rention screw alignment moved?

[Crystal Chambers]

I had my hilt assembled and everything was great till I wired it up and put it together and the blade retention screw...moved?

The only logical conclusion I can come up with is that the heatsink is now preventing that last slight turn so that the hole is roughly an inch off center from where it should be. I can always drill a new one but I'm curious how this happened.

Has anyone had this happen or have any theory as to how this ocurred?

[Jagahati]

you are correct that the heat sink is what changed your alignment. This happened to me on my first saber. Since then I have always insured that the heat sink is in place before I do any measuring or alignment.

A work around that while no perfect can work is to use a thick coating of Teflon tape that you fiddle with until you get the hole lined back up.

This isn't the preferred way to do things by any stretch of the imagination but it works.

[Crystal Chambers]

Thanks...I was a little worried I was loosing it..well loosing it even more..lol

I can't believe I wired the whole us 2.5 with accent leds and all in a wild hilt, fit in all my components with a choke mid hilt and missed something so silly.

Because of how my overlays work it's no problems to drill a new hole, but good to know how it happened so I won't repeat the same mistake.

Thanks again for the heads up! I think your solution has some bad grammer or spelling though cuz I can't make sense of it.

[Jedi-Loreen]

It's a typical new builder mistake. Well, more of an oversight. A lot of us have done it on our first sabers.

[FenderBender]

:oops:And not so firsts.

I used to forget this sometimes and it took 3 or 4 sabers to get it sink in to my thick skull.

Another thing that I learned is ALWAYS use the same heatsink. I have like 30 of the damn things and once or twice I have used one heatsink for measurements and ened up using a different one for the final assembly. DOH! I then would have to go and find the one that I used initially cause there is minute differences between them and The heatsink you use first needs to be the final one.

[Lord Maul]

Thanks...I was a little worried I was loosing it..well loosing it even more..lol

I can believe I wired the whole us 2.5 with accent leds and all in a wild hilt, fit in all my components with a choke mid hilt and missed something so silly.

Because of how my overlays work it's no problems to drill a new hole, but good to know how it happened so I won't repeat the same mistake.

Thanks again for the heads up! I think your solution has some bad grammer or spelling though cuz I can't make sense of it.


No! Just unmount your LED and sand the heatsink. It will not take much to make it fit. I generally face my heatsinks so they have no effect at all on the alignment of the blade holder.

[Crystal Chambers]

Thanks a bunch!

I'm gonna consider sanding it. Either way I learned a valuable lesson and have two solutions that aren't visible unless it's dis-assembled.

Once I'm done this one, I'm building a second for my girl and this mistake would have been a problem with hers. It's a sith style with claws.

[DJMoonbass]

whats wierd is that my blade holder went in all the way and kept its allignment.

[xl97]

careful on how much you sand/take off.. not very much has alot of impact on the turn alignment..

so..sand check..sand..check..

[Crystal Chambers]

yeah I thought of that and in this case it seems easier to just drill a new hole.

Good to have the option though!

[xl97]

really..

just taping a decent grit sandpaper to a table top..and sanding the heatsink is very easy to do...take a little elbow grease..but works fine. :)

[Jagahati]

Thanks again for the heads up! I think your solution has some bad grammer or spelling though cuz I can't make sense of it.


See what happens when you post from your phone while you are supposed to be at work?

Anyway my quick and dirty fix is to use a couple of layers of Teflon tape around the top of the threads. If you use 3-4 wraps along the top of the threaded piece it will give you close to the right thickness to stop the piece from making the rest of the circle thus re-aligning it making it do one less turn.

Sanding the heat sink down is probably the best option though.