Andrew's personal saber

[amwolf]

Hello, everyone. I’d like to present my newest saber, and this one I’m keeping for myself.

It’s my first crystal chamber, and it’s a reverse sound configuration so hiding all the wires was a priority as originally the chamber was to have been in the back of the saber. During a trip to the hardware store I found some brass washers that fit the MHS interior perfectly, so it got a quick hardware store redesign and got further massaged during the build. I was going for a radiator-style chamber, with copper tubing snaking through the brass fins and around some hollow copper pipe that were the wire chases. I repeated that material scheme through copper tubing wrapped in grooves in the extension, and some copper mesh in the pommel.

I asked Tim to add the grove to the pommel, and he did the copper orange powder coating on the ribbed grooved extension as well. The SD card actually sits a smidge proud of the end of the extension, so it’s really easy to access by removing the pommel. The control box I designed and had 3D printed in “stainless steel” so it’d be durable. And darn hard to drill through… The card insert is friction fit and came from a RAM card pulled from on old computer. I cut the shrouds, and painted and baked them and the control box. Finally, the choke has a black pigskin suede wrap where the recharge port is mounted.

Alright, enough of me babbling on. Here’s the fun stuff…


Specs:

Petit Crouton 2.0 with Madcow’s “Hero” font
7.4V 14500 battery pack, recharge port in the choke
LED Engin configured for “Sky Blue” blade w/ RW FOC
Semi-exposed Quartz crystal chamber
Custom switch box
Reverse sound configuration
Accent leds – turquoise behind the crystal, wired as a power indicator, with white and turquoise keister blinkies




Video:







Photos:







Details and in-process photos:






Thanks for looking, and I eagerly await comments and criticisms.

[Arryck Corso]

I love it. The crystal chamber is beautiful. That shroud is amazing. Definitely one to be proud of. Congrats!!!

[Skinnerman02]

Slick, very Old Republic looking. I'd buy it.

[madmaxx]

thats a really nice looking saber well done. Love the chamber

[Boj-Vaati Mau]

Well done! Many interesting features in this saber. But it's definitely not a spinner with the cool activation box where it is. Keep up the excellent work!

[amwolf]

Yes, spin well it does not. Also, I'm hemmed in by 8ft ceilings, which tend to limit experimentation. Thanks everyone!

[TrypWyr]

Wow, beautiful work! Love the crystal chamber with the "fins". How did you get the washers so uniform, don't tell me you did that by hand?!

Okay, and I have to ask... the stick of RAM, how did you manage to curve it for the switch box? It looks amazing! As a longtime tech, I have more RAM sitting around than I care to count... would love to try something like this.

[amwolf]

First, I've got a dremel, and 6" flat file, and a drill press, and I'm not afraid to use them. I drilled out holes for the brass 4-40 rod in all the washers in a big stack (I had a few extra in there in case I screwed up) with a bolt running through the center, so I'd have them aligned correctly. Then I drilled one of them as a template, then things got unfortunate when I tried the bolt trick again. I snapped off a 1/16" bit which was the size of the pipe holes during the first attempt, and had to pull the whole thing apart and curse my way through separating the last now stuck together 3 plates. After that I just mated the template to one fin, pinned together with some short rod sections and some longer hex-bolts I found at a computer supply store, and set into a wood block with matching recesses drilled to hold the bolts. The parts didn't move, allowed for quick alignment, and was easier to reassembly when I snapped off bits. I went through something like one bit per 1.5 fins. The open section was cut with my dremel then filed by hand and mark-1 eyeball to an offset of the aluminum rod cover's radius.

As for the RAM, it was an older card (my wife's office has a room full of discarded PC's, so asking the IT office for parts was no problem). I was only about 1/16" thick, and once it had been cut to width it actually had some bend to it. It's a friction fit, so I cut wide then checked for fit, followed by one lengthwise pass with my file, check for fit, lather, rinse, repeat till it snapped into place. Getting it back out during dry fit was a real pia; I had to pry my smallest allen key into the open slots in the card and convince it to pop one end out. Drilling it out after that for the switches was the nerve racking part - I'd made 4 concept attempts out of generic plastic sheet before tackling the card and I knew I did not want to mess up and have to start over. Pushed in the switches, added a smidge of hot glue to hold them in place, wired it up, and shove-fu'd that bad boy into place.

[Boj-Vaati Mau]

Yes, spin well it does not. Also, I'm hemmed in by 8ft ceilings, which tend to limit experimentation. Thanks everyone!

LOLZ! As am I, my friend! There are a couple of maks on the celing that my wifewill disdainfully look at when I start swinging a saber in the living room.

[FenderBender]

Nice job! Everything 'flows' well with this one. I love the ramped box up front, helps with the aforementioned "flowing". Do some more!