Fiberglass

[xwingband]

how are you gonna core out the styrene with enough room for your led and board, but if your gonna go that route you wouldnt need the fiber overlay, what im doin is makin the base saber from cardboard or wireframe/paper mache and then goin over that with fiberglass, seems to be the only way to get the electronics in it and still have the thin obi/luke neck... i think the mr's look like crap and thats what got me on this kick of a fg hilt. only way you could do it with a foam would be to carve it outta styro, go over with fg and then use citric acid to eat the foam back out when your done so you could put in your board/led... never thought of styrene, that stuff is freakin tough as nails, gonna be hard to get the detail out though, alot of dremel work... good luck!

I was planning on polystyrene. It's tough yet easily cutable. The 1/16" styrene is cutable with a large utility knife. It's used a lot in wearable armor because of the easy to cut yet rigid characteristics. I plan on ribbing the insides so that it's like vacuum formed ABS (a cousin of polystyrene).

Trust me though... I'm not going to carve. I'm going to make it all with a single 12" x 12" sheet of 1/16" thick styrene. All it will take is a knife, heatgun and weld-on. You guys are thinking too "in the box". I'm going to have plenty of room... who ever said it would be round? All of which I've done before in architecture... I just never thought of bringing it to sabers.

Firebird, that the kind of thing that I would need to know... hmm, I was hoping fiberglass would the option that would help me blend seams well and add even more strength. That alternative would work? Bondo any better?

I'm not as concerned with everyone knowing how I'm going to do it. It's the design that hasn't been done and I want to have it first.

[Firebird21]

Firebird, that the kind of thing that I would need to know... hmm, I was hoping fiberglass would the option that would help me blend seams well and add even more strength. That alternative would work? Bondo any better?

Then I'd suggest "Marglass" or Short Strand.




This is the same as Long Hair (Kitty Hair), only shorter...
It is almost as strong as Long Hair, but you won't have actual Fiberglass Strands in it. So it's Smoother to work with, while still having strength.

If you don’t need the strength you can use normal Filler (Bondo)



This is the most common of them all. But it should not be more than ¼” thick. After that it will start cracking on you down the road.




One other option is Glazing Putty.



I would only use this brand it is top of the line and won't shrink.

This particular version is designed for flexible plastics, so it would be best sutable for your application as it will resist cracking when dueling if you ever did.
The other version doesn't flex very well (as it's designed for metal) and has a Green label in this brand.

It is below Bondo on the Filler Totem Poll so don't use it to fill gaps, only to get the smoothest finish. It should not be more than 1/16" think when done. And that may be more than a professional body man would use. (The same ones that don't like to use it at all.)


And that's just scratching the surface...

[jjshumpert]

well with a squared off hilt it would be really easy, didnt know that was your route... just stick with kitty hair, use as little filler as possible, and i wouldnt sugjest using the glazing compound unless you end up with bubbles, otherwise its not needed and a real pain to work with... for the absolute strongest hilt you should look into goin back to straight fb resin and use the basketweave type fb cloth, thats what i usually use when building body kits for cars and its unbelievably strong

[xwingband]

hehe, you can keep guessing what the hilt will be. Squared off would be a I guess the one-liner... like all the movie ones are tubes. Strength and less than 1/16" hell yeah... that's exactly what I wanted to hear. Thanks all I'll actually be moving this up in the totem pole of sabers I want to build.

[jjshumpert]

xwing, check your yahoo im's

[Firebird21]

If you want 1/16" and strength, straight Fiberglass may be your best bet.
(I must have missed that part when I read it earlier)

I'd start off with about 3-4 layers of Woven fiberglass cloth and then use Marglass from there to get more detail. That should give you the best strength-thickness ratio.

Unless you don't feel comfotrable with Fiberglass, then try to go at least 1/8" with KittyHair. Even that I'm not sure on its strength. I'll see if I have any left over from Thomas and test it. Personaly I'd go 1/4".



Edit: For those of you that don't know about Thomas here's the link

Thomas the Tank Engine Project

[tetmatek]

If ya want to use glass it is easy x-wing. Lets say you want a glass hilt.

1 take a paper towel roll core and wrap it with saran wrap
cut a piece of fiberglass matte so it will cover the roll core.
mix up some resin and lay out the matte work the resin into the matte ( an acid core brush will work fine).
wrap the core then wrap with another piece of saran and then work out the air.
when it hardens the saran will peel off and the tube should slide out.

the kitty hair and such will work but has no strength cause it is just chopped up strands. it is just a filler. you can use it for ornamentation and sculpting then finish with a thin polyester putty before you prime and paint.

this hilt will stand up pretty well as you can double up the cloth (rolled and woven is the strongest)

then bam you got a fiberhilt. this process can be used to make a mold of about anything.

hope this helps bro and hope you try it cause it is a cool idea for a custom hilt design

[xwingband]

That's neat and may prove useful for others but it doesn't exactly fit what I want. I'm going to build my saber out of polystyrene sheet. I wanted something that would act as an outer coating...

My desin is not going to be radial. So I will have edges that theoretically could pop if I dueled too hard. I can live without dueling but if I can find something that would essentially coat my base and make it one piece and be strong I'd be set. I was thinking fiberglass would be that solution but it seems not...

Right now it seems that going to 1/8" sheeting and using a lot more weld-on #16 as opposed to #3 will have to be the way I go.