First Build - Equalibrium

[BrettD]

Greetings fellow Jedi's and Sith's!

For the longest time I've said to myself "I need a lightsaber in my life" and I kept looking at Force FX and Master Replicas and a few of those
"custom" saber builders. I came to TCSS and said "hey I can do that!". So I studied threads here on the forums and gleamed as much info
as I could and placed a parts order.

Here is the parts List:

1 of: Hilt style 3
2 of: Brass 3/16" OD tube
1 of: Rebel Star LED & MHSV1 Heatsink Module
2 of: 8-32 x .3" Purple thumb screw
1 of: Panasonic Li-Ion 18650 3.7V 3400mAh PCB Protected Rechargeable Battery
1 of: 2.2 ohm 5w resistor
1 of: 20mA DynaOhm? Variable Resistor
4 of: JST connector kit male and female
1 of: NB V2 MWS Header and Wiring Harness
1 of: Switchcraft 2.1mm Power Jack
1 of: Bullet shaped tip for 1" thick walled blades
1 of: 1" Thick walled Polycarbonate 40" long Red
1 of: 3.7V Li-ion smart charger with 2.1mm plug
1 of: Nano Biscotte V2 Sound Module SD card (Spare)
1 of: Nano Biscotte Sound Module V2
1 of: 40" LED blade diffuser for 1" thick walled blades
1 of: 16mm Anti Vandal Short Momentary Purple Ring Switch
1 of: MHSV1 Blade Holder Style 23
1 of: Premium 28mm Speaker
1 of: MHS choke style 3
1 of: MPS Pommel style 4
1 of: MPS Clip
1 of: Brass MPS Insert style 6
1 of: Acrylic Chassis Disc for NB and 18500/18650 pack - S3 (Clear)
1 of: MHS speaker mount V4 - For 28mm Speakers
2 of: Stainless 4-40 all thread
2 of: Stainless Steel 4-40 Hex nut
1 of: Acrylic Chassis Disc for Recharge Port - S8 (Clear)


At first I tried to solder the header onto the NB with my butane soldering iron and I quickly found out that was not the right tool for this job as I soldered
multiple pads together. I stopped what I was doing and stepped away. The next day I made a trip to RadioShack and picked up their most expensive
temperature controlled soldering station and while I was there I got some tip tinner, rosin core 60/40 and a pair of "helping hands". Honestly these are items
I needed anyway so I'm not counting them in the price to build the saber! The RadioShack soldering station is a godsend it's adjustable from slightly over
300 degrees all the way up into the 800's and it's ESD Safe. *Edit* And I cleaned the solder off of the pads on the NB with a suction de-soldering tool. I
would have rather used de-solder braid but RadioShack had just sold the last roll!

I posted up a preliminary wiring diagram which had a few errors and thanks to the wonderful forum folks for helping me sort that out. Honestly for me it's
often better to sit down and "look" at the parts themselves rather than try to draw up a diagram. But with that said I've corrected the diagram and am going
to include it for anyone that wants to use it.



My best advice for anyone that is going to build a saber is to make sure you have the right soldering stick, don't skimp and use heat shrink anywhere that it's
appropriate to do so. Also think about the "flow" of your wiring. When it's all said and done you should be able to have very clean wire runs. Also think about
strain relief. For example you can see the 2.2 Ohm resistor is fairly large, you can see how I used some heat shrink to hold the wires together which in turn
will keep the resistor in place.

I cut the blade to 32" with a tubing cutter thanks again forum!!! I still need to drill and tap a hole for my blade thumb screw and the other thumb screw will
be used to secure the chassis inside of the hilt. I am also going to spray the entire hilt body in 1000f BBQ Black, bake it in the oven and then I am going to
heavily sand it and hopefully I can achieve a look similar to what that one saber company (who's name I dare not speak) does.



Well here's some photos, let me know what you think!




























And here is a video. This is before I shortened the blade to final length. Please pardon my heavy mouth breathing....

http://youtu.be/pYTm5n6rxgg

[Miraluka]

Wooooo that's a lot of JST connectors. Nice looking saber.

[BrettD]

@Miraluka no doubt it's a JST fest inside that hilt! The good news is that I now consider myself an expert and removing those stinking pins!

Thanks for the kind words!

[Generic Jedi]

Great job on your first!

[BrettD]

@Generic Jedi

Thanks! Here's hoping my weathering turns out decent! Haven't had the heart to try it yet, been too busy playing with it

[Darth Kato]

It looks really good, I hope mine looks that clean when I'm finished. I have a question about the chassis disc, can you put the NBv2 into the disc after soldering the wires too it? Or do you have to put the disc on first?

[BrettD]

@Darth Kato

You can still slide the card in and out of the chassis disks with the header soldered on. One thing you may need to do (I had to) is to very gently (and I mean gently!) clean up the
edges of the NB V2 PC Board. The "break points" where Plector snaps all the boards apart after etching, leaves a bit of roughness that did not want to slide through the chassis disks.

I suppose I could have enlarged the slot in the chassis disks but I just gently filed the sides of the PC Board with the file on my Swiss Army Knife (very fine file) and it only took a few
passes to clean the boogers up.

I didn't see a reason that I would be sliding my NB back out of the chassis disks so I added a very small drop of super glue to the very corners of the board where it sits into the disks.
If I ever need to remove it I "might" be able to break it loose from the disks. You could probably use something else like double sided tape or maybe wedge a piece of heat shrink
between the card and the disk.

[BrettD]

Last night I tore the saber back down to parts, the fact that I did not use heat shrink on the switch was bothering me and also I wanted to
shorten up the switch wires a little and apply black paint to the metal parts. I took the parts out to the sink and scrubbed them thoroughly
with dish soap and a green scotch brite pad to give the aluminum some tooth. I dried the parts and then laid on a few coats of 1000 Degree
Rustoleum Barbecue Black.

I put the metal parts in the oven at 275 for about an hour and then re-assembled the saber and let it sit overnight and all day today. I then
took a dry green scotch brite pad to the black finish to thin it down in all the high spots and give it a finish very similar to "that other saber company".

Here are the results! Please let me know what you think.

[Generic Jedi]

That looks really good!

[Cha-Li Obedi]

The weathering looks great! Nice job.