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The newbie guide to wiring!
When you get all your parts laid out and your soldering iron warmed up, there are some things you should make sure you do first.
I got my MHS and I have to admit that it had been about 6-7 years since I've done any electrical work. I used Tim's MHS wiring tutorial and though it shows exactly what to do, I think he forgot to mention a few things. So I thought I'd lend a hand.
--Before you do anything, screw your saber together and lay out the wiring next to it. <u>Make sure</u> that you're going to have enough wire to place the switch where you want it. If you come up short, head to the hardware store and grab some thin copper wire. I got a foot of double wire (so 2 feet) for .19 cents.
--I didn't have any scrap wood laying around to solder on, so I cut a square out of the box Tim sent my saber in to use...worked great.
--It's a good idea to get solder without mercury. The obvious reasons is that it can cause tons of health problems. Even lead isn't that great. Just make sure you get adequate ventilation when soldering (preferably have a fan sucking the solder smoke away from your work area), and don't forget to always wash your hands.
--If you don't have any wire strippers, you can lightly hold your soldering iron on the wire (where you would strip it) and slide the iron off. This will melt the plastic. This should ONLY be done on RARE occasions. <font color="red"><u>Warning!!!</u></font id="red"> It WILL cause your iron to get pits. When the tip of the iron pits, it's harder for the solder to stick to it. Also causing it to "pop" when solder is applied, and when it gets on your skin it HURTS...and you really don't want molten lead on your skin.
<font color="red">--WEAR SAFETY GLASSES!!!!</font id="red">
--When soldering your resistor, make sure that when you tape it, you tape all the way up to the resistor itself. You do not want any exposed wire. If your saber is on for extended periods of time, and another wire is touching the exposed surface, it will cause the wire to melt and fuse to the resistor wire...that's not good.
--When you have everything wired up and ready to slide into your hilt, it's a good idea to make sure the lens and the lens holder fit into the emitter. I slid all the guts through the ribbed section (what my emitter screws to) and let everything just hang there. Next I slowly began to screw on the emitter, careful not to shake the lens holder off the LED itself. I stuck my finger through the emitter when I got close to hold it in place. At this point you may have the same problem I did. It will feel like the emitter is getting stuck or "crunching" the lens holder. The feeling is correct. However, all you have to do it back the emitter off a bit, and then screw it back on.
I'm hope this helps someone. I probably forgot some things, but that's where other people come in. []
There's nothing like igniting your saber for the first time with the blade on.
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"That's 'cause droids don't pull people's arms out of their sockets when they lose. Wookiees are known to do that."
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Actually back in highschool I DID witness it happen. A kid was soldering a circuit board for a motorized car, and the solder popped and splattered on his face. Luckily it didn't hit his eyes, because he wasn't wearing safety glasses. Made some nice scars.
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"That's 'cause droids don't pull people's arms out of their sockets when they lose. Wookiees are known to do that."
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Jedi Council Member
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Council Member
Jedi Council Member
<font size="3"><font color="maroon">That's some good advice, especially about making sure you have enough wire for your switch layout before you solder parts together. With the extension pieces, it's likely you will have to add wire to your configuration.
As illustrated in Firebird's post, solder "pops" or "explodes" because there's moisture somewhere, or maybe some contamination, it doesn't do it spontaneously, so I hope everyone's not scared of soldering. Where I work, I solder all day, on parts that have to be washed first, I get mad when they aren't dry, I don't like having solder exploding as the water flashes to steam under the heat of my iron and splatters the solder on my hands. It doesn't hurt as much now, but I never get used to it.
I've never seen any solder that has mercury in it, the typical solder is 63% tin, 37% lead. At my work, we are going more toward silver/tin solder, instead of lead/tin, but it's bear to work with, it doesn't flow as well and has a melting point about 20 degrees higher.
Personally, I hate electrical tape, I use heat shrink tubing, it's neater, looks professional and won't peel off, unwind, slide around and bunch up, or get sticky.
I know that people will probably never see your wiring jobs inside your sabers, but I wire kits up for my friends, so that's one of the reasons I like my work to look professional, since, I literally am a professional solderer.</font id="maroon"></font id="size3">
In order to see the Light, you must sometimes risk the Dark.
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Council Member
Jedi Council Member
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Council Member
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