Shortening Parks EL tape blade

[Sethski]

Hi.

I have a Parks Qui Gon EL saber. It has a 40" blade made with EL tape rather than wire. Although I'd like to eventually convert it to LED, in the meantime I'd like to shorten the blade by a couple of inches or so - can anyone tell me if this is a fairly simple procedure or would it be a nightmare mission?

Thanks.

[xwingband]

Hmm... I don't know. I have mine from my qui-gon. If you try it and it breaks I'll send you mine for the cost of shipping. Sound cool?

[Sethski]

Well, I had a go and it worked out ok.

The EL tape/sheet was wedged in quite solidly and I didn't want to break the connection to the jack trying to pull it out by the wires, so I took the tip off, which came away ok with some gentle but insistent encouragement, and then pushed the EL tape out with some 12mm dowel.

Not wanting to ruin it (in spite of your very kind offer of your old blade - thanks XWing) I just trimmed back the clear plastic to the very edge of the EL bit, which was probably about a cm; combined with pushing in the tape in so it's right against the jack allowed for shortening the blade by just over and inch - it doesn't sound much, but it does make a subtle difference to the look and feel, so worth doing for me and also good to have a successful tinker.

I'm also curious if you can just cut it and if would still work, though. Not curious enough at the moment to risk it and see, but, of course, curious if anyone can throw light on this one or point me towards more info on it.