As you know I recently built some PVC and sink tube sabers. I want to build some more for christmas as my friends liked them a lot and wanted more (I think all people wants more once they see one finished saber, and building them is adictive).
First time I didn't posted a log while building, but posted in one of my blogs a step by step ( http://cursedmonkeys.com/?p=4884&lang=en ) once finished.
this time I'm going to upload the steps at the same time i'm building them. My idea to start is to build the first 2 one as a simple based vader's one (easier than the first one) and another one as a very simple TPM obi wan's. I don't want to copy their designs, I'm just inspired by them.
First of all is to prepare the sound cards. Cheapo cards extracted from electronic lightsabers. One from an anakin's lightsaber and one from a mace windu's one. I really prefer the second one, it's easier to work with and it's way smaller so it fits better in smaller tube as 32mm PVC while anakin's doesn't. and as leds are connected by wires instead soldered directly in the card, are easier to remove and rewire.
Pictures are from the mace windu's one. In the first pic I'm soldering the momentary switch wires as the sound card used a fixed rubber button. Where to solder them was discovered by test & error. Soldering in this card it's way easier than in the anakin's one as one of the clash sensor's pad is in the same wline as one of the points so we can solder our wire directly to the pad instead in the card.
Second picture shows how I solved the fragility problem this cards have. Wires are too thin so even the original soldering is strong, the wires moves a lot while assembling so first time i worked with this kind of cards almost all wires became broken or unsoldered and it was very diffcult to repair. Now I protect the wires from the beggining with hot glue that doesn't affect the working of the card.
It's all by now. soon more steps.
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