Jay-gon's Chrome Saber 41 (CS-41)

[Jay-gon Jinn]

I have an acquaintance in the Rebel Legion Base I'm part of that needs a new lightsaber. He had one that worked well for getting membership, but once we were costuming together at the Grand Rapids Griffins Star Wars Night back in February, and seeing my personal sabers and the ones I recently upgraded for the other members of the club, it became apparent to him that he needed something....different. Since I had finished most of the upgrades for our other members, I offered to see what I could do for him and suggested looking through my site and see if any of the previous builds interested him, and he chose my re-worked Chrome Saber 2 design:





As with that saber, this one will be built on a budget, but hopefully will still look good and most importantly, function as a good trooping saber.

So, here's the basic parts for the hilt:



These are the RICE (Real-Time Internal Configuration Editor) and recharge ports....I was thinking about putting these in the pommel, but that will depend on a couple of things that will be worked out between Zark and myself:


This is the led housing/heatsink assembly:


These pieces will make up the front and center sections of the hilt....these started out as a 4" MHS extension that I had Tim at The Custom Saber Shop(TCSS) machine some grooves into to make it easier to part it up into the pieces you see here:

The threaded ends will allow for attaching the blade holder and pommel, the un-threaded center section will house the main switch, and possibly the aux switch as well or the recharge port. The other piece shown there with the polywashers on it will serve as the front grip. The washers are on there as a place holder for now, and may be used on this, but I might have something else in mind for that part, too.

This last piece is the main piece. The chrome tube will serve as both the rear section of the hilt body and also will be used to make the emitter sleeve/shroud.


Cutting and drilling has already commenced, and I will update this as work progresses.

[Jay-gon Jinn]

his is what I managed to get done yesterday before going off to work at the real job. ;D

I started off by cutting the chrome tube down to size...I went with 5"on this piece. That should be enough to house everything that will go into this section, the pommel mount, speaker, battery and probably the RICE port on a pigtail since this one's battery pack will be removable:


The un-threaded section of the MHS parts goes in one end:


It has a nice flush fit with the end of the tube...I squared off the tube and the MHS piece on my disc sander...sorry no pics of that. :-\ This piece will be held to the chrome tube using a few 8-32 button head screws. The forward grip piece will fit inside this part and will have a nearly press-fit secured further by the aforementioned 8-32 button head screws.

The pommel mount fits in the other end of the chrome tube, obviously:


This also has a nice, flush fit. This piece will also be secured to the chrome tube via 8-32 button heads screws, and also the CT button screw. I'll add those later, after I finish up the forward grip section.

Here's the rear grip section as it is right now:

This part will likely get my tubing cutter grip marks in a pattern I have yet to determine...

For the forward grip section, I'll need to cut down the 1.25 x 1.15 aluminum tube. I'll use the tubing cutter for that, since it isn't that thick, and being as short as it is, would be nearly impossible to do on the mitre saw (no way to really secure it due to the design of the saw's table):



The tube will fit into the two MHS pieces seen here:

This is basically how I make the Padawan Series sabers I also build, and they seem to hold up to some spirited dueling, so I know this one will be pretty sturdy as well.

These grip tube will slip into the MHS parts like this:


The intent is to have to practically press-fit the parts, to maintain structural rigidity, and alignment so we don't end up with a bent saber. (I've done that before on a couple of others in the past for myself....oops.)

I'll have to hone the inside of the MHS parts for this work, since the I.D's of the pieces is identical to the tubing's O.D. of 1.25".


This is my 1.25" cylinder hone I got from McMaster-Carr.com. I attached it to my variable speed drill motor, and this won't take long, due to the low amount material I need to remove.

I fit the hone into the MHS part:

I started with the emitter mount and because I didn't want to hone the threads, too, attached the emitter to act as a stop for the hone.

I put on my heavy-duty leather glove:

Another option would be to put the part in a vise, but I was not going to run the drill very fast, so friction heat build up isn't a concern this time around.

After a few minutes of checking and honing, the parts fit:



I did the same to un-threaded piece, and eventually it fit as well:


cool...it's starting to look like a saber!

I happen to have a piece of chrome tubing I cut for something else and hadn't ended up using, but it seems a perfect fit for the cover on the blade mount:


Now the real work begins....next post!

[Jay-gon Jinn]

Okay, got some time the other day to do more work on this one. The next step in this one's build was to drill for the main activation switch, so I set up the drill press with a 3/8 bit (I like to start with a smaller hole, then step up to the 5/8"). Next, I marked off the hole location on the un-threaded MHS section:




After drilling with the 5/8" bit, the hole just needed a little be-burring:



I used a sanding drum on my Dremel for that..no pics, sorry.

Test fit the switch and the mounting bezel:


Now I had to decide if I wanted to try and drill a corresponding hole in the Chrome tube (which can be a pain to align properly if you don't drill both parts at once, or try something a little different:

If instead of a hole for the switch, I decided to make a slot to ease assembly of the saber later on.

I started by drilling a hole using the 5/8" bit that was still in the drill press:

This has to be done slowly, or you risk destroying or damaging the tube. This large of a bit has a lot of bite, and the chrome tube is very thin, making it easy to deform if you drill to quickly.

Using a reinforced cutting disk on the Dremel, I cut the section out between the hole and the end of the tube, following the lines I had drawn:


I then spent a few minutes with a sanding drum on my Dremel and cleaned up the cuts, removed the burrs, and enlarged the slot's radius around the switch. Once that was done, I hand sanded the edges with some 400 grit paper and checked the fit:


Now I'll need to drill and tap for the 8-32 screws that will secure the rear section to the switch mount:

I have three way to do this...either 2 screws on either side which would also secure the front grip section to the switch body, or three screws equally spaced around the diameter of the tube...or I could use 4 screws with two on either side of the saber....the front screws being used to secure the connection to the forward grip, the other two securing the rear grip and possibly the recharge port c-clip, which isn't really required. We'll see what Zark thinks, since it's his saber. ;D

[Silver Serpent]

I've always loved your sabers. They're the perfect combination of hardware and MHS.

Are those polywashers going to stay white, or are you going to add color to them somehow?

[Jay-gon Jinn]

I've tried painting them before, but paint just slides off of them, or flakes off after it dries, so of we decide keep them, they will remain white. The interesting thing I found when using them on one of my own, is they take on a pearlescent look when you polish the aluminium underneath, or install them over a chromed piece.

[Silver Serpent]

I've heard you can dye some plastics with a combination of Rit dye, water, and a *little* bit of acetone. Don't leave it to soak, or the acetone will destroy the plastic. It might be worth looking into.

[setelf3of5]

Jay-gon Jinn Very nice work, I have always liked your sabers... Great work!

[Jay-gon Jinn]

I worked on this a bit before going to work Monday afternoon, here's what I got finished....

I had to mark the chrome tube for the mounting screws that will hold the saber together, and in order to ensure that they are drilled in the proper alignment to each other, I used my drafting circle template to mark the tube at 90 degree intervals, starting by finding the center of the slot I cut for the switch:



Using the drafting scale to draw the line (it is three sided, so it fits on the curve of the tube perfectly) I was able to line it up on the 1 1/2" hole in the template:


I marked it off all the way around:




I then measured and marked for the first of the four mounting screws I decided to go with, and drilled the hole in the chrome tube first:


I slid the switch body piece into place and then drilled and tapped the hole in that, too:


I did the same on the other side:


I measured, marked, drilled, and tapped for the other two screws, and installed the 4 screws:




I did the same for the MHS section that will house the speaker mount and also the pommel:



I went with just one on either side here, because to add two more to balance the appearance would mean drilling and tapping into the threads for the pommel and once the screws would be installed, it would be impossible to unscrew or screw in the pommel. One of these screws will be removed and replaced by the covertec button and it's screw.

It's starting to look like saber:


Next thing I worked on was the front grip tube:

I removed two front screws on either side and used the existing holes as guides for drilling and then tapping the forward grip section. I tapped the holes, re-istalled the screws, and checked for straightness using my drafting scale:

Looks pretty good! I spun it in my hand as well, and it looked straight and true to me.

I'll need to remove a bit of the grip tube to clear the switch:

That won't take much, I'll use the Dremel to do that.

I also need to shorten up the chrome sleeve for the top of the forward grip, since this was originally cut to work with a style 5, 8, or 16 blade holder and would extend just beyond the base ring on those:

I'll see if I can get to that tomorrow, along with the shroud for the emitter. I haven't decided how I'd like to mount that shroud, I think this has enough screws showing already....

[Jay-gon Jinn]

A little more work on this....

I put the forward grip section in the drill press vise and used the cutting wheel on my Dremel to wedge out a section for clearing the switch:




Since I had it all apart again, and to prep the grip section for my alternative to the white washers, I put the parts on my adapter and gave them a spin on my drill with some sandpaper to clean up the parts and then re-assembled it (with the washers for now):


I also cut down the chrome sleeve for the emitter mount on the forward grip:



It's nice and square with the MHS section, so that's almost done....i just need to drill and tap for two more screws, which will hopefully be the last ones I use on this.

Next up, cutting the emitter shroud in the Graflex s-curve:

Once that's done, I'll see what I can do to replace those washers with something...better....hopefully. (I do still need to keep this within Zark's budget )

[Star Bird]

Looks great can't wait to see it finished!