A few years ago I came across this site after buying my first Force FX (Vader) saber and after some reading I got around to converting it to a Luxeon III, I also picked up a bargain Yoda FX Saber and converted that, but the sound amplifier seemed to die on that saber soon after.
It's been sometime before I've finally got around to building my first "custom" saber - I've called it "Debellatio".
Initial starting point was the broken Yoda Force FX, I thought I may aswell make use of the blade holder and after buying some aluminium tube the correct size (1 and 3/8" OD I think) I thought I could also make use of the activation switch part. Other bits were cut from some 1.5" aluminium tubing, an old aluminium torch and some PVC tubing that I'd originally used to repair my Vader emitter.
I also used ARKM's guide on saltwater etching for some details on the "grip" section, the overall hilt has been weathered to try and match my custom character costume.
It now houses a Nano Biscotte V2 for sound and a tri-cree RRG LED, powered by a single 18650 battery, sound comes from the 2W mini (20mm) speaker. I've used a 4PDT switch to allow colour swapping between one of the main LED dies and the FOC die. The 2 colour options, yellow blade with orange flash on clash (using R+G main and Red for FOC) , or if I want to portray a full on darkside then I can switch to red blade with orange FOC (RR main with green for FOC).
The 4PDT switch was probably the hardest thing to put into the hilt:
The etched area:
Overall I'm pretty happy with this build, it certainly has given me things to think about for the next one
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