TOR Era "Clan" Saber by LDM

[Lord Dottore Matto]

TOR Clan-style saber project

So my aluminum stock arrived and I thought I would join the real Saber Smiths and make a saber completely from scratch. I had/have a few goals however. First, the saber must actually accept a 1" Blade. Second, the pieces must fit. Third, the saber must have some actual theme behind it's design. Fourth, the saber cannot be filled with metal shavings and cutting fluid. Well, all four goals have been strictly adhered to. Here is where I shall document my foray into 100% custom machined sabers. For my theme I chose The Old Republic Era and wanted to create a "Clan-style" Saber. I also want it to have an inlaid leather grip (I think I will go with black).

I started out with this exciting delivery:



I selected some 1.75 OD 1.0 ID stock for my BH and cut a 3" piece on the miter saw:



Then I chucked it up and faced it:



Wanted a "bell" style emitter with some rings and this is what I came up with:



Bored it out to 1.005 ID at both ends and left a nice built in blade stop (like in MHS):



Next, I selected 8 1/2" of 1.75 OD x 1.25 ID stock for my saber body:



Bull-nosed live center FTW!



And tested the fitment of the BH with the body:



There was a small "lip" that did not fit, but it was easy to take care of.

Since the pommel and Emitter are what make a clan saber a clan saber, I wanted the pommel to be UNIQUE. I finally decided on a piece of 1.5 OD x 1.25 ID stock that was 3" long:



came up with this:



Tested the overall fitment. Yay, 13" long...perfect to me.



The pommel needed some boring out too so I have a perfect place for my speaker and uber cool LDM/Acerocket insert:



Here she is, all 12.5" of her. She flows quite well and the seams are hidden in the overall design of the saber. You can see the area where the grip will be inlaid and the Faux clamp section. There may or may not be a box, but there more likely will be dual AV switches (one for looks?)...not sure on color scheme yet, but I am pretty sure I still want the black grip inlay...



As this project progressed, I made a few design choices based on discussion amongst my JSSDC brethren. First, I decided to go with a box.



Then I decided to move away from leather and toward brass for the inlays and custom cone accents and led bezels:





I attached the inlays with cut down 6-32 button head screws:



Now on to the LED & Optics install:



and the battery pack (7.4 V 2200 mAh):



The install could not be modular in this case (no slide in/slide out) due to the necessary placement of the Petit Crouton. I also chose to extend the PC's capabilities a little by going with 4 accent LEDs (AV switch, Crystal pommel and 2 BG blinkies). I made the battery pack/soundboard module and attached the speaker. I also made a wiring harness with the accent LEDs, switches and recharge/kill.



I did the final assemble with the wires running into and through the hilt:



Then placed the battery/sound module inside the hilt, added my custom bezels and tested her:



Allow me to present my fully custom machined TOR "Clan" style saber:



TOR Clan Saber with PC 1.2

This project started out as a doodle and also as a test of my current capabilities with regard to full customization. I started with hunks of metal and ended up with a saber of which I am very proud. I hope that I was able to execute my build to justify my vision. Thanks for taking the time to read this very long thread.

Particulars:

100% custom machined LDM Hilt
Brass inlays
AoF Box (Modified)
AR pommel insert
LDM cones & cone bezels
LDM Custom Optics/heatsink module
LDM machined CT wheel
Machined blade stop (like MHS)
Petit Crouton v1.2 with Lightmeat Font
Lux III BIN 2 Cyan
Aqua Crystal pommel
(2) BG blinkies in cone bezels
Green AV latching AV switch (wired Jay-gon style)
7.4V Li-ion (18650-based) battery solution with recharge/kill in the box
TCSS HO Speaker

The BMT:



The Glams:







This was written over a few weeks which is why it does not flow all that well, but I left it in order to demonstrate my thought process.

[Darth Xusia]

Man... I really like this saber LDM. I assume you're going to make a whole series like this. ???
Hopefully soon, I will own a PC saber.

[Lord Dottore Matto]

Man... I really like this saber LDM. I assume you're going to make a whole series like this. ???
Hopefully soon, I will own a PC saber.

I plan on exploring this series some. Thanks man.

[ARKM]

That's a very nice saber LDM. it has a lot of nice details. However I do have one question... what makes a saber a KOTOR era hilt... other than a sabersmith labeling it as such (and other than it being a replica from the games)?

[RevengeoftheSeth]

Very impressive, man. I wish I had the tools to do something like that... I don't even know where to start, though.

[JamoUp]

I really like this one. Excellent work.

[sekrogue1985]

I love it love it I want it....well....yeah....lolz great job LDM another winner!!!!

[jin starkiller]

great job LDM ....very cool looking saber

[HAVOK]

LDM, fantastic saber. Love the masterwork on here.

[Caine Drathul]

Looks tight, man! Congrats on your first 100% scratch built hilt! Everything about that bad boy is pure win, and I really like the cyan LED with the saber's overall scheme and the aqua CP is very sweet (I just put one in the Obi AFBB we did.)