alternate blade retention

[Jay-gon Jinn]

I have seen a collet clamp type emitter done way back in 2004. It was done on a saber that was based on Qui-gon Jinn's and past of the emitter was the tightening mechanism. It was not a cheap set up and was complicated to do and still have the blade light up.

[FenixFire]

Any collet based retention system would pretty much be incompatible with any emitter shrouds you'd have on your hilt, because you'd have to find a way to tighten the blade holder and keep those in the proper orientation. I agree it would be a really neat concept, but a screw is still the way cheaper and easier way to go.

Agreed, it would have to be integral to the emitter, not an add-on to an existing. Essentially 3 or 4 intricately machined precision parts. Hence the several hundred for a 1 off machining.

Quick iPad/Sketchbook Pro Sketch depicting.

[Mineral]

That sketch should be thrown in the store wishlist thread

One might be a hundreds-of-dollars part, but once Tim's made one, the cost of setup can be amortized over many purchases.

The parts in green and gray in your sketch could be standard, and different designs of the orange sleeve could give you several distinct looks.

Lots of BCS (blade chuck system) emitters would be a pretty sweet addition to the hobby!

[Mineral]

Also, not for nothing, but it's cheaper and easier to paint the lens of your flashlight green with a magic marker, duct tape a golf club protector tube to it and make the vroom vroom noises with your mouth. That was all the technology available to me in 1977. It was a blast, but people seem to have come up with new ideas since then. I bet some people even tried things that didn't work for them, but somebody else made work later.
Thought experiments and discussion are free, and sometimes lead to fun/cool results.
The hobby is supposed to be fun/cool, right?

[FenixFire]

Lots of BCS (blade chuck system) emitters would be a pretty sweet addition to the hobby!

Well it's been publicly shown so it's public domain and no longer patentable so have at it.

I design and invent for a really good living...this is always fun.

[Darth Vand-Alar]

Agreed, it would have to be integral to the emitter, not an add-on to an existing. Essentially 3 or 4 intricately machined precision parts. Hence the several hundred for a 1 off machining.

Quick iPad/Sketchbook Pro Sketch depicting.

love the design. its about what i had in mind

That sketch should be thrown in the store wishlist thread

One might be a hundreds-of-dollars part, but once Tim's made one, the cost of setup can be amortized over many purchases.

The parts in green and gray in your sketch could be standard, and different designs of the orange sleeve could give you several distinct looks.

Lots of BCS (blade chuck system) emitters would be a pretty sweet addition to the hobby!

never thought about that when i posted the original post. i might be able to draft a version of it and get a machinist to make it. maybe the owner of tcss

[Silver Serpent]

Also, not for nothing, but it's cheaper and easier to paint the lens of your flashlight green with a magic marker, duct tape a golf club protector tube to it and make the vroom vroom noises with your mouth. That was all the technology available to me in 1977. It was a blast, but people seem to have come up with new ideas since then. I bet some people even tried things that didn't work for them, but somebody else made work later.
Thought experiments and discussion are free, and sometimes lead to fun/cool results.
The hobby is supposed to be fun/cool, right?

Nobody said you couldn't do it, or that it was impossible. We just said it's a lot more complicated and expensive to do over the current method with a blade retention screw. Feel free to experiment and innovate.

[Darth Vand-Alar]

after doing a little thinking, 3 layers will not work. mod blade holder 2 by shaving it down to the top of the thread, thread it then shave off about 2/3 the threads then mill in the channels to make it a collet. then make a matching sheath for it.

[Darth Vand-Alar]

otherwise the emitter will be too big

[FenixFire]

As long as the modified emitter had a tapered end that interfaces with a tapered surface on the shroud then yes that could work. If designed properly the internal collet could be flush with the front surface of the outer blade holder section in the sketch, or it could extend out as blade claws. I have designed my fair share of collets for surgical drills and saws where the collet seats flush with the leading edge and the jaws interlock when fully tightened preventing tissue debris from entering the blade holder...funny how it is even called the same thing...just realized that sorry! The onlything driving the length of the collet is the design of the holder and the stability that you want out of it. I have seen 1" diameter High-speed spindle collets as short as 1/2" on some of the commercial honing and milling machines i have designed, but they were only running 2" long bits. I have also seen some that exceeded 6" for honing bits that exceeded 6 feet.

The benefit of the internal collet is that to change out blade sizes you only need to change out the internal collet. This opens up the realm of modularity of the design and system as a whole. 1 base emitter/adapter, 3 sizes of internal collets (3/4, 7/8, and 1"), and several styles of the outer housing. The line could then be expanded offering different styles of collets that give a different aesthetic to the blade/collet interaction.

Something that was in line with the aesthetics of #13 would be very easy to accomplish assuming material thickness would not be an issue.