing as in ranking it.

[ArkaiHalon]

I caught your original meaning.

My pride and joy is my MHS. I spent more on the hilt than the guts of it. and I'm still not done with the hilt. By the time I'm done, the hilt will cost much more the crystal focus I'm trying to convince my wife i need.

but, since you do live performances, with lots of spins and stuff, you need good sound, strong blades, long run times.

All stuff that's backseat to my display pieces, just as display quality is backseat to usability is backseat to your needs. neither is wrong, just different.

Personally, I wish I had someone to go duel with.

[gman666]

1. Driver board
2. Blade/tip/diffuser
3. LED
4. Emitter/heat sink/blade mount
5. Hilt
6. Speaker
7. Batteries

I want the parts to make the blade look good. This means the driver, blade/tip/diffuser, LED, and emitter/heat sink/blade mount. Once I get these components I will focus on the hilt. The hilt is important but not until I get a core system.


Thanks!

Greg

[petriomelony]

You all missed the point regarding the hilt, and have equated a "good" hilt = high cost. This is systemically incorrect in almost every case I can think of.

One example--are my Flange hilts. All I hear are compliments, and that they look incredible.

Another example--get yourself an MR hilt. Cheap enough on their own, yet "pretty" enough for some.

Graflex... I don't know much about these, but I guess that's not hard. Probably not super-expensive.

Sink tubes + all sorts of "cheapo" parts. I've seen some Luke-ish and Obi-ish sabers that were made of sink tubes and greeblies and o-rings or whatever.

So... the moral of the story is... a hilt does NOT need to cost $500... in order to stand out and get people to say "wow... that's cool!"

A lot of people point out my Flange III sabers when they come by my house, as they are sitting there against a wall. They are not even ON at that point, and people are asking "wow, those look like artifacts... so detailed... did you make those?" etc.

Nova, I think maybe your question needs to be reworded... I mean, you're asking for people's opinions and then telling them they missed the point? By your first post, you're ranking the parts in the order that money should be spent. Does that mean you're going to be spending more money on the LED than on the hilt? IE: your hilt is going to cost less than 15-25 bucks? Like you said, money does not always equate to quality.

For example, a hilt that I'm planning to make has already cost me 90 bucks for just the parts alone (a tube, sheet metal, a replica clamp, all + shipping)... 50 bucks if you disregard shipping, more than any of the other parts by cost (I'm not going for a fancy driver).

So anyways here are my two lists. The first is how I rank the parts in order of importance. The second is the order of how much I'll prolly ACTUALLY end up spending on them.

1. Hilt
2. Blade Holder
3. Driver
4. LED
5. Batteries [LED/Driver/Batteries, I'd almost group into the same rank]
6. Blade
7. Speaker

1. Hilt
2. Blade Holder
3. Batteries + Charger
4. Blade
5. LED + optics
6. Driver... still debating.
7. Speaker

[Ghostbat]

For me I kind of see money and effort to be two sides of the same coin. Expensive to me could mean $5 and 100 hours fiddling to get it just how I want it.

[Novastar]

Ghostbat has the idea. I apologize if I didn't word my entry "correctly"... but I think it's pretty clear that I wasn't saying "what do you spend the most on". I was simply saying in terms of relative cost and the item--where the money is best spent.

This does NOT equate price from one part to another. How would it make sense to compare the cost of ANY switch (even a good one) to the cost of a driver board or hilt? That is just silly. Like comparing the cost of a resistor to a home PC motherboard.

The POINT is clear as far as I'm concerned. Do you go "cheapy" on part X more often than part Y. Where is the money best spent--in a RELATIVE form.

[GusKenobi]

1. Board.
2. LED + optics
3. Hilt (cuz the hilt is really what a saber is all about i mean there is a reason MR made all the different designs)
4. Blade
5. Batteries
6. speaker ( haha i spent 5$ on a singing card and it sounds awesome)

I do agree that there should be some relative spending like dont spent $150 on the board to put it in a 5$ saber hilt.
I think my cost for my current one is around 110 ish...but thanks to the strong Canadian dollar i think the next one will be ALOT cheaper haha.

[Jonitus]

1. Wiring - You wouldn't believe some of the nightmares I have seen. bad wiring will kill an otherwise awesome saber.

2. Electronics - You gotta have the right components to make everything work in harmony.

3. Blade - A bad blade will not look as good on otherwise great hardware as opposed to a sweet blade on mediocre stuff.

4. Hilt - Sure, it has to look nice (if that's your goal), but more than that, it needs to be constructed well. No point in taking shortcuts.

[Novastar]

Actually, I WOULD believe you on the wiring, Jon. Every single one of the BOP I sabers needed to be repaired/altered/re-soldered/whatever, with the exception of the MR Darth Vader conversion I did, which (quite surprisingly) was done without solder on both the LED connections and the switch. It hasn't failed yet.

I don't know *WHY*... but... it hasn't.

The original Flange saber (designed by Corbin and fulfilled upon by Ryan in terms of the hilt parts) is now a HORRIFIC mess, due to overdrilled and non-threaded holes. The saber "rocked" apart/loose within the first few rehearsals, and I've been struggling to keep it in working order over the past few years... but... it's over. I'm going to gut the thing, scrap the mostly now garbage hilt parts and replace it with some kind of sink tube setup.

This just goes to show that sometimes a sink tube (properly implemented) can last longer and work better than custom-machined parts. And proves my point that is what this thread is about! I spent a lot of hard-earned money on that hilt, and now (despite MANY of my efforts)... it's totally garbage. There is just no excuse for a saber hilt to be so shoddy after 5 or so "usages". It's not like it broke recently. Remember: I received the saber in May/June 2006 (JUST barely before BOP I). It's been pretty much broken and unusable since September 2006 or so.

I hate to share this, but--based on this... I would likely never request work from Ryan again. It's a shame, but... it was SUPPOSED to be one of the best sabers of BOP I. It caused me the most problems, and I was constantly worried about the saber failing during performances.

"It's not my fault!!" -- Lando... and Solo... and... ????

:)

[Jonitus]

In the past couple of years, I've done some work on existing sabers and some of the wiring jobs they did made me want to giggle. Wire nuts, butt connectors, scotch tape, masking tape, and muddy butt solder connections. Non-existent shrink wrappings, 26 gauge power connections or wiring to the LED. Solid core wire that's busted. I've seen all kinds of things. I could nearly put a video tutorial together on "HOW NOT TO HOOK UP LIGHTSABER COMPONENTS". LOL!

Not that I am the greatest, but I am a damned site better than that.

I gotta agree with you on the sinktube hilt. Sometimes, you just can't beat them. It all depends on what you want to use it for. Sucks about Flange I...always had a soft spot in my heart for that saber.

[Hasid Lafre]

1: Hilt
2: Emitter/heatsink/blade mount (goes with hilt design)
3: Led
4: Driver
5: Batteries
6: Blade/tip/diffuser
7: Speaker