Silver Serpent's "Asp"

[Silver Serpent]

It's been far too long since I built a saber, and when I saw LDM's latest cane saber I was inspired to make something similar for myself. I wanted something simple, functional, and with just a little bit of style to it.



Specs:
All MHS design
Single 18650 Li-Ion pack
Baked-on glossy black paint, with clear coat
Hand polished overlay, pommel, and BH
Tri-Rebel RGB LED
Latching AV switch in pommel
Hidden recharge port
Custom built color-swapping board

Since I hadn't done any color-mixing sabers yet, I figured it was time to try my hand at it. To control the color mixing, I built a small control board with three small slide switches on it, one each for Red, Green, and Blue. I also attached the resistors to the board as well (and then color coded them for easy reference). The prototype board ended up being about the same size as a CF. I can certainly make it smaller with SMD components.

Control board and hidden recharge port:


Exposed switches:














The switches are exposed through the overlay, allowing easy access to color swapping. Since there's no sound board in this saber, you can swap colors on the fly without damaging anything. Any combination of Red, Green, and Blue are possible. The recharge port is kept hidden under the overlay, as is the blade retention set screw. As it's a walking stick, I don't see the need for easy access to the retention screw.

I have a little more fine tuning to do on the saber, to include acid etching on the overlay. Once that's done, I'll post updated pics.

[amwolf]

Nice - clean and simple design, and a neat take on the color mixing. Interested to see the acid etching... Did you use the thick walled blade as the cane "leg" or go with a solid rod of snake-bashing acrylic?

[Silver Serpent]

Thick walled blade. I still need to cut it down a bit in length, and add some giftwrap. There's some color blending issues near the emitter end that I need to tweak. There's a 1 inch dia black rubber foot from Walmart on the end. Fits perfectly over the blade.

I'm definitely going to be refining and shrinking my color mixing board. It should work with NB boards to allow hot-swapping of colors. Probably with the PC as well, though you'd have to use a kill key when swapping colors.

[jedimastergarcia87]

Nice. I like it. I like that second green shade the best.

[Ripper]

I love the switch placement. Excellent work!

[Silver Serpent]

I really need a better camera than my cell phone. I took photos of all the colors, but some of them looked identical.

The cyan (g+b) looks fantastic in person. I think I have a new favorite color for sabers. The green that JMG likes is just the plain green die. The other "green" is actually yellow in person (r+g).

I don't think I could have lined up the switch holes, screw holes, and everything else without my digital calipers. That's one of the most useful tools I have in my shop. Dunno how I got along without them before.

Edit time:

I finished the acid etching!






15 minutes in a ferric chloride solution, and I have a nice beautiful deep etching.

[MrCafe]

Was talking with you in chat and asked a million questions. Thank you for having patients with me. Great work.

[Starwinder]

That's some nice looking acid etching SS - turned out great!

[Nemesis]

Nice job with the color swapping board, the switch placement in the overlay turned out amazing. Great work Silver Serpent.

[joshm74]

I liked this saber before the etching, but now its pretty freakin cool SS. Great job I can't wait to see a soundboard in it