Luxeon LED sizes and cutting down the blade

[duncan29793]

Ok I am still tinkering with ideas for my son's saber. Being rather young he can't handle a 1.5 sinktube and was looking at the 1" pvc. How small can I go that can safely and securely fit a Luxeon 1 or 3 LED? The 1" pvc should be able to hold a 3/4 inch blade right?

Also I will most likely need to trim the blade size down. I was planning on getting a 24" 3/4 Corbin Style show blade. Because of his shortness, it will probably be a little too long so I was planning on using a tube cutter to trim it down a couple inches. That leaves how to trim the film inside. Can I simply (carefully) trim it with scissors without taking it all out and unrolling it? I figure that about 2 inches should be hidden in the hilt so a crease put in the bottom portion from the cut should be hidden.

Also with a red Led and shorter blade, will it be way overpowered for the length?

Thanks for your thoughts

[acerocket]

With a star configuration the smallest is about 7/8" id. If you use an emitter only (you will have to epoxy it to the heatsink) and the tiny optics, it will fit inside a 1/2" bore - provided you have a small enough heatsink.

What you propose for the blade will most likely work fine. Depending on if the film is already taped/whatever inside the blade you might be able to slide out the film and cut if then slide it back in before cutting the blade.

Red LED and shorter blade being too bright? Are you crazy, there is no such thing as too bright. But if you are worried, then maybe you could run it direct drive and use the appropriate resistor to limit the power to the LED a little.

[duncan29793]

yeah I know, brighter is better :D but hearing that the reds tend to be brighter than other colors I didn't know if shortening the blade smaller than 24" would turn it in to a torching flashlight.

My son is gonna love this.

[Novastar]

... ...Red LED and shorter blade being too bright? Are you crazy, there is no such thing as too bright. ... ...Hahahahahahahaaa... I love Ace... he cracks me up! :D

[FenderBender]

See jaygons thread on PVC sabers. I think the electrical conduit PVC will just hold a 1 inch blade real snug. and will old the star as well. Ultrasabers sells theirs without a heatsink and no one has reported a meltdown or burn yet.

[xwingband]

See jaygons thread on PVC sabers. I think the electrical conduit PVC will just hold a 1 inch blade real snug. and will old the star as well. Ultrasabers sells theirs without a heatsink and no one has reported a meltdown or burn yet.

Because he used to use I's... now I'm pretty sure he does with even the PVC ones running III's.

[duncan29793]

yeah I read Jay-Gon's thread. great stuff. I am thinking about a PVC piece that will hold the 3/4 blade. And as for heatsinks, yes he said the Star 1 didn't need it, but I think the Star 3 would. I have only read discussion on using the star 3 and they said a heatsink was recommended, even showed one to use. Haven't heard of anyone actually using the star 3 in pvc and what their verdict on it was.

Ultra used star 3, but again, don't know if and what they use.

[Jay-gon Jinn]

Ultra now uses a machined aluminum blade holder that aslo includes aheatsink for the led, so he now uses Lux III's in all of the E-Series sabers....which is what he calls the pvc sabers now. I still have yet to make any pvc sabers with Lux III's but can do it easily enough if tim has the custom Luxeon heatsinks in stock. Those will fit inside a 1" pvc tube just fine.

[duncan29793]

Thanks for your input as usual Jay-Gon. The only Ultra I noticed with an aluminum blade holder was the Vagabond. The others look like pvc... must be painted or inside the pvc? Hmmmm.

For my son, I will stick with the star 1 (because I will be using the 1" pvc for the 3/4" blade = no heatsink space) and will go for the star 3 in mine :) This way also, when I move up to sinkpipe I will already have my internals and blade ready to go.