MPP 2.0 Kit 1" Blade Holder Bore Testing Result
Is it possible for TCSS to do a 1" blade socket on the MPP 2.0 Kit?
Being a long review/feedback of my testing experience, the quick summary would be:
Yes! Tim can do a 1" blade socket bore for the MPP 2.0 Kit :D
Onto the long details. :arrow:
I prefer having 1" blades on all my hilts and I really wanted to build a new ESB hilt. So finding that the MPP 2.0 Kit being a 7/8" blade socket, it almost stopped me from purchasing it. But after a emailing Tim to ask about a 1" bore custom service, he had me test out a 1" MPP 2.0 blade holder wherein he already did the 1" bore.
After receiving the kit, I saw and understood why he didn't initially offer doing a custom 1" bore machining service for the MPP 2.0 socket. Using the 1" blade holder needed some small and simple tweaks.
The MPP 2.0 Kit's blade holder comes in a few parts: aluminum blade holder, plastic trim piece that snaps in to hold the oval hole metal pin detail, emitter spring coil and its trim piece to hold it in place.
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With the first thing affected by the 1" bore being the inability for the emitter oval hole metal pin inserts to be screw-mounted from the inside, I opted to simply use E6000 to glue on the metal pins instead. It holds and works great while still maintaining a clearance from the blade itself. Installing and removing the 1" blade clears the pin inserts without any issues whatsoever. If you prefer not to use them at all, you can even opt to not install these metal pin details as well.
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My second concern was whether I could retain the trim and spring coil. It because the inside lip on the blade holder which holds the spring in place was gone after machining the new socket. I initially was planning on just 3d modeling and printing a new piece to replace the whole top trim-spring piece. But after examining the silver trim, I found that the small circular indentation on the OD of the trim that aligns with the knurled thumbscrew is actually enough to hold the whole trim-spring assembly in place. As long as the thumbscrew is tightly secured, both the spring and the trim are held securely as well. A more permanent solution of gluing, either using cyanoacrylate-based glue/super glue or even E6000, would also work better to hold it, but the thumbscrew alone is already working well for me, no glue needed.
The 1" blade's installation on the 7/8" ID of the spring coil also works fine. I found that simply slowly twisting the blade while inserting it compresses the spring coil and clears it without issues at all. Pulling the blade out by twisting it out works great too. The only small hiccup I noticed was that sometimes, twist-pulling out the blade can get a little tight along the spring. But a simple short reverse twist back down to restart/re-loosen the spring's coil tension, then proceeding to twist-pull out works again.
One thing I noticed though, would be a small concern about using blade plugs on it. I believe one still has to use 7/8" blade plugs due to the 7/8" ID of the spring coil area. The Vader blade plugs I purchased were 1" OD for both the accurate MPP and DV6 blade plugs. Using the 1" OD accurate MPP blade plug is the concern since it gets a little tight along the spring coil. However, even though it's not screen accurate to do so, I opted to use the 1" OD DV6 blade plug since the long center nub works great to pull it out from the spring coil area just fine. It requires only a very light tug to pull the DV6 blade plug out. I think I'll purchase a proper 7/8" OD MPP blade blug in the future on my next order to finalize the proper look, but my main goal after all was to use a 1" blade and being able to do so right now makes me extremely happy.
The 1" TCSS led holder slips in just fine as well. I just drill and tapped a new retention screw on the blade holder since I wanted to mount the led holder lower just clearing the oval emitter holes to make them shine through windows with the saber turned on.
An unexpected and glorious bonus of having the 1" bore socket was that the lower thumbscrew/MPP flash release button now works as an awesome blade retention screw! I have seen reviews of people wishing it worked as a blade retention screw on the stock 7/8" socket. But with my widened 1" socket bore, the thumbscrew sticks out by approximately 1.5mm in the blade socket thereby making it a most perfect blade retention screw. A wonderful and most pleasant surprise!
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I am still in the middle of 3d modeling and printing my own chassis for my install, but my dry run of the 1" blade holder bore works really really well. I even used it on light to medium mock dueling and spinning. It really works great! I don't foresee any issues with electronics install since this kit is very straightforward to install on with lots of room and a very well integrated switch solution just like the Graflex 2.0 kit. For an aux button, the bubble card would work great by drilling a new hole on the top half of the hilt underneath the bubble strip for wires to pass through while maintaining a removable bottom half for a reveal chassis.
So if you want to install your own 1" blade Vader MPP 2.0, have Tim do the custom 1" bore for the stock blade holder. It works out great! 8-)
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