Kinda new and asking a few questions

[Gen]

I have lurked the forums and store on and off for a few years now both with and without an account and now I ramping up to start my first project. now I don't know If I'm unlucky or what but whenever I've check the store the 1 1/4" sink tube blade holder is out of stock, but i recently found discovered the 1.25 OD blade holder but since I know they are measured by out side diameter I was wondering if it will work in a 1.25' sink tube or if I need the 1.18 OD blade holder or a larger sink tube. I also want sound in the saber, know I know the general practice for budget builds is to tear apart a cheapo Hasbro saber for a board but I kinda want better sound than that so I was wondering if there are any old discontinued sound module floating around or if I have to bite the bullet and get a Nano Biscotte. I have also been considering a pvc hilt so any information on how those builds go is useful information.

Thank you and have a nice day.

[Darth Nater]

My advice is... don't build a sink tube for your first. You will just want to do something different immediately. Just wait, save, whatever and piece together the lowest end MHS setup you can get by with. Think it out ahead of time so that you have enough space in whatever you make to fit your electronics. You can probably find an MR board on ebay for fairly cheap. That's going to be the cheapest route aside from an econo board from a toy (I've done 5 of those and they work and are cool, but I immediately wanted something else).

The Nano Biscotte may mislead you. I just bought the stuff to upgrade an econo board saber to an NBV2 and it ran well over $100 even though I already had the hilt.

The NB is $65.
Then you need a battery source to do it right so there goes a 18650 or 18500 into the mix.
You'll need a recharge port likely, and then a charger to go with it so add that in.
You may want an accent led or illuminated switch. Those are $12 each.
If you get into boxes for switches/recharge- that's about $20+ depending.
The stuff just really adds up quick.
Don't forget the blade. If you order complete, then tack on $31 at least. If you can make your own, then around $13. I do this, but I also have a $300 miter saw to cut the blade clean with and already have a tube of the correct adhesive that you use to glue on the tip to where it doesn't come off.

These things are cool no doubt. They are also freaking expensive and the cooler you make it, the pricier it gets. I swear to god I saw some dude on YouTube make a sink tube saber for like $50 and said, "Hey, I can do that!". I've easily dropped over $1000 in the last 4 years on this website and I'm not even really into it like many of these folks are.

I guess what I'm trying to say is, just try to do it right the first time. It will save you in the long run. If you spend $15 on a soldering iron, you wasted your money. If you spent $30, you will get by. Make sure you have one with a fine tip. You will be soldering tiny wires and connections, not household plugins. I think I use .032 solder, not that fat stuff I found in my Dad's garage. Never soldered a thing before I did these. Its not hard to learn.

You may know all this already, but with a first post, I'm just spitting out the advice I would give looking back on when I first came here and asked questions and rarely got answers that didn't include "USE THE SEARCH FEATURE NOOB!!!" A 7" main body works fine and some of them look pretty cool now as opposed to a few years back. There are some pretty cool looking cheaper blade holders. You don't need to spend $30 for the Obi Wan looking pommel when the little $8 tapered one will work just fine. If a standard switch costs $8 and an illuminated switch costs $12, then that $4 difference is less than you will spend at McDonalds tomorrow for a quarter pounder combo. Think everything out ahead of time. Wait til next year before you order when things you want are in stock and not depleted from the premiere. If you have access to a drill press or even a cordless drill, hit Home Depot and grab a 8/32 and 10/32 individual drill & tap set rather than ordering that drill & tap service. You will have it and can use it again if you ever want to. Triple check your order before placing it and write your list down before hand. This keeps you from waiting on shipping if you forgot something. Sorry, this is getting kind of long and boring. I've done this dumb stuff before so in my mind, I'm saving you the trouble.


But yeah, don't do a sink tube man. Its a pain in the butt and not so easy to work with. Its also not so cheap in the long run when you compare the cost of the tube to an MHS tube. It bends, it flexes, it dents, its thin and doesn't tap well. And most importantly, it doesn't screw apart like MHS and is a royal pain in the tail to fish electronics and switches through. On a budget, 7" tube, cheapest pommel and a good lower cost blade holder. You'll be a lot happier. If you get a hilt with those nice grooves and don't want it to look boring, mask it, sand the intended surface lightly, and hit it with about 5 coats of spray paint in the grooves, a couple coats of clear spray paint, and throw it in your oven on 200 degrees for an hour. Good to go. Your house will smell like death for a short while, but hey!

I've got 6 lightsabers about 3 feet from me right. The 2 beat up sink tubes that I made from Hasbro boards, 2 more that I've got $200 in that are some other lower end sound card, another that's likely close to $250 once I finish it, and the last with a PC2.0 that I've got over 3 bills in. All because of that dude on YouTube who showed me how he made a sink tube lightsaber for his kid for $50. Its a wormhole man. You will always want more, start a wrung or two up on the ladder is all I'm saying.

[Ty_Bomber]

All good advice.

Sinktube isn't a bad starter saber, but you will want to upgrade. It's kind of a Padawan build, and best suited for the Padawans. If you're Co with giving it away as a practice run before you start your build, go for it.

That being said, try not to bite off more than you can chew. My first build was gutting a broken saberforge and putting MR sound in it. I didn't keep it and didn't want to, but it gave me the skills and Confidence to tackle a PC install a fee months down the road. I think for your budget and experience, an econo sound install in an MHS hilt you can upgrade later is a good compromise. Not Sinktube, not a super expensive board you can fry on accident. Just make sure that you plan accordingly.

[vadeblade]

The nice thing about the sink tubes though is that there is very little fear when it come to taking a dremel or a drill to it. Cut away chunks, drill a bunch of holes... screw up and your only out $9 and a trip to the hardware store. I honestly cannot say that about the MHS parts i own. I sweat bullets when I'm about to drill a hole into it for fear of mangling my $30 part(+ shipping), plus having to wait for for the replacement to arrive in the mail. Or worse, it is out of stock.

[Cha-Li Obedi]

Great advice guys! Darth Nader, you've inspired my to grab that 8-32 drill & tap set next time I'm at Home Depot. I just ordered parts for my 2nd build and would have already paid for it if I would of grabbed it from the start and not been intimidated by the thought of tapping & drilling my on screw holes.

Gen, I think the key would be to practice, practice, practice your technique (acid etching, cutting away chunks and/or drilling holes...etc.) on the sink tube parts (this is even more important with your electronics). Once you've got your skills developed, order up those beautiful TCSS parts and complete your build.

[Gen]

Thanks for the advice, I will hold out for the mhs parts, I'm on a pretty tight budget so it will take me some time to accumulate everything, though I have set a goal of having it finished by the premiere of episode 8 to give me some time, I'm also planning to go for an mr board for the first build, to save me some cash. Thanks again.

[Darth Nater]

I worked on swapping an NBv2 into a saber that had an econo board in it for the last 2 days and wow, I don't see how some of these guys are able to do what they do. This one is cram-fu for me, and if I ever do another, its going to be on something that has the same inside diameter all the way down. I put a chassis disc between 2 sections and then one section couldn't screw in all the way due to the nuts sticking out (same position as the speaker holder on the disc holes). So I ended up hacksawing 1/16" off of a ribbed sections threads which worked to make it screw together all the way, but made me extremely nervous in the process.

The NB is small and those pads are close together. I used their harness and monkey headed them from the bottom, but wow, again nervous about bridging pads together. As for chassis, I have no idea how you cut this without gnarling up the threads. had a time with that, just trying to start a nut on the final assembly. Ended up cutting windows out of the sides of the chassis tubing so I could get pliers on the all thread to hold it and keep it from spinning while I was getting the nut started/tightened.

These guys here are good. I just somehow manage to get by.

[Darth Nater]

I got both the 8/32 and 10/32 taps for this, but another thing that has been a godsend is one of those expensive Irwin step-bits. The cone shaped suckers that cost like $30 or so. They work WONDERS for drilling an AV switch hole or a recharge port hole. I slapped together a little cradle out of some scrap wood laying around to where its 2 long pieces parallel an inch and a quarter apart. I can clamp that onto the base of a drill press and then just lay a saber section on it longways. Put a cloth down under as not to scratch the body. Then I can hold pressure on it with my hand in that cradled and drill holes without worrying about it moving around on me.