MR Mace saber Not sure what to do with?

[nemik]

Hey guys I have a spare MR Mace Saber still in box lying around in my closet and I'm sure what to do with it?

I got it cause I wanted one to play with and one to display (the second one was free, long story) but I am afraid to take out of packaging cause if I do I know it will corrode and rust like my once perfect MR Vader saber, because of Hawaii's air.

So I was trying to think of what I could do with it? I am getting ready to convert my other used mace saber to Seoul P4 LED but I thought maybe I would convert the new one cause it looks better and just use the other for parts. I could also spray a clear coat on it like my custom built saber I have which did a perfect job at stopping rust and corrosion.

What do you guys think? ;)

[LAN-ED-TUL]

if you plan to duel with dont waste the time converting unless you just want a display type hilt. the convertion blade holder isnt thich enough to take any abuse. you can light tap with it, but if you seen what it looks like, i have cuz i converted my wifes with one, the blade holder walls are so thin you can actually warp it by just squeezing with your hand, now thats too dang thin. and its shallower than most others, most are 2 inches deep, this ones like 1 1/2 or something like that. they will not hold up or fare well to duel with.

[nemik]

well I wish I knew that before I bought the conversion kit I could have just made a new blade for my busted one and continued dueling with that...
... I am going to build an MHS for dueling eventually but right now not enough cash.

Also I was just wondering what I should do with the second one I have, was thinking of selling it or using the sound board out of it and just display the hilt since it looks good.

I may get enough money if I sell it to almost buy an MHS ;)

[LAN-ED-TUL]

dont feel bad dude, i didnt either when i got it for hers. till i got it, i didnt know how thin the holder walls were.

that 2nd one, i would just leave it alone and display it. not worth the trouble to convert unless you use it for conventions and such and just want a show saber, which is what she does with hers, since i wont duel with it.

the MHS system is a really good duelin saber to make. ive done several ones now. they are very durable and have held up well. you cant go wrong with Tims MHS parts.

[eastern57]

Not counting the Luxeon conversion - this was about ten dollar's worth of parts: the most expensive parts of the crystal chamber were the battery pack, can of paint, and purple LED... all other parts were less than a dollar.

http://s306.photobucket.com/albums/nn260/eastern57/Mace/?action=view&current=MOV04039.flv

[LAN-ED-TUL]

that was perty kewl bro!

[eastern57]

Thanks. Seriously, creativity doesn't have to be expensive... if anything a lack of parts offers MORE creativity.

My most common thought is:

"That's a cool idea, I wonder how I can do something like that with the parts and resources that I already have."

:)

[nemik]

That is seriously kool, love the job what parts did you use to build it?

[eastern57]

it's just washers, spacers, screws, o-rings and some tube from a lamp that I painted black (for the internal 'coverings').

http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn260/eastern57/Mace/DSC03821.jpg
http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn260/eastern57/Mace/DSC03823.jpg

:)

[nemik]

Well I took my older Mace saber apart, the new one is still in the box, and I realized that there is allot of wasted space especially in the battery pack area. I am thinking of modding the saber, mounting the speaker with a quick connect in the pommel and making a custom battery for the power source. Doing this will give me another 3.5 to 4 iches of space where I can relocate the board further down and reinforce and modify the blade holder. hopefully I will be able to duel with the saber then. As LAN-ED-TUL pointed out the blade holder is not deep and is way too thin to allow for dueling but if I create more space in the saber I relocate some things and redo the internals a bit.

On another note they had put soo much glue on switch that it broke one of the tabs when I was taking it off so I am going to have to fix that now. I also disassembled all the outer hilt parts as well so that I can have them redone in that nice gold color, but I think I will pick a more movie accurate shade for the gold this time :)

[nemik]

Okay so I got mys parts today... I was looking at the internals of the mace saber and I realized that I would have to rebuild the casing for the board and relocate the button in order to do what I was thinking completely doable but not sure if it's worth the work.

As for my other brand new never touched mace saber I was thinking of getting some super bright LEDs and replacing the stock ones so it would be 3-4 times brighter, or I may still sell it on ebay or something and use the money to buy an MHS which I really want.

Which reminds me I customized one of those MHS sabers, the other day it was going to be over 200 bucks without any electronics in it, damn they are expensive! I did manage to customize some cheaper ones too but didn't like them as much :)

[nemik]

Okay so I got my leds and I put them in my Mace saber, but I am sorely disappointed... It is not very bright at all in fact it is a whole lot dimmer than the MR vader red saber which isn't very bright at all.

I using a White Cree XR-E Q5 3.7 forward volt 1000Ma Led equivalent to the Seoul P4 U-bin and I also have TCSS Red Lux III that i tried and neither of them seem very bright.

I am using the MR blade that came with the saber which is the only thing I can think of that would be the problem. I already removed the Foam insert and I sanded the outside of the PolyC blade in a circular pattern, but I haven't yet installed the TCSS Film I got form saber shop yet.

Is there something I am doing wrong here or could it be my MR board causing the problem. The Cree LED is rated at 260Lm but realistically gets about 220Lm from reports, but doesn't seem that bright :)

[eastern57]

If you don't have a medium to "carry" the light (blade film) it will not be as bright.

and btw, a red lux III needs more current.

[LAN-ED-TUL]

never had any issues with any MR converts i did.

[nemik]

I don't know how much voltage is supplied by the MR board but the Cree LED only need 4 volts and there are 6 batteries in it so it is 9v source, but again I don't know how the board is supplying to the LED.

I know the Lux III needs more but I decided to go with teh White LED instead so I can change the color :)

There isn't anything wrong with it per say but I am just a little disappointed that it is not as bright as the pictures posted on the forums here. :(
It looks fine it the dark though and as soon as I get the TCSS film in there I'm sure it will be better.

I'll post pics when I can.
Thanks for all the input :) :)

[eastern57]

If it's an MR board then it's fine. That 6 cell battery pack dosen't supply 9v, it's two 3-cells run parallel - 4.5v but twice the runtime. And you probably have it set up just fine... pictures can be misleading and deceiving.

[Rabidus Phasma]

ui am looking for a MR MACE lightsabre pm me if you still have it

[nemik]

Okay well I put the defuser film in and I am a little more satisfied with it then i was before, it's still sporting the MR blade but not too bad. Anyway I posted some pics with an orange blade for Halloween and the MR Vader side by side.

I really like the orange color and I carried it around down town on Halloween night when I went out with some friends. There was this kid at the restaurant, about 8 I'd say, in a Walmart Vader costume, looked pretty good surprisingly and when He saw me ignite that baby I saw his face light up right with it.

Just a note; don't drink and saber fight! may cause dumbness! You have been warned! :)



ui am looking for a MR MACE lightsabre pm me if you still have it

I still have both of them one is Brand new in box never been touched by human hands and the other is in the pictures I posted below which I converted to a Cree Q5 white LED with orange and purple filters.

If you are interested in my mace saber PM me with an offer.


I tried to get as close to what you'd see,bnut I'd say it's a little brighter otherwise the middle wouldn't show up on fil, so I got it as close as I could.
http://www.nemik.com/forums/images/545759all_wb.jpg

[nemik]

Hello again guys I decided to show what I did for the conversion of this saber, I'm not sure what everyone else did but I didn't exactly follow the conversion instructions so I am coing to show you guys the couple of differences I made internally.

Blade Holder - Drilling & Tapping
Okay the first thing was that someone told me that the milled aluminum piece from the conversion kit was very flimsy so when drilling holes in the aluminum you should take a piece of Poly C tube and place it in the blade holder.

What I did was take the piece I cut off teh master replicas blade and wrapped a piece of electrical tape around it and then shoved it down inside the blade holder. You want to make sure that it is snug and tight otherwise it defeats the purpose. I realized this when I was drilling the first hole the aluminum started to bend a bit, it is very thin, so this should keep that form happening. (Sorry I don't have any pictures of this cause I forgot to take them.)

Plastic MR Carrier
With the plastic carrier when I cut it down I decided to keep some notches at the end so that when put inside it would connect to the sides of the metal blade holder once installed.

I did this so that I could take the saber apart easier and also there is no need for the set screw under the grip, which you can still put in if you want. I am thinking of modding this further by putting an allen set screw and a small pin sized hole so that I can actually screw it in further into the housing instead of having to take the screw out. (pic below of this)

http://www.nemik.com/forums/images/macefx/mfxls_conv_005b.jpg
http://www.nemik.com/forums/images/macefx/mfxls_conv_005a.jpg
http://www.nemik.com/forums/images/macefx/mfxls_diagram_1a.jpg

The last thing I did was remove the plastic battery sleeve from inside the grip, I am debating on whether I want to make a metal from a sink tube or just cut the notch off the end. The reason for this is so that I can take the saber down easier and get to the electronics and LED housing without having to take the whole saber apart.

http://www.nemik.com/forums/images/macefx/mfxls_conv_004b.jpg

When you do this the saber will come apart in these sections and there is less time to take apart about 1-2 minutes to get the led out and change if you want in my case I just change the filter color.

You simply just remove the battery holder and the button and you can get to the led. I also added some extra-long wires to allow for the MR board housing to be removed.

http://www.nemik.com/forums/images/macefx/mfxls_conv_003.jpg
http://www.nemik.com/forums/images/macefx/mfxls_conv_002.jpg
http://www.nemik.com/forums/images/macefx/mfxls_conv_001.jpg