Hello saber builders!

New member here from Michigan, USA (I only mention for our international friends).

Longtime SW fan, so naturally ... lightsabers intrigue me. I recently bought two Graflex replica's from TGS, one for myself and the other for my brother. I picked up some conversion kits from Wannawanga.com and have been researching the bits and whatnot to adding in an electronic component.

For my own, and my first build, I'm modding the all popular Bladebuilders model lightsabers... (tried the Disney Store saber first, a bit more complex and different pinouts than expected). I picked one up just this week and gutted it already. I have my new Luxeon LED, heatsinks, TIP42c and all the other parts on their way. I come from the high-power flashlight modding and building groups, and my dad was a long-time electrician, professionally (Motorola field tech) and as a hobbyist. He's built some amazing things. So schematics, circuits, soldering and such are something I grew up with.

Here's to hoping my first custom saber build goes well. Not looking to make it into a dueling saber, but just a static prop with lights and sound.

Hello there! Welcome to the forums.


Greenie:mrgreen:

Welcome to the community! I did the TGS Graflex as my second saber...TCSS MHS was a great first build. One thing to keep in mind that got me on that one is that being a true replica, the two halves slot together, they don’t screw together. I did the switches in the clamp card and find that I can’t tighten it down enough to make the two halves very secure without making the switch buttons inoperable. I quickly got the Graflex 2.5 from TCSS as they screw together. If you do the switches under the red button and slide switch, you should be able to tighten it up enough.

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Originally Posted by scott

Welcome to the community! I did the TGS Graflex as my second saber...TCSS MHS was a great first build. One thing to keep in mind that got me on that one is that being a true replica, the two halves slot together, they don’t screw together. I did the switches in the clamp card and find that I can’t tighten it down enough to make the two halves very secure without making the switch buttons inoperable. I quickly got the Graflex 2.5 from TCSS as they screw together. If you do the switches under the red button and slide switch, you should be able to tighten it up enough.

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Good info! I plan to put my activation switch under the functional red button. One thought I had to tighten up the clamp connection without having to really crank down on the clamp itself is to wrap aluminum ducting tape around the top inch, inch and half of the top to bottom tube (whichever was loose) before clamping down. The clamp should hide the tape, and the added thickness will snug it up. Although for a static prop that just lights up with sounds and isn't being used for dueling, a slightly loose tube should be a on-issue.