Can I shorten a Parks EL Film

[Dark Navel]

I looked through the forums and couldn't find a topic that matched this. I know with the EL wires you can just cut them to length.

Here's my dimema: I have a 40" Parks blue 3/4" blade and I want to take about 3" off of it. I was wondering if I remove the film and cut 3 inches off the top and then cut the polycarb blade to length will this work or will I render it unusable since I just killed it.

Has anyone ever done this with a Parks blade?

[xwingband]

http://forums.thecustomsabershop.com/showthread.php?t=3741

Not the same idea, but phrased that way... it's only the third topic down in the "EL blade discussion" forum. :(

I haven't tried it. I have two at home that if you want to try I'd gladly send you mine if it's rendered useless. I don't use them at all (all my EL's are luxeon now) so the biggest deal would be communicating to my mom which is the blue one so I can send it!

An upgrade to a wire blade might be useful though.

[Dark Navel]

Thanks for the reply xwing. I have read your thread about converting your Parks Obi TPM. Well I have in my possetion a Parks Obi..I am going to covert it as you did and probably have Arm on Fire do some custom machine work.

Bore out the center, make the heatsink etc. but right now the blade is huge on the Parks and I want to shorten it 3 or so inches.

I really weant to covert it and I think with the custom work it can be done. I think, with the right setup, I could use a SW-616 soundcard and get sound from this baby but it may be a bit more muffled. Anyway I'll save the rest for an appropriate thread.

Anyway when I get a chance I'll take out the EL film and cut it..If I Bork it I'll take you up on your offer. Stupid question but the one(s) you have are blue correct??

DN

[xwingband]

I have two. The TPM one was more cyan than the one that came from my Obi ANH, but it was incredible subtle. I'd say it was a good color though.

Funny you mention the Obi, I kind of want to return to it. What I did worked and was practical, but I could do it better with more time. If I had machines it'd be so much better too.

[Sethski]

I tried this with a PArks blade but managed to mess it up :-( (although happy now, as the saber in question got converted to lux anyway).

If you get the film out and it's the same, it looks like it has a circuit of a different colour running from one wire, round the outside edge and ending with the wire on the other side.

I actually cut just down to where this was and also stuffed the film a bit closer to the plug and managed to get maybe an inch and a tiny bit shorter, but I put too much stress on the wires that connect the plug to the EL film. I didn't actually cut off the end past this "circuit", so I don't know what would have happened, it just looked like it would be bad to do.

I'd guess it may well stuff it up if you just cut it, but then, if you've got a replacement on standby, it's worth having a look at the film out of the blade and see what you reckon.

I know what you mean, though, those blades are just too long.

Good luck!