EL Wire

It seems to me that the small wires are almost too fragile to use. I can't figure out how to manipulate it without breaking it.

I have noticed that it is rather fragile, but if you are gentle with it during the installation, it seems to hold well, that comes from using it in more diverse and mulitfereous applications than saber blades. As long as you are not causing sharp vibrations and severe beatings on the connection joints, you should be fine.

It takes a bit of work to get used to wiring them up. I never have issues with them anymore. Solder them up good and apply a decent dose of hot glue and they will be set for life. Out of hundreds of blades I have built this way I have had little to no problems.

I finally got back to it the other night. The hot glue was a great idea. You might want to consider adding it to the tutorial because it was a great help.

Thanks.

How does the Hot Glue affect the plug?

With a little practice the tiny wires become second nature, but not everyone gets the knack (or want to). Coolneon teach an alternate method involving a bit of copper foil that makes these wires easier to deal with. They detail it here: http://www.coolneon.com/SolderGuide.html

When I first started working with EL wire back in 2002, I drove myself crazy at the beginning, trying to strip the sheathing off of the wire using a regular wire stripper. I kept cutting those pesky small wires.

Then I found out that elwirecheap.com wasn't too far from where I was working at the time, so I started going out there, and talking to the guys. They suggested that I get an automatic stripper, so I did, and it really saved my sanity, since I knew I'd be making mulitple EL blades. This was a couple years before LED technology started taking off for lighting up lightsaber blades. And also a couple years before Tim got the idea to open this wonderful store. ;) :D

I've probably made around 50 blades, though not so many these days. Back then, a lot of people wanted true red blades for their Parks sabers, not the pink that he was offering.

I used to use elwirecheap.com's wiring instructions, but I started doing it the way Tim does, because it cuts out an extra, unneeded step, and the hot glue really secures those wires inside the connector.:)