slothfurnace's ANH Graflex (Full crystal chassis)

**slothfurnace** · 06-03-2010, 07:59 PM

Howdy folks, I figure I ought to start a thread on my next saber.

I wanted to go back to the roots again, this time with a Graflex ANH Luke saber.

I picked up a cheaply priced Graflex 2 cell on ebay, and proceeded to make it into a 3 cell.

Unfortunately, I couldn't find anywhere that offered 3 cell back ends, so I decided to make my own out of some scrap capped 1.5 inch stock I had in the bin.

I used my lathe to etch the pattern for the tab slots so I could get them even and straight.

After removing the material with my dremel, it fits just as snug as the original two cell back.

Next I thought about a crystal chamber. With much inspiration from those who have gone before me, I set off on my own direction, harvesting many parts from harddrives, old clocks, etc.

I took one entire array of harddrive platters and lathed them down to fit inside the graflex rear. At this point, I have the ... middle decided on more or less, and I will be constructing from there out to either end. I want to make sure I leave enough room in the design for soundboard, speaker, batteries, etc.

The crystal chamber is made of various parts, the most intricate so far is the crystal holder, made of brass tubing, guitar string beads, some brass stock from an old clock, etc.

Here is my Aqua Aura double terminated crystal, a very nice blue without lighting, but with...

...it really shines..

I'll be posting my progress here much like my ANH Obi saber, hopefully I can tread some fresh ground with this project.

Thanks for looking,

slothfurnace.

**ARKM** · 06-03-2010, 08:17 PM

*drools uncontrollably*

That crystal chamber is pure win, dripping with awesome sauce.

**Noyl Wendor** · 06-03-2010, 08:21 PM

Wow,
Very nice work. I do like you turned a 2 cell into a 3. Very cool. I also like the internal chassis, I would have never thought to use hard drive, and clock parts.
I may be rethinking how to do the internal set up of my graflex.
Also thanks for posting your work, its kind of hard to find good refrences for a project like this.

**cannibal869** · 06-03-2010, 08:30 PM

Two BIG thumbs up for outside-the-box thinking!!

**Crystal Chambers** · 06-04-2010, 04:45 AM

Nice...everything! The ideas, approach, parts, look, pics, and contribution. I've had similar ideas for salvaging parts but lack the space and time to gut things for parts. I really look forward to seeing this one complete.

**JamoUp** · 06-04-2010, 04:48 AM

Those parts are really coming together! Looks great!

**Sunrider** · 06-04-2010, 04:57 AM

Nice. This is looking great. Good job.

**Ki-Djowac** · 06-05-2010, 12:58 AM

Looks incredibly awesome !

**Matt Thorn** · 06-11-2010, 12:33 AM

slothfurnace, if you have an official fan club, I'd like to join. I would never in a million years have thought of using a lathe to etch lines that way. And the crystal chamber is a work of art.