Some EL Hilt/Wiring Questions

Does the washer/mono jack go in the front end of the blade holder (as opposed to being placed between blade holder and choke) and then the reducer gets driven down on top of that? Both pieces are a tight fit and I want to do it right the first time.

The 2005 EL hilt tutorial mentions that you'll fry the inverter if you turn on the power without a blade installed. Is that still the case 4khz inverter?

The wiring diagram shows a 1MOhm 1/2 watt resistor installed on the line to protect the inverter. I don't see a resistor like that in the shop. Is there a suitable substitute or should I just go to radio shack? Also, does it matter if I wire for 18v rather than 9?

For the purposes of this thread feel free to assume I know nothing about electricity and wiring (pretty close to true).

Also, can anybody recommend a good soldering guide?

Thanks.

I haven't built an EL saber using MHS parts, but I've built several hardware EL sabers.

I think you'll need to sandwhich the washer that you put the mono jack on between the blade holder and whatever you screw that onto, otherwise, it could pull out the reducer and the jack when you pull out the blade. On an LED saber, the heat sink is sandwhiched below the blade holder, so it should work just fine.

I've only used 2kHz inverters, and I've never had one fry, but it can't hurt to be safe.

You will probably have to go to RadioShack or somewhere like that to get the proper value resistor.

You just solder everything the same way as it's done in the How to Build a Basic EL Hilt tutorial. You shouldn't need anymore guidance than that. If you do, make another post asking for it.