Proto/Retro saber WIP

[DarthAlice]

Time for a new project! The last one took alot of time and thought (Raxxis prime Starkiller-w/R2Igniter) and I really enjoyed the whole process of detailed metal work and using old style materials such as brass and copper, I have 2 other hilts getting ready for sound-boards and rail set-ups. I have been giving this particular project much thought after stumbling across it in Wookipedia one day:

It got me thinking, #1 has any-one built anything like this?(yes I found a thread from 2010 here Naigon turned me onto) and also what would I use for a sound-board? What about the main belt pack? Materials??? Going along an engineering train of thought...Wow! Lots of room for batteries...LaRgE speaker....a few blinkies...
After much looking around online and in local antique stores, Army surplus stores, and many of the other odd places to find stuff that I know of, I came up with the idea of making the belt pack out of an old brass extinguisher that was used in autos around 1910- 1950's or so. I scored a nice one with the dimensions needed on ebay for 20 bucks with shipping. from there I did some measuring and this concept drawing;

[jmPlagueis]

You have me excited again, Darth! you and your awesome projects....

As always, I will anxiously be awaiting its completion!

[shmoetech]

Man I can't wait! Please keep us posted.

[DarthAlice]

a couple of progress shots!

[madmaxx]

Nice! Man you could jamm a butt load of battery power in that!! I cant wait to see the final product

[Lord Dottore Matto]

Arkai Halon was the first to build one. His is very nice. this is also a nice take on the project.

[Xene]

*emits low wistle* I remember stumbling across those on wookiepedia~building one never even crosed my mind~but this looks like its gonna be seriously awesome

[Crystal Chambers]

Nice find! Is the first shot the unaltered unit?

[DarthAlice]

these are the early pix from last week, I like to get a bit deep into a project before starting a thread, right now I'm considering building a very thin hilt from billet that will house just a sound-card , a micro-switch or 2 , some blinkies and the main led, the rest will all be in the pack with 4 wires running the board and speaker.As far as batteries , I have a set of 2400 ma 18650's that are already part of the design. After stopping by a friends earlier, he mentioned having a spare lipo charger he'd give me from his airplane hobby (lipo= big a#=$d runtime!) as it stands now I'm waiting for the Nano (c'mon Erv) due to having a hilt I designed with a 1" outer diamter that I would like to use with this base.
here is a near finished machining pic, and a component test ( the luminglas can run off of a sound sensor or constant on)


@ Crystal Chambers, this is what I started with...a 1917 fire extinguisher, and after lots of cutting (and using a couple of techniques learned from watching a buddy solder some copper pipes at my house) I came up with this, the edges are all rounded and smooth ( used the rounded parts on the bench vise to round them with a brass mallet)

[Zahc Zi Phan]

That's really sweet Darth! What a trip!
On a related note, how small do they make those little lumiglass pieces? I'd love to stick one say, the size of a quarter, inside a crystal chamber....