My first few Saber Projects

[MoonDragn]

I promised pictures so here they are:

I started saber building with the Harbor Freight flashlight:

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/photos/95200-95299/95296.gif

and made this saber with a 1" blade from Ultrasabers.

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a78/MoonDragn/092808_16591.jpg

The glass eye was from a graflex, and the switch was hidden beneith a hole on one side. The LED from the flashlight was a white Lux III I think. Looks blue in this pic but its actually silver.

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a78/MoonDragn/092808_17001.jpg

I decided to add sound to this, and more batteries because it was running on watch batteries which drained quick. I had to modify the hilt to make it longer to take the extra stuff.

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a78/MoonDragn/FlashlightSaber.jpg

Heres the guts, with the modified 4xAAA battery holder to fit in the 1.1" flashlight hilt.

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a78/MoonDragn/FlashlightGuts2.jpg

The switch will go under the glass eye, I switched LEDs with another flashlight, which is a Cree that is much brighter.

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a78/MoonDragn/FlashlightGuts.jpg

I originally wanted to use a speaker from a local shop, but when I checked it, I found out it was not working. I had the speaker from TCSS which was 1.1" and I tried to fit it in the hilt and found it was .1" too big.

So I got out my dremmel and tried to sand it down.

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a78/MoonDragn/Speaker.jpg

Word of advice. Don't do this with a dremmel at high speed. I must have damaged something and the speaker no longer works.

So I ordered a smaller speaker from Mouser and am waiting for it to come in the mail.

[ThreeQuadFive]

Sweet.
kinda reminds me of a saber one would use primarily for defensive fencing.

[MoonDragn]

My next saber was my first MHS. I had gotten half the hilt from the TCSS grabbag with a MR sound board all hooked up. It had a working LED in there! I just needed to finish it. It looked like MHS merged with parts from Luke ROTJ MR FX. Still not sure which led is in there.

I added the Emitter, the choke, and the blade, rewired it and polished it up.

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a78/MoonDragn/MHSSaber01.jpg
The black grip at one end is wrapped parachute chord similar to what you would do to a katana hilt.
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a78/MoonDragn/MHSSaber02.jpg
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a78/MoonDragn/MHSSaber03.jpg

All working! Done!

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a78/MoonDragn/MHSSaber04.jpg

[MoonDragn]

Sweet.
kinda reminds me of a saber one would use primarily for defensive fencing.

Which is exactly what it will be used for LOL. That is going to be my dueling saber. Thats why it has the thick Ultrasaber blade on it.
In the meanwhile I'm using the MHS saber for dueling which has the battle blade from TCSS.

[MoonDragn]

Next up, I remember the old hoover vac that we had when I was a kid, it had a curved handle that looked like the dooku, so I brought one to try out.

http://i9.ebayimg.com/03/i/000/d4/c9/2509_2.JPG

I cut it down to size, and realized it was made out of cheap thin aluminum, which won't hold up to stress. So I decided to get different vacuum handles instead. Two of them, one for the overlay. 1.25" in diameter.

http://i23.ebayimg.com/08/i/001/03/39/667a_2.JPG

I got some sink tubes, some plumbing parts, and one of the handles of the flashlight that was left over from making the flashlight saber and heres what I came up with after some cutting, drilling etc.

View from the side
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a78/MoonDragn/Dooku01.jpg
View from the top
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a78/MoonDragn/Dooku02.jpg
View of the bottom
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a78/MoonDragn/DookuPommel.jpg
The Pommel was made from the other piece of the flashlight, connected to a piece from a floor lamp base. The Hasboro speaker happened to be the same size and fit right in the pommel.
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a78/MoonDragn/DookuPommel02.jpg
View from the front
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a78/MoonDragn/DookuEmitter01.jpg
The little piece is a drawer handle, I don't like the way it looks so I may end up cutting a piece of aluminum to shape to look like the Dooku.
The emitter is a plumbing flange with the rubber piece around the 1.25" sink tube holder. The holder had the base trimmed down to size to fit inside the 1.25" diameter of the vacuum cleaner handle.
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a78/MoonDragn/DookuEmitter02.jpg

The sinktubes were all 1.25", including the elbow. The flashlight tube underneith, which is the same size as the flashlight saber above, is 1.1" in diameter which fit perfectly under the sink tube. The grip was from the flashlight, which was a slightly different model of flashlight than the harbor freight one I got from sears. Its where the Cree led came from.

I plan on putting 2x18650 Lithium Ion batteries in here, which will take up most of the center, inside the flashlight tube (if it explodes at least I got lots of metal to dampen the blow!

The Sound board will be a MR sound board from ANH vader and will fit in the elbow connected to the pommel. I plan on finding a trigger switch that will be the red trigger for the saber, have not found one thats perfect yet.

The LED going in here will be 3 red rebels that I will solder onto the tri-rebel pcb. This will be a very bright saber. It will be hooked up in parallel so that I can run at 7.4Vs with the 2 Li-ion batteries and the MR soundboard. There will be a resistor going to the soundboard to step the voltage down to 6V.

I may get some extra buckpucks so that I can maintain enough current to run all 3 rebels at full strength. May need additional circuitry if the MR soundboard can't drive that much current. Still have plenty of room along the neck of the saber to fit all that inside.

As for the hilt itself, aside from the extra aluminum piece for the part that sticks out and extends along the bottom of the hilt, I need to also make the extra piece that attach to the pommel, and the overlay over the elbow. Alot left to do there. There should also be a overlay over the diamond patterned grip, which I haven't figured out how to make. The only thing I have is a 1.5" sink tube which is much bigger. The 1.25" won't fit because the grip area is already about 1.3" in diameter. Also missing is the little gold piece that goes off the emitter, and the attaching piece between the vacuum hose and the grip.

This will never be an accurate Dooku, because I have no idea what the actual dimensions are. But it is fun just making something that looks like it.

[MoonDragn]

Well, I now know why I had such a hell of a time cutting those vacuum wands for the neck piece and the slots for the overlay. Those are made out of stainless steel! No wonder my dremmel wheels were getting worn down so fast!

[DougDimmadon]

OMG
i rly love Dooku style =O
Its rly incredible...i wish i had the same ability...i've done 1 sabe until now
ANd a trashed skywalker ANH one....;/

If u could gimme some advice on how doing a luke ROTJ lightsaber..i would really apreciate =P

and nice work, again ;D

[DougDimmadon]

well...in fact im a little worried about how i am gonna do this piece here

http://img258.imageshack.us/my.php?image=acboxhn8.jpg

i think is a little complicated huh?
any idea?

bah.. the image doesnt appear ¬¬

[MoonDragn]

Get the control box from TCSS store. Then you need to get some colored plastic and cut some triangles out to glue on the side. The switch part isn't part of the original Luke, only the MR one.

Update to my flashlight saber tonight. I got my small diameter speakers and fit inside the .88" inner diameter pommel.

My original idea for this saber was to make it look like a speeder bike handle for Corran horn's saber. So I fiddled with the hilt again to get this:

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a78/MoonDragn/FlashlightSaber03.jpg

For comparison, here it is lit next to a stock Luke ANH 2007 MR FX

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a78/MoonDragn/Flashlightsaber05.jpg
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a78/MoonDragn/FlashlightSaber06.jpg

[Lord Dottore Matto]

Very creative! Hardware sabers rock! I like where the flashlight and curved hilt are going.:grin:

[sekrogue1985]

very interesting really cool dooku kind of saber