New...and a bit intimidated

[Ronan]

BAD ADVICE!!
Heatshrink is THE ONLY way to protect wires inside lightsabers. Electrical tape is just not up to the job. Heatshrink is cheap and all you need is a lighter of some sort (even matches) to make it shrink.

Interesting, i found electrical tape to be very good when it comes to electric wires.

Yes heatshrink is better... but for the love of god i can't find small diameter black one! It's always multicolored... My sabers are currently heatshrink with red, orange and green heatshrink... >____>

[Lord Dottore Matto]

Interesting, i found electrical tape to be very good when it comes to electric wires.

Yes heatshrink is better... but for the love of god i can't find small diameter black one! It's always multicolored... My sabers are currently heatshrink with red, orange and green heatshrink... >____>

TCSS has black. Jobu say it is VERY bad form to use E-tape, very bad. In all seriousness, just trust us when we say, NEVER use electrical tape in a saber. It tends to slip ad goop things up. It truly is a short waiting to happen. Some of the worst saber builds that I have ever had to repair were a mass of electrical tape...****shudders***

As far as how much sabers cost to make. Most of mine cost well over $300 in parts and some as high as $600-ish. You can do a basic one for about $130 (shipped). This is in no way a cheap hobby and saber envy is a nasty disorder to endure.

[Caine Drathul]

When I think 'electrical tape' I think...

DarthVader USA
Saberforge e usually uses a pound of it per saber (he must have bought stock in tapemonster.com)

listen to LDM you should,

[galen marek]

i suppose it's more important to use heatshrink if your'e swinging your saber around and mucking about with it. and it's not a mess so long as you don't wrap the whole bunch of wires around 10 times with electrical tape, but to be safe i would reccomend heatshrinking.

[Crystal Chambers]

Actually just installing the wiring in your hilt can compromise the electrical tape..I use it for bench testing but never inside a saber.

[galen marek]

Hmm, it depends how careful you are, you could stuff your hilt with foam and i presume it would be fine?

[Rhyen Skytracker]

It doesn't matter if the saber will just be sitting on a shelf. NEVER use electrical tape on solder joints and ALWAYS use heat shrink. There is plenty of heat shrink in the store here and you can even buy it by the 100' rolls (I do a LOT of wiring) in some places. The most common sizes are what is in the TCSS store.

[Jedi-Loreen]

The most common sizes are what is in the TCSS store.

I like to use 3/32" heat shrink, which isn't carried here. Plus, I don't like the adhesive lined heat shrink.

Goes off to Wish List thread....

[Rhyen Skytracker]

I don't like the adhesive stuff either. I usually by mine by the rolls. I normally use 3/32, 1/8, 3/16 and 1/4". It all depends on how many wires I have going through them. I like to use a short piece of heat shrink to go over a group of wires to keep them neat too.

[Ronan]

TCSS has black. Jobu say it is VERY bad form to use E-tape, very bad. In all seriousness, just trust us when we say, NEVER use electrical tape in a saber. It tends to slip ad goop things up. It truly is a short waiting to happen. Some of the worst saber builds that I have ever had to repair were a mass of electrical tape...****shudders***

LDM = LAW

Anyone i catch using electrical tape will suffer the end of my pointed lightsaber

Didn't know TCSS had black heat-shrink, i will stock up since i can't find any around (or at least the right diameter).