Hi All

[Bry]

Howdy everyone.

Well I'm new to the site, and saber construction, but hopefully yall will put up with me!

I made a little trip to the local Lowe's earlier to procure some building materials to make a pvc saber hilt, since I'm poor, and it will be my first attempt. Wish me luck I have a feeling I'll need it. Though I do have some experience working with pvc from my days of playing Darkon years ago.

On another note, while handing material in the store, I noticed just how big a 1 inch piece of pvc is, and I have to ask, do I just have small hands, or do the average size of the saber handles feel really large to everyone else? Anywho, I'm sure I'll ask alot of stupid questions, when the search box brings up 20 pages of unrelated results, and I can't find what I need to, but hopefully no one will feel I'm a total hindrance to their peaceful hobby. Thanks for your patience in advance.

[Forgetful Jedi Knight]

Welcome to the Forums.

[darth_chasm]

Welcome

I don't know what pvc you picked up but If I'm not mistaken I believe 1" schedule 40 pvc is 1" ID and has something like 1.3" OD.

[snilam]

Howdy everyone.

Well I'm new to the site, and saber construction, but hopefully yall will put up with me!

I made a little trip to the local Lowe's earlier to procure some building materials to make a pvc saber hilt, since I'm poor, and it will be my first attempt. Wish me luck I have a feeling I'll need it. Though I do have some experience working with pvc from my days of playing Darkon years ago.

On another note, while handing material in the store, I noticed just how big a 1 inch piece of pvc is, and I have to ask, do I just have small hands, or do the average size of the saber handles feel really large to everyone else? Anywho, I'm sure I'll ask alot of stupid questions, when the search box brings up 20 pages of unrelated results, and I can't find what I need to, but hopefully no one will feel I'm a total hindrance to their peaceful hobby. Thanks for your patience in advance.

First of all Welcome! Second that Pvc might feel big right now but after you start putting in electronics especially if doing sound you'll start complaining why its so small. funny how it works out that way. Read as much of the forums as you can especially the stickies. If your searches aren't fruitful usually everyone is nice about helping out a novice get started on their way.

[Bry]

Thanks for the greetings!

As to the questions.

Welcome

I don't know what pvc you picked up but If I'm not mistaken I believe 1" schedule 40 pvc is 1" ID and has something like 1.3" OD.

I picked up 3 sizes in all, 3/4, 1", and 1" 1/4, all of cold water only (white) pvc. Out of all of them, the 3/4 feels the nicest in my hands on a comfort level, and would be alright with additions that thicken it around. The 1" feels slightly too big around, and yet I have read pvc tutorials that use the 1' 1/4 as a sleeve, and after holding that size in person, there is no way I could swing that around comfortably (afraid it would slip out of my hand cause of not having a good enough grasp). I'll have to get a length of sink tube to see how that feels though. Hopefully that will feel comfortable to me, so when the time comes that I can make a full blown saber, I'll be comfortable with swinging it.

First of all Welcome! Second that Pvc might feel big right now but after you start putting in electronics especially if doing sound you'll start complaining why its so small. funny how it works out that way. Read as much of the forums as you can especially the stickies. If your searches aren't fruitful usually everyone is nice about helping out a novice get started on their way.

Yeah I saw alot of the stuff while I've been reading about the nightmare of Cram-fu to get them assembled. Right now my first goal is just to make stunt/kata saber, no sounds. Though alot of this is new to me, so I'll probably end up asking stupid questions about oddball sized parts, or how long can I hope to run something off AAA batteries lol.

[Miraluka]

how long can I hope to run something off AAA batteries lol.

Not long.

Best I can say about hilt diameter is to use a choke if you can. I feel like I have somewhat small hands but you put even a slight choke into an average sized hilt and it becomes pretty easy to hold onto.

Also, welcome to the forums.

[Generic Jedi]

I agree with Miraluka about using a choke. I used choke style 3 in my first build, and it's very comfortable.

[Miraluka]

Between MHS, PVC and my hilts from other companies, I've found that the slightest choke makes a world of difference. Even if you just lathe down the PVC a little bit, it's way better than nothing. They don't have to be super deep like the MHS chokes. But if you want to drop to a smaller diameter of PVC for a choke, that can work, too. The sky's the limit.