Getting a blade tip to light up fully?

[Boj-Vaati Mau]

I would think that would work well for a display blade but maybe not for dueling/choreo. Couldn't hurt to try it anyway...maybe the solvent cement could hold it in dueling...

[Gucabe]

Just got the bullet tip back from the machinist, i'll give it a try this afternoon. Basically he just drilled a hole deep enough not to reach the tip and he left about .100" wall on the sides, so it still goes in the tube and attaches normally, but now has a hole in the middle about .625 diameter and conical towards the tip. Pics to follow this afternoon.

[Gucabe]

wow wow wow wow... have i got some pics to show...

This bullet tip now has a new meaning for me... I have a poliC blade (unsanded) with celophane or giftwrap inside and here are the pics





As you can see the tip is now fully lit... it looks as bright as the bottom of the blade... and on the third pic you can see the policarb tube and how it transitions to the tip....

Now i tried it with a white policarb whitout celophane and was i impressed.... it looks just like a beam of light... at least on the picts it does...




So quite honestly??im going to drill all the tips from now on...

[Gucabe]

sorry for the messy hair... i just got out of the shower...

here are some pics of the drilled bullet tip.




You can see how deep it went.

[Gucabe]

OK ok one more trial before i call it quits for today... So i dont like the white poliC blades so i sanded the transparent one. Plus i added the reflective film (anti static bags) two layers on the tip to reduce the amount of light and reflect some back... I totally love it now... its a great compromise... in person looks a lot better... and for the first time (at least to me) it looks like a complete blade from emitter to tip...

Unlit

Blue P4



Deep Red Ledengin 10W




Off to bed now.

[infa008]

I've been brainstorming on how to get a perfect tip for a while now but unfortunately i have been way too buisy in the past 2 years to get close to sabersmithing again. My first instinct was to ball nose out the tips and mylar it. Just the same as drilling but it is a ball nose endmill to match the contour of a round nose. Since you are talking about and are a fan of bullet tip, I can also custom grind a drill bit to follow the bullet tip contour precisely also. I can grind a bit down like that in a few minutes flat. You are the first person I've seen hollow one out though and it is great to see the final product and success of what I have been thinking about for a while. Another theory I had was to make a heated die mold to fit an existing pollycarb blade into and either friction melt the end into a hemisphere or just use heat. friction could be done on a lathe with just rpms but I would have to experiment with speeds and lubrication as to not burn the polly and just get it hot enough to take shape and weld itself shut. Maybe if I can free up soon I will try. If anyone else has tried this let me know what your setbacks could have been.

[Gucabe]

Yeah if you can follow the contour of the tip that would give best results, however your idea of modifying the tube itself would be awesome because that will effectively give you a one piece deal. I've been watching a lot of lightsaber scenes and there is definitively some taper intended...I guess that because of what they used as a base (dowel pins or aluminum rods) for the duels they had to cover it all with light, but now in the digital era, they added the pointy tips to the lightsabers. Heck even the concept and first pics had the light sabers ending on a pointy tip...

Last change i did that i did not post was that i sanded the bullet tip to match the poli-C tube, this makes the tip look more soft and the transition from the tube to the tip is less visible... I will be doing more experiments in the near future but for now im very happy on how it turned out. I wont crop my pictures again LOL

[Gucabe]

Now that i think about it, anyone here from TCSS team that can source bullet and round tips hollowed? Thanks.

[CGompertz09]

Wow, looks pretty good. For mine I took FenderBender's tip (no pun intended) on using the anti-static bag for a reflective disk. It worked pretty well, the very tip is brighter than the rest of it, but the whole thing lights up now and looks a lot better than it did before

[Gucabe]

Previously I had done the same, however i can tell you this makes it light up a lot more... ideally the ring that will fit inside the tube could be not much thicker than the gift wrap's inner diameter so that it could not attract much more light than the end of the tube... if it follows the contour of the tip that could also make the lighting more even...

for now im very happy whit how it looks... no more rounded tips for me.