Jay-gon's Brass/MHS Saber (MR sound/Lux III)

I'm planning to put together a polished brass sinktube and MHS saber, and this is what I've got so far:

http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o...HS_saber_1.jpg

http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o...HS_saber_4.jpg

http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o...HS_saber_5.jpg

I found these already polished brass extensions at a home improvement store called Menard's. At the time they were on sale for $3.50 each, so I picked up a couple. I thought they'd make it easy to install sound by using the slip jointed end end as a pommel with a strainer added for a grille. Now to just get the rest of the parts from the store....

Keep us posted on that one!
God, I wish hardware stores over here were anywhere near as good as the ones you guys have!

Yeah harware stores here a really good and you can find alot ofgood stuff at minards for harware stuff jay.

Good luck and remember lots of pics.

Well I finally got some time to work on this again after ordering some more parts. It's looking pretty good so far!

Pics coming later tonight!

:D

I did the work on this and forgot to take pics while working and went back tonight and got a few, so some of the descriptions won't match the pics. (i.e.:the grip rings are already on the brass section in the pics for drilling the tube for the MHS adapter pics.)


Okay, I started out by fitting the MHS sinktube adapter. I measured out the fist hole on the adapter, and marked it on the brass tube with a sharpie marker. I drilled the first hole in the tube by itself with my cordless drill. I used a 3/16th drill bit making the hole larger than the hole in the MHS adapter to make sure I'll have some flexibility in fitting the parts. I then took it to the drill press and set it up! I inserted the adapter into the brass tube and made sure the drill bit lined up with the opposite hole in the adapter and drilled it:
http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o...HS_saber_8.jpg
Next, I lined it up to drill a third hole equally spaced (well, I eyeballed it and it turned out pretty good!) for a third mounting screw, and drilled it straight through to the other side. That hole became the pilot hole for the switch hole. I changed to a 3/8" bit and drilled it:
http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o...HS_saber_7.jpg

After I drilled all the holes and made sure everything fit okay, I decided to put the grip ring marks on the brass tube. I used my tubing cutter to do it:
http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o...HS_saber_6.jpg
I highly recommend practicing on scrap tubes first, to make sure you get it right. I used two pieces of chrome pipe to paractice on, and even then, I still had a problem getting it to make the ends meet:
http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o...S_saber_10.jpg
I made sure I started out on the "bottom" of the saber, so those mis-matched lines aren't really all that visible.
http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o...HS_saber_9.jpg
http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o...S_saber_11.jpg
I also drilled and tapped it for the covertech wheel.

So this is where I'm at now:
http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o...S_saber_12.jpg
http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o...S_saber_13.jpg
I have blade holder #1 and the v-grooved ribbed section. I still have plenty to do, as I'm not finished with some of the parts and I don't have the electronics figured out yet. I have a few led's with quick-change set-ups already made up, so I could go with a red, green or blue lux III led.

So I went to my local Menard's today and picked up a metal cutting blade for my compound miter saw:
http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o...S_saber_14.jpg
Can anyone guess where this is heading? :wink:

I clamped it all down and cut it:
http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o...S_saber_15.jpg
This was very easy to do, and it made a perfect 45 deg. cut in the tube. Next, I de-burred it with my rotary tool and a sanding drum:
http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o...S_saber_16.jpg
(I took this as an illustration shot, when I actually de-burred it, it was clamped in the vise on my drill press. Always be sure to clamp down a part before working on it!)

I still need to drill the shroud and the emitter for mounting screws, and the blade thumbscrew, but here's a good view of how it should look:
http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o...S_saber_18.jpg
http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o...S_saber_17.jpg

I could swear I've been up the plumbing aisle dozens of times, but mine doesn't have anything nearly that cool. The last I tried sanding a chrome tube to brass I gave up... no patience for what was shaping up to be a weeks worth of sanding to get to the shine I wanted.

How funny Jay... that sink tube pipe and the little filter tray is *exactly* the kind of thing I've used for speaker ports and pommels for the Flange sabers.

Great work. This is exactly the kind of stuff I was hoping to do, only I don't have a dremel or anything super fancy! Glad you do though!!!! :)

where can one find longer brass sink tubes? I have looked at menards, lowes, homedepot. the longest I found was 6". And sanding down a chrome one, I'm with X on that one.

I wish I knew where to get longer brass tubes, too. I got these little sink drain tailpieces at Menard's. I should've bought more than two, though, since they were on sale at the time for $3.50. I messed up while drilling the shroud for the mounting screws, and would like to make another. Pics of that coming shortly.

Now that I think about it, I do recall seeing a polished brass 1.25 kit that had a p-trap and everything in it that about $15, too. I think it had a longer tube in that. Next time I'm there, I'll look and see if they have the same kit in 1.5".

I also put a scoring line on the shroud, and tried turning the pipe towards me, instead of away from me like last time, and it lined right up! A perfectly straight line all the way around!

http://www.farm-home.com/ldr/JB15901309.htm

They make them apparently... hmmm, I'll still keep looking to find the flanged types we use.

EDIT: They list tailpieces too but it only shows and adds 6" lengths. :cry:

ANother! http://www.farm-home.com/ldr/JB15901242.htm more usable stuff out of that, but it's expensive. :?

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000FKF3CK/...ectronicssh-20

Other than the black and white picture that seems to be a 12" one. They seem to make a distinction on brass and chrome plated brass though.

EDIT: Oh this is ticking me off. The product description says chromed... but the company makes the distinction and it matches the number... :evil:

Those would be great if they came in polished brass!

In the meantime, I did some drilling on the drill press:
http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o...S_saber_19.jpg
I put the first of what turned out to be many holes in the blade holder. This went all the way through to put a hole directly opposite:
http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o...S_saber_20.jpg
It of course didn't line up with the screws in the hilt tube, so I put some more holes in it and the brass shroud at the same time:
http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o...S_saber_21.jpg
In the above pic, I assembled the hilt to try and make the thumbscrew hole line up with the switch. I drilled twice, and still didn't get it right. I wanted to get the hole as close to the edge of the thickest part of the blade holder as I could, and missed it by about 1/4 of an inch.

In case you're wondering, I do have the heatsink installed in all those pics of me drilling holes. I'm still not sure why they didn't line up when I was originally done with it....but it's fixed now:
http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o...S_saber_22.jpg
The scribed line came out perfect this time. I just need to figure out what to do about this:
http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o...S_saber_23.jpg
I've got two holes for the thumbscrew in the brass shroud, and neither of them are in line with the switch on the hilt. I have thought about making a plate out of a piece of chromed tubing to cover those up with and then drill my thumbscrew hole through that also.

Here's what the blade holder looks like now:
http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o...S_saber_24.jpg
http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o...S_saber_25.jpg
I totally swiss-cheesed it! Good thing the shroud covers them up!

Yeah its looking pritty bad man but you do have a shroud.
I would say make a plate thats the same as your shroud but smaller.

Or cut a square out or a notch with the bottem of it rounded.

But iam sure that would take some mill work.

But Iam pritty sure you will come up with something, you are pritty resoursefull.

Yeah, Hasid, I did come up with something, but it didn't quite work out. I drilled 3/8" hole with the intention of making a 3/4" slot out of it after drilling a second hole and "milling" it out with my rotary tool, but the first hole didn't work out. Instead of drilling a nice pretty hole, it magled and bent the shroud in between the to smaller holes. So I popped in my 1/2" bit and drilled one big hole:
http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o...S_saber_26.jpg
http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o...S_saber_27.jpg
This isn't my final answer to this little problem, because now you can see one of the swiss chees holes peeking out from under the shroud inside the bigger hole!

I did a bit more work today on this. I added some brass washers to the screws to help hide some mistakes I made when drilling the mounting holes. I "dished" them with my dremel, so they'd have a better fit. Here where it's at so far:
http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o...S_saber_28.jpg
http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o...S_saber_29.jpg
http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o...S_saber_32.jpg
I also added a small momentary button I picked up at Radio Shack a while ago. Here's a couple close ups of the washers and csrews:
http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o...S_saber_30.jpg
http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o...S_saber_31.jpg
About all that's left now is to install the electronics and craft a cover for the big hole in the emitter shroud. I need a soundboard now, too....

Very nice man. I love those washer you put on there, where did ya get em?

I got the washers at my local Do-it Center Hardware store. They were either $.15 or $.13, I can't remember. But cheap enough, that's for sure! I also looked in the plumbing section and found 4 6" 1.5" brass extensions that were threaded on one end, and not chromed. They weren't polished either, but that would be much easier to do without having to sand off the chrome first.

Jay, beware of that momentary switch, we had a few on the original BOP I sabers, and they broke almost before we used them, hahhaha!

Then again--our sabers were going through some massive abuse, and I haven't the foggiest idea if you're going to use the saber like a madman... :)

Yeah, the momentary will come off when I get the maul board from Jonitus. I just put it on to fill the hole for the pictures! 8)

Looking very good man. 8)

Well, I got a soundboard from Lord tyranus over at F/X Sabers.com, and got it ready to go in this saber:
http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o...r/000_0084.jpg
It came out of a Luke ROTJ, and was a perfect fit in this saber! I had plenty of room for the board in the grip section, and the switch and batteries are in the brass section. Speaking of the switch, I picked this up at my local Do-It Hardware store:
http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o...r/000_0086.jpg
It's all metal, and has a pretty good feel to it. I tested this saber with my blue led, but I asembled it with my green one....and wouldn't you know it, the emitter didn't quite line up with the rest of the saber....must be the heatsinks are somewhat different thicknesses. Luckily, I had a bunch of holes to choose from and put the shroud on it again:
http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o...r/000_0085.jpg
http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o...r/000_0087.jpg
The blade is a 3/4" thin-wall with Ultra's film. I took these about 11:00 a.m. under the awning at my trailer at the campgrounds we're staying at. It looks good inside the trailer, too. Should be great at the Whitecaps game on Saturday!

What kind of switch is it? Meaning push, twist, etc... looks like a twist one for a lamp.

Yeah, I really need to finish this MHS tutorial I was making... The heatsink always changes where the blade holder fits. It has to be slightly thicker than the spot in between the threads otherwise it wouldn't clamp on it. Thus the last thing I always do is drill a blade holding screw last. If you don't it's usually like 30-45 degrees off when assembled.

Great! I take a couple of days holiday, and I miss all the exciting bits of a beauty like this coming to life!
Great Job Jay!

I personally would of used a cyan lux, but not sure why..... Still looks great though!

Looking very nice indeed. I would hazard a guess that it is a push on/off switch that has reverse sensativity to the ones tim sells here. Push almost all the way on for Tim's to get them to turn on and a light touch starts the connection on yours, am i right Jay?

very nice there jay gon!

on the last pic, one of your swiss cheese holes is showing green :shock:

its a rotary for lamp replacment type.its got th flat spot in the rod.

at least it looks that way on my pc but then again I dont have the greatest moniter in the world.

The switch is a push-on/off switch that has a soft spring in it. You have to push it all the way down to turn it on or off, so if you bump it, there's no problem with it turning the saber off momentarily, and making it flash or re-ignite!

And yup, X-wing, I did have a heatsink installed in the saber when I originally drilled the holes for mounting the shroud and then for the set screw. It's what Iget for eye-balling it, I guess. I used an older blank one without the led mounted, and when I installed one with an led, things didn't line up. I don't think the heatsinks from the last run are all the exact same thickness as previous ones. I can't check, either, because I left my calipers at home. Everything should line up fine when quick-changing from a blue led to a green, but it didn't. It's not a big deal, really, I'd rather just use the green led anyway. Hopefully, my next one will turn out a bit better.

Yeah one heatsink musta been a hair thicker than the other.

That's one sharp looking lightsaber.

Randy

Unless you go to Lows (however you spell it) I wouldn't give $0.20 for the hardware stores around here.