The Many Mishaps Of Saber Building

[Twigz]

Hello all!
I find myself getting slightly discouraged\frustrated rather easily sometimes in this hobby, and I know I can not be the only one who ever screws up big time.

I think it would be cool to have this thread be composed of us all confessing mistakes and adversities we faced when making our sabers.

I'll start first.

Today I tried stripping chrome from a sink tube using bleach without researching what bleach does to brass. My already-cut and filed shroud was reduced to an oxidized, pink and green monstrosity and rendered utterly useless.

[DarthFender]

As long as it hasn't tarnished through, you could try brasso. But don't forget there's a layer of nickel under the chrome for the chrome to adhere to. It does not stick to well to brass. You can probably still save it.

As for my worst boneheaded thing I've ever done. I ran an old Hasbro Force action sound board on a 7.4v Li-Ion battery pack and smoked it up in about 2 seconds. That could not be saved. 25 dollars literally up in smoke.

EDIT:

I highly recommend doing a few of those cheapie hasbro boards before installing anything from Plecter, It costs less to make the mistakes.

[Silver Serpent]

I once picked up a LEDEngin star right after I finished soldering my wires to it.

The scar healed after a few weeks.

[DarthFender]

That'll learn ya, real quick.

[amwolf]

I once, while working on a stack of brass radiator fins for a crystal chamber, meant to cut out the material between holes A and B... but didn't double check it and cut out between holes B and C. Ruined them all. There was... language... used in the shop that night, and then it was time to go home. And to the hardware store.

I've also bumped the side of my hand into my drill press bit, and it had "almost" stopped spinning.

[Bark]

On my first build, I stripped a screw. The screw is the first thing to remove for a saber disassemble. While my saber works, I'll have a project on my hands when I need to eventually open it. Oh, and the R.I.C.E. doesn't connect either, so no configuration changes for a while.

[The Yin]

When working on my very first sound saber, I broke off the piece on the PC right next to the power pads (the orange square). Scared the poop out of me. But I contacted PL and was told I could solder it back on. I did, and the board still works fine.

[JakeSoft]

Very early on, I once ripped the solder pad right of an LED star by being too rough with it and trying to force things together in the hilt. That's the day I learned that cram-fu about elegance/planning and not brutality. I plan things out much better now so they fit.

[MrCafe]

As long as it hasn't tarnished through, you could try brasso. But don't forget there's a layer of nickel under the chrome for the chrome to adhere to. It does not stick to well to brass. You can probably still save it.

As for my worst boneheaded thing I've ever done. I ran an old Hasbro Force action sound board on a 7.4v Li-Ion battery pack and smoked it up in about 2 seconds. That could not be saved. 25 dollars literally up in smoke.

EDIT:

I highly recommend doing a few of those cheapie hasbro boards before installing anything from Plecter, It costs less to make the mistakes.

I have also burnt out a hasbro when I first started this hobby.