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Thread: Rogue9607's Satele Inspired Saber - First Saber

  1. #1

    Default Rogue9607's Satele Inspired Saber - First Saber

    Edit: Adding some of the near-completed photos to this post. The original first post is still in it's entirety below. My wife has named this saber "Holly" (after "Holly Golightly" from "Breakfast at Tiffany's"). So, I'm proud to present... Holly!







    Some of the color options: Tiffany Blue, Red, Green, and Blue





    Original post:

    Thanks for taking a look at my first saber build. I did a good month of planning before going to work on the electronics a couple of weeks ago, and started work on the saber itself earlier this week. This is for my wife who loved the look of Satele's saber in The Old Republic cut scenes, but requested a Tiffany Blue blade.



    Realizing that her color choice wouldn't come from a standard LED, I headed down the path of RGB LEDs. Seemed easy enough to wire up the resistors once the colors were dialed in, but also such a waste since the LED would be capable of so much more. After talking it over with a friend, who's been a huge help on this project, I decided to go with an Arduino to manage the color mixing of the LED and an Ultimate FX soundcard. The Arduino portion went much better than anticipated and we quickly had a blade that flickered on idle, flashed in input from the impact sensor, and cycled through preset colors. This portion of the project then expanded into sound which is fully coded but untested since the audio module only arrived yesterday. The saber has sensors for swing and impact as well as button push for blaster reflection.

    I spent way too much time in sketchup and looking at frame-by-frame stills from TOR to come up with the initial design.



    Since I've also never worked with metal before, it was time to start with a jig to help hold the pipe for my hacksaw.



    I also needed a setup to square/clean up my cuts.



    After some sawing and sanding, I had the rough parts.



    A quick before and after of the aluminum tube as I received it and after initial sanding.



    Next it was on to a lot of work that made me want a lathe. I had several ideas on how to approach this, but my first attempt with the radial arm saw worked pretty well so I stuck with it.



    A good amount of cleanup still to do, but I feel it came out pretty well.



    Everything slipped together to give an idea of final size/proportion.



    The bevels at the end of the emitters took some time since I had to go very slowly.



    And after tweaking my RAS setup again, I put the small lip on the end of the bevel.



    I cut a test fin at the bandsaw, and I think that'll work well in general, though this specific piece will be replaced.



    And that's the progress so far. I'll update this thread as I continue the fins, move on to the acid etch, and eventually get it all put together!
    Last edited by rogue9607; 08-27-2012 at 09:23 AM.

  2. #2

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    For never working with metal before, I'd say your off to a very good start. Your technique may be a bit unorthodox (I would have never thought to use a radial arm saw like that), but clearly, it works. Keep up the good work! I'm looking forward to seeing more progress on this.
    There's a difference between knowing the path.....and walking the path.


  3. #3

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    So far so good! Looking forward to seeing it all finished.

  4. #4

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    Sweeeeeeet! That's gonna be my next build too

  5. #5

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    Looks good - NEVER seen a RAS used like that, just be careful (and keep up the good work )
    Yub Yub Commander.

  6. #6

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    Lookin' good.

    http://s6.photobucket.com/albums/y23...0Saber%20Hilts

    From Wikipedia: "Internet Explorer slows down GIFs if the framerate is 20 frames per second or higher and Microsoft reports that Google Chrome and Safari also slow down some GIF animations."

  7. #7

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    I am impressed by your ability to improvise, and the quality of results you're getting with improvised tools!

  8. #8

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    Thank you all for the encouraging words! It definitely hasn't been my most conventional project, and I wouldn't want to do a ton of work this way, but it's been working well even if it is slow. I don't think my stack of 1/32" shims made it into any of the pictures, but I was using them to keep my passes uniform.

    This was originally going to be a surprise for my wife, but after realizing I wouldn't be able to finish for her birthday, I shared the project with her. As I did this, she shared some things with me that she'd like me to include. One of which was a change in the fin design away from the style of Satele's saber. Here's what I have so far that she really likes, but I still think could use some more tweaking - though I can't figure out what yet.



    I've only had limited time to work on the project this weekend and most of that was working fin design changes and trying to get sound working. She also mentioned that she'd rather sacrifice battery life for a crystal chamber (with the possible addition of an external battery pack for long events). Should be some fun changes even if it takes me away from the original Satele design.

  9. #9

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    A crystal chamber isn't going to affect battery life significantly. The little accent LEDs draw maybe 20mA or so. Compare this to the main blade LEDs that will draw 700-1500mA or more EACH. If she's expecting to use the saber a lot during long events, a good idea is to make removable battery packs, and just carry a spare or two.
    We all have to start somewhere. The journey is all the more impressive by our humble beginnings.

    http://led.linear1.org/1led.wiz for the lazy man's resistor calculator!
    http://forums.thecustomsabershop.com...e-to-Ohm-s-Law for getting resistor values the right way!

  10. #10

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    Thanks Silver Serpent. I left out some critical detail from my last post. My original plan was to have 8 AA NiMh batteries wired for 4.8v and 5800 mAh which would give me an estimated 2 - 4.5 hours of run time depending on color. I kept these as standard batteries so that she'd have the option of replacing mid event even it it is a bit cumbersome. Unless I can fit the whole crystal chamber into a 2.5" connector tube, I'll need to go down to 4 AA batteries and 2900 mAh, which will give me 1-2.25 hours. Still reasonable, but could get cumbersome pretty quickly for a longer event.

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