ARKM's "The Impractical Tactical" Build (US 2.5 board w/ illuminated AV switch)
This is my first build log. That said...
I decided I wanted to build a theme based saber. I've always like the look of a tactical assault rifle so I decided to see if I could incorporate that into a saber design. I call this saber "The Tactical".
This saber will utilize a SaberSD sound board (with an assault rifle font that I still need to create), two 3.7 Li-ion AA size batteries, a Lux III Amber or a P4 White (with filters) and both driver boards from TCSS, if I can make them fit. If I can't make the two driver boards fit, I will go with a direct drive buckpuck. The on/off switch will be a DPDT lighted anti-vandal (ring style) that will mounted near the top of the bottom half part of the hilt. I intend to have a full chassis in this hilt (if possible) with the LED and heatsink mounted on the top end.
While designing the saber, I decided I wanted to do more than just go for the "look" of a tactical assault rifle. I wanted the saber to resemble a tactical assault rifle in other ways, ways that most would consider to be gimmicks. I know many frown on gimmicks, I'm just not one of them. I think some gimmicks can be quite cool, even if in a impractical fashion. That said, after I came up with what gimmicks I wanted, I now sometimes affectionately refer to this saber as "The Impractical Tactical".
I decided on two main things for making it function in ways that are similar to a tactical assault rifle. The first is that the top half of the saber will have mini Weaver/Picatinny rails (I call them ARKM rails) for mounting a laser sight and flashlight to (maybe a fake dot-scope as well). The second is that the rear half of the handle will be able to telescope and latch in different positions, much like a collapsible rifle stock does. I realized that this would be a challenge and maybe not doable at all but that's what makes it fun to build.
Right now the only blueprint I have of the entire saber is a half scale rough draft which is missing a lot of the detail work. I will be making a full scale, detailed blueprint soon. Here's a pic...
The blade holder is designed to resemble a flash suppressor mounted to a gun barrel. It will utilize 3/4" OD blades. The six slots on the blade holder will be made using a 20 degree tapered end mill to help it further resemble a real flash supressor.
The front half of the hilt will be roughly 1-1/32" ID and 1-5/16" OD and have four "ARKM" rails that can allow accessories to be mounted to them. These rails will countersink into the hilt by about 1/32" and will be removable. Here's a rough draft of the front/back of the front half of the hilt with two of the four rails attached...
On to the rear half of the hilt... the telescoping part will basically be a tube that slides over another tube. The inner metal tube of the rear half of the hilt is attached to the front half of the hilt via JB-Weld. The front half of the hilt will counter sink into the bottom half's inner tube by at least 3/4". For the rear part of the hilt, the inner tube will have an ID of 1-1/4" and an OD of 1-3/8". The outer tube will have an ID of 1-3/8" and an OD of 1-9/16. There will be three grooves, 1/32" deep on the inner tube and three screws on the outer tube that ride in those grooves. This will prevent the outer piece from twisting/rotating on the inner piece. There will also be screws that can be tightened to help secure the outer tube in it's various positions. However, those screws are really only meant to be tightened for spinning/dueling, not for normal presentation.
Anywho, after I figured that part out, I needed to come up with a way to have the outer tube latch into different positions when extending/retracting it. I designed a pivoting lever based system for doing this but was not happy with the size of it nor that fact that tension pins would need to be removed if it ever needed to be disassembled. Here is a rough draft drawing of that "release box"...
I decided I wanted to go smaller if possible but also realized that it would involve a more complicated build. I drew up some plans for a smaller release box. The dimensions of the new release box are 2" long with tabs, 1.5" long without tabs, 3/8" wide by 11/32" tall.
I wanted to start by making the hardest part of the hilt first so I started with the release box. I did not know if I could machine something like this, especially as small as it is, nor did I know if it would work when finished but it looked good on paper so I gave it a go. It was a pain to make at times but fortunately for me, the finished device works. It has two moving parts, each using it's own spring. The main sliding lever's spring is a bit too weak to fully extend over the other moving part as it has to fight that part's spring to push it all the way down but it still works adequately. I may redesign the lever part to utilize a smaller OD spring that is more powerful than the one being used now. I drilled a hole on one end of the top cover part of the release box and JB-welded a small, short, round machined rod for one end of the spring to mount to, to make installation easier. Pics and a video of the release box in action are below. The video will demonstrate how it actually works.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuvzLl7KDVQ
That's all I have for now. Again the blueprint of the hilt is very much unfinished. Much of the detail work is missing. I will post more pics and info as I progress on the build. Thanks for reading.
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I am excited to see how this progresses!
Originally Posted by Rhyen Skytracker
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