Darth Talon Design

First time posting, first time making a lightsaber

I'm a designer by trade and have a start-up where I design and fabricate a variety of projects. I've been commissioned to create a custom lightsaber, to which I gladly accepted without realizing that it happens to be a very complex design: Darth Talon's. However, I don't back down on a challenge. I come to the forum for advice and to make sure i'm heading in the right direction. First off, i'm aware that there already is a thread dedicated to someone making a Talon's hilt found here. I'm using that thread as a basis for the construction. I just want to make sure i'm heading in the right direction as this is my first venture in making a lightsaber.

First off, since the hilt will be fully custom to emulate the Yorik coral it will have to be made out of epoxy or polyurethane materials. It was suggested to use silver Apoxie Sculpt because of its silver base and long work time but i'll look into possibly making a mold out of silicone and cast a solid around the pipe. I could use aluminum powder in the mix then using a variety of finishes in post. Looking into a Smooth-on product since we work with those most often.

I'm opting to use a 1-1/4" PVC construction: 1'-0" long PVC tube, male adapter and threaded cap. The adapter will be bonded with PVC cement and permanently affixed to the tube. The cap would screw on to the adapter and would be removable to replace the LED battery when needed, also to act as the main port to service the interior workings of the blade if anything happens.

Attachment 12430

At this point i have the base and the finish pretty much set. It's the guts that i'm a little lost with. This is what I've gathered I need:
-Blade holder will most likely have to be custom, if I actually need one. I may make one custom out of ABS 3D printed material as it can withstand heat a little better. I've been told the Shop can make one custom too but to minimize cost I would like advice on a design so I can possibly make for myself.
-blade retention screw, i can also probably make myself but the ones in the shop seem fairly cheap.
-Rebel Star LED & MHSV1 Heatsink Module (for a deep red blade)
-BuckPuck 700mA 4-wire
-LED "Corbin style" Show blade 1" OD. What i don't know is the difference between double and quad wrapped?
-7.4v Li-ion 1050mAh 14650 Battery Pack. Anything i should be aware of? Would they work well in a PVC housing?
-Push on/push off switch with black button (not interested in sound)

Seems like these are the items I need. If there are suggestions for additional items I'm open to ideas. Thanks ahead of time.

Your list looks fine to me for a stunt. You'll definitely want to make yourself some sort of chassis to hold the battery to keep it from banging around in the hilt.

Keep us updated on your progress! Its always cool to see unusual sabers being built!

Haven't posted in a while but just wanted to say we built and the client was very happy with the final product. I worked with some friends and redesigned the saber altogether.

Firstly, the overall hilt was designed in Maya and then sent to be 3D printed (we do in-house 3D modeling and printing). Once we were satisfied with the design, we carved out the interior and used about half of the components mentioned above. We kept the LED, button and sow blade. We added a modified heatsink, resistor and custom rechargeable battery (had to make one from scratch to account for interior dimension of hilt). We also added a Type M port for the battery to recharge. Amazingly the lightsaber was powered on a single charge for several weeks under normal use.

Once we inserted the components we sand-finished (quite some time) then sealed with many layers of clear resin to give it a bone-white finish. The show blade was hot glued on to the area that would be equivalent to the blade holder. Not the ideal method but we were on a deadline. I've attached links below to see the final product for yourselves. Definitely want to output a few more with different finishes and soundboards prior to Supercon in July. Let me know what you all think.

Final Product 1

Final Product 2

Client with the Product

Honestly, can't really see the work in the examples you provided. :/

Agreed, Looks good from what we can see of it, but wish we could see more of the work up close!

Agree, photos do not show the product well.

Also as a fellow designer and design director, I would consider better examples of your work on your site. I know you can push the Makerbot and Cube to much better finish quality than what you are showing in the drone and gear images. I have seen better print quality from the initial run of DIY FDM printers in several of the middle and high schools where I mentor both their design and robotics clubs.

Take this as a constructive critique, as a professional designer (15 yrs of Industrial design experience at one of the US's top firms) if I saw images of that quality on a vendors gallery, I would never contact them. Only show the best quality in any public forum, anything you post or blog about is an expression of the quality and mastery of your craft and sales material for your company. Just like with your personal portfolio...you only put your best work that helps you tell the best story.

MJ