PVC saber hilt questions.

I am fairly new to the hobby, and the forums, so forgive me if I'm retreading old information. I have searched for this information exhaustively and not found a lot of help.

I made my hilt body out of 1 inch inner diameter PVC piping. I want to use the MHS heat sink assemblies but only now am seeing that they may not fit. I might have to get creative and bore the tubes out or replace sections of them to accommodate larger parts, or, worst case scenario, rebuild them with a larger base pipe. What is the OD of the heat sink assembly sold at the Custom Saber Shop and can I rig up an alternative to fit a 1 inch ID pipe?

The standard heatsink module is made for MHS bladeholders so it's larger than you need; however, the store does offer a heatsink for 1" ID tubes:

http://www.thecustomsabershop.com/He...bes-P1027.aspx

There's also one with a center hole in the heatsink, if you need that.

Thank you, immensely. That was a huge help. I often find it hard to locate items in the store.

No prob, it can be a bit overwhelming at first. :)

The big question is, "As an out of stock part, is it worth waiting or is it something I'm going to have to source from somewhere else to complete my build?"

In my opinion, totally worth waiting for

Quote:

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Originally Posted by MrPyromancy

The big question is, "As an out of stock part, is it worth waiting or is it something I'm going to have to source from somewhere else to complete my build?"

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Or you could do like I do and buy a 1" copper pipe cap at your local hardware store, drill a hole in the end and insert a gromet so your wires from your LED can get through then hot glue the LED into it. Then add in your LED lens leaving a little room to run a quick bead of hot glue to hold that in and there you go optics holder and heat sink in one... I can't remember if I came up with this or I "barrowed" the idea from someone, either way it works great.

Going with JRD1's post, if you do go with the copper endcap idea, you'll want a nominal 3/4" endcap, as that's the size that actually has the 1" OD. Rather than hot-glue the LED to the copper endcap, I'd recommend using the thermal adhesive pads in the shop. The lens can be glued in place, or a c-clip can be cut from a ring of blade stock.

That said, the 1" heatsinks in the shop are a real time saver, and depending on local availability, copper endcaps can be a pain to work with. Domed caps need to be hammered flat. Drilling holes through copper for the wires can be~ tricky, if not exhausting.