first build, Saberstaff

Very excited to show off my completed (well 95% complete, i intend to make a shroud and etch it) first saber :D

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Attachment 11630 (cat sneaking into shot...)

I am very proud of my self with the crystal chamber...took my forever to get the crystal secure in the chamber
Attachment 11631 kinda hard to see it well, in hindsight wish i got the piece with bigger windows, but i still love it

also the wiring of the blue 5mm LED was a nightmare plus getting everything to fit in that half of the hilt (only one half of saber lights up the blue led..) but i got it :D

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The red magnet wire im using to hold the crystal really breaks the silver look of the saber when its off so i love that lol

Thanks to everyone for helping and answering all my noob questions and helping to make this possible for me :D

Great build!!! I've always been a fan of saberstaffs and I really love the O-rings for the grip. Crystal chamber came out great and I agree, the wire breaks the look of the silver nicely. What LED are you using for the blades? And do you have sound or plan on upgrading later if not?

Looks great! I've liked that emitter style since I first laid eyes on it! I agree with you on the red wire wrapping the crystal, it's a great accent to the saber.

Im using the Amber crees for the blades (http://www.thecustomsabershop.com/Am...ova-P1002.aspx )
It doesnt have sound at the moment, i might consider adding sound in future but thats probably going to be a bit into the future...seeing as i would want the NB board but would have to completely overall every bit of this saber for it. Im currently using 4AAs for each half of the saber and barely had room for them lol.

Thanks for the compliments, it was really fun to build this and dust off my soldering skills lol and catch back up on The Clone Wars show while building it lol

That's what I thought, it's a beautiful color! Totally understandable, some of the cram-fu that the more experienced builders here pull off is astonishing. Congrats on your build, though!!

Nice job, especially on the crystal chamber. Congrats on finishing your first!

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Originally Posted by Hermitjensen

Im using the Amber crees for the blades

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Awesome! I was hoping the Amber Crees would be around that shade when I purchased them for my own staff, but that color is magnificent!

Great job on your saber! Very much like the design, especially the blue crystal chamber in the middle contrasting the amber of the blades! It just has such a great feel to me when I look at that full-body shot

I'm having trouble loading the images, but I can't wait to see the build. In the thumbnails, it look great. I'm building a saber staff too, so I'm interested in what you did. How long is the hilt?

mines 19.5 inches long. with two 26 inch blades in its 68 inch in total length. i think some would say its a small hilt for a staff but anything longer and it looks way too long to me lol

The double-bladed MR Darth Maul was around 21" iirc, so 19.5" is a pretty good length. Pushing 24" is just getting really close to as long as looks proper, the same way going over ~13" for a single-blade saber is "long" haha

I really like the color of those amber crees! Good looking saberstaff!

Hey, that'll work! Looks good. How does it handle?

Kinda wishing i turned the main bodies around so the buttons were on the inside now lol would make it easier hitting the buttons lol
other then that it feels great! took it outside the other day and spun it around pretty quickly, pretty balanced in my opinion.

I...love...it!

So a couple months later i finally remember/felt like updating the now 100% completed project. I actually finished it near the end of august but just never thought to upload the pics lol
Any way I added the planned shroud (which was fun because my first time tapping holes) and after weeks of testing saltwater etching on random bits of aluminium (and even a public speaking speech on saltwater etching) I felt ready to etch the shroud...I was kinda in a major skyrim addiction at the time so etching is kinda based off of Nordic steel design. Its not a very deep etch, but it does have an apparent depth and feel to it and I couldnt ask for a better result :).
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Sorry for not the best picture quality :P

Looks really good, BUT... I will have to demand better pics. It deserves it!

Lookin good!!

Ask and ye shall receive lol...i dont actually know if this is much better :P all i did was go into my living room for the nice bright lamp. Still my ok-ish phone camera
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I like this last one (or at least the effect) because at a certain angle the etched parts get really dark, but the unetched bits shine and show off very well in my opinion.

Thats better. Looks very nice. If you like the etching dark you can always hit it with some paint. Maybe dry brush with something matte. If you dont like it you can always take it off with some acetone or thinner, etc.

Good to know for future options. for right now though i just like how it appears to change depending on the angle you look from. At times it looks really dark gray, and others just a really light gray.

I find that if you polish it all over (I use brasso) rubbing into the etched areas, you can make them quite a bit darker. Alternatively, spray paint the etched areas before removing the resist.

Wow. I thought it looked great, and then I got to your shrouded pics and double wow. Great work incorporating a shroud and a crystal chamber!

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Originally Posted by Greenie

I find that if you polish it all over (I use brasso) rubbing into the etched areas, you can make them quite a bit darker.

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Also, that sounds like a good idea, and something I might want to incorporate into my shroud.

Hey everyone, long time no see.
Sorry if this is a bit of a necro of my own thread, but I felt this question should go here since it deals with this saberstaff.

So I've recently gotten the itch once again to build something/mess with my sabers, and I love the sound and color options of my RGrB sound saber, so now I want to upgrade this saberstaff to do the same.

but man has the hardware in this hobby changed a lot in just 2 years. Now i'm at a loss of whats possible.
So i'm trying to keep things a bit simple (relatively) and was hoping to get away with having to use just one sound card in one end and have an extra large battery in the other end of the staff, and have two tri-cree RGrB for the blades. However I'm wondering if one sound card can properly drive two tri-crees? OR would it be a better option to run neopixel blades? since a lot of people seem to be going that route these days and they do look nice. I just dont know the hardware demands of them.

Or should I just bite the bullet and accept that I should just do 2 sound cards in each half lol?

I have nothing set in stone right now, I am just trying to get my bearings on what is possible before I start making parts lists.

You could get away with running two Tri-Crees off of one sound card as long as you use the right battery solution 10-15A draw.

Neopixel will require 2 boards and 2 batteries.

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Originally Posted by Forgetful Jedi Knight

You could get away with running two Tri-Crees off of one sound card as long as you use the right battery solution 10-15A draw.

Neopixel will require 2 boards and 2 batteries.

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Ok yeah thats what I figured.
is there any issues/tediousness in getting two tri-crees to have the exact same color on both ends, or at least close enough to not notice? I know in electronics not everything is "exactly" built the same even if from same batches (im especially thinking of resistors here). or is it just a case of having the resistors required before the wires split to the two tri-crees?

Yun should be able to get it pretty close.