Hi all, just registered & have a couple questions

[TwinMill]

So... I received a camera flash tube from a relative who knows I am a Star Wars fan as kind of an early b-day gift.
She's retired and had to watch her budget somewhat, so she bought the only one which was listed for instant
purchase for under $100 on that "e"-auction site (you know the one). She thought I'd enjoy building a saber
from scratch since I've done other "creative" stuff in the past (like making salt & pepper shakers out of a couple
mini wine bottles.)

Enough rambling. This budget friendly tube turned out to be a 3 cell Graflite. Please no "holiday special" jokes...
I've been reading this site's forums for a few days now and found a small handful of Graflite threads, but none
which seem to mention my issues.

Do any of the pommels sold here fit a Graflite with it's external threads? If not, perhaps I could just leave the
original black cap in place and fit a D-ring on it.

2) Looking at your screws page, I don't see a screw in the size I'd need to attach one of your D-rings to my
flash: 1/2" long 1/4 - 20

Lastly, I love how the MHSV1 blade holder 16 looks a bit like OWK's blade emitter in Ep. 4. I've seen a couple
other people's projects that used the same flash tube I have, and both used a Vader type emitter that slipped
over the top of the Graflite. I want something different. Is there a way to make it work?

Currently I'm just trying to work with my budget and create a halfway decent looking saber that I can hang
from my belt. I would in the future like to upgrade it with a blade & the stuff to make it run.

[goldsaberwarrior]

First welcome to the forums, i hope you do well with your build. This would probably be a better fit for the general hilt building subforum. Anyways that being said I don't know the exact specs on the tube (brain is a bit fried from dealing with college related stuff this week) but if you're interested in possibly using a MHS blade holder then if it's big enough you might could use one of the MHS to sinktube adapters sold on the site to keep the blade holder on. You would have to drill into the tube to have a hole so you could hold the adapter but if you want to use that particular blade holder that's something you might consider. Tim (shop owner aka Big Boss/Strydur) occasionally has stocked certain parts if demand for them is big enough so you might be able to convince him to stock some different screw types. Otherwise if you need a screw now you could probably find one locally at a hardware store. For the pommels my guess would be on their own they probably wouldn't because of their thread design but you might could use an adapter part in combination with a pommel and bang something out that way. One of the other sabersmiths could help with the technical aspects than I could since I've never worked with the old camera tubes.

For your saber it's limited pretty much only but your budget and imagination. I've seen some great sabers for about $100 from an old sinktube and stuff on here to some absolute masterpieces that had to cost in excess of $700+. Once more welcome to the forums and we'll do our best to help you out.

[TwinMill]

Thanks for the welcome.
A few more days of research, reading, & learning has led me to the conclusion a Graflite may be too much for a first time build.
I instead opted for a total TCCS based solution. I will be buying parts as my budget allows.
Today, I chose the following: MHS hilt 2, pommel 4, insert 12, & a 16 mm AV blue ring switch.
In a couple weeks I plan to get blade holder 8, a blade and the necessary electronics, depending on stock.