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Thread: Hello and first build in progress (small progress)

  1. #1

    Default Hello and first build in progress (small progress)

    Hello world,

    I learned that stunt/dueling/combat lightsabers existed about 1 week ago and have been driving my wife positively crazy with my enthusiasm ever since. I had previously thought that lightsabers either were hasbro toys or those giant heavy things with glass tubes that were sold about 20 years ago. When I learned that people actually make them with poly tubes strong enough to take a beating my first reaction was "YES I am buying that right now!" then I learned folks build them as well and my reaction changed to "YES I am building one of those right now!". Or rather I could start after I finished up some Christmas projects. And so I did.

    A word about my background. I have been haunting this and other forums for the past week and reading and watching a lot of videos but I am very much an utter noob. I taught myself (still am teaching myself) woodworking a few years ago. I have a reasonably complete woodshop including a wood lathe and drill press. I have essentially zero electronics experience. I plan to do some soldering with this build, and even though I have no experience with solder (outside of some home plumbing repairs and doing some very very very minimal tinning of wires when I was a kid) I am not particularly worried about that part of it. So long as I can find a video (and there seems to be many) I am sure I will be able to figure it out.

    My idea for a lightsaber is heavily influenced not only by the machinery I have but also my enjoyment of woodworking. So my lightsaber will definitely be using wood as a major element in its construction.

    So far I have purchased a 1.25" and 1.5" sink tube from my local hardware store. The 1.25 was brass with chrome plating. The 1.5 appears to be stainless steel. I began my project by using a 1.25" forstner bit in my drill press and drilled down through a 7" piece of cherry. I ended up having to widen this hole a few thousandths of an inch. Meanwhile I took my 1.25" sink tube and chucked it up in my lathe and used sandpaper to rough up the surface. Originally I tried to push my tube directly into my freshly drilled hole, but my 1.25" tube was exactly the same size as my 1.25" hole and thus they would not fit. When the tube was chucked in the lathe I tried sanding it down small enough there but it was frankly taking too long. I thus used the drill press to widen the hole in the wood which worked faster and easier.

    I then epoxied the sink tube into my block of cherry. Once dried I used my bandsaw to trim the remainder of the 1.25" sinktube off.

    At this point I needed a way to hold my sinktube/wood in my lathe. So I chucked up a block of wood and turned it into a cone that was wider at its widest then the inner diameter of my sinktube and narrower then the tube at the other end. With a 60 degree live center and that wood cone in place I could now hold my sinktube/wood in place so I could turn it down on my lathe. This worked extremely well. With the aid of callipers I was able to get the sinktube/wood small enough so that it would easily but snugly fit inside my 1.5" sinktube. Wood turners will recognize this process as being exactly the same as when you turn a pen, just bigger.

    This is where I am at now:


    http://i.imgur.com/OMB2aY2.jpg?1


    http://i.imgur.com/nFRz7vQ.jpg?1


    I don't seem to have permission to post pictures yet so unfortunately you need to follow the links.

    Anyway my plan is to cut out windows in my 1.5" sinktube so that you can see the cherry tube underneath. I have ordered an emitter and a pommel from TCSS as well as tri cree green/green/white led. In addition to dremeling my 1.5" sinktube I also plan to use a 1.5" forstner bit and drill down a piece of walnut. I then will turn that piece down on my lathe and then finally cut it apart. After a lot of sanding and shaping I plan to add accents to the outside of my 1.5" sinktube. Thus there will be contrasting walnut and cherry wood showing on my lightsaber. These accents will be pretty small though. It is very important to me that the hilt be comfortable to hold. I therefore will be leaving the grip section clear of odd protrusions. I wanted to add a crystal chamber to the mix but decided eventually that it was too much for a first build.

    So this all brings me to my questions.

    On my list of features is flash on clash, a humming kind of shimmer green/white when the blade is on, Sound, and a momentary switch that does not include any accent leds.

    So what sound card should I buy? While I prefer to not break the bank on this first build, I definitely want all of those features. Having no experience at this I don't know if hilt movement effects are all the same or if some cards are better. If one is better and more accurate at movement effects I would definitely want to go with the better one, and for that purpose and I am willing to open piggy bank.

    I also do not want to skimp on batteries. I plan to go rechargeable with a recharge port, what is the best one to use there?

    When it comes to the blade I want something sturdy enough to stand up to combat with other lightsabers, but I also want the brightest most evenly lit blade possible. What should I go with? There is at least a half dozen options that people swear by. But as someone who has no idea what he is doing its all Greek to me. Should I go photon green? Should I go with TCSS battle blade? Corbin? Should I go with ultraedge? etc etc etc. Thoughts?

    Thank you all for any advice!

  2. #2

    Default

    Nano Biscotte is the entry board of choice, and 18650 3.7v 3400mah is the best you can do on a battery.

    You aren't going to get a single answer on the blade, you'll really have to read through everything and make a choice. If you are building your blade yourself it's relatively inexpensive to simply buy two different types of blades. If you want a durable green blade, it will be hard to beat a photon.

    Read some of the walk-throughs, watch the videos on the TCSS youtube channel.

  3. #3

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    Welcome to the party minorhero. I'm agreed with jb, the NBv3 and 18650 are what you want. If you choose a photon green blade, they apparently work well with a blue LED. Good luck with the build and MTFBWY.

    Greenie

  4. #4

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    Small bit of progress. I drilled the walnut and put it on the lathe to turn it down. For this I used two wooden cones I turned to pin my walnut between the chuck and a live center. This worked.... But not well. If I were to do it again I would get my pen mandrel involved instead of relying on the force being exerted by my tailstock to keep things in-place.

    Once turned down to size I did a quicky sanding and then roughly cut the pieces apart into smaller sections.

    This what that looked like when done:

    7K7g8Ym.jpg

    Once that was done I got out my belt sander, turned it upside down and tried to use that to shape the parts. This did not work very well. I quickly found my parts becoming asymmetrical. When I sanded opposing sides to even them out they started to get too small. By the time I was approaching symmetrical again the part had been severely reduced. I think I need to start off with large bits of wood and use a finer grit of sand paper in my belt sander so I don't go too far too fast.

    Here is what I ended up with so far:

    uXrvv3t.jpg

    I was trying to just free-form these parts but frankly that is not going well. So next I will sketch out the parts in advance and try to make it happen that way. I only need about 6 pieces sanded correctly at the end of the day. 2 will make a kind of guard for the switch. 2 will be near the emitter and 2 more will be near the pommel.

    In other news my parts shipped from TCSS before the holiday, the mail doesn't move over this weekend of course, but I should be seeing my parts in the next few days and then I will be able to start laying out my 1.5" sinktube for cutting.

    I read that the photon green blade looks good with a blue LED but for whatever reason I am having trouble finding information on it with green LEDs. I worry that it will look too yellow.

  5. #5

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    I read that the photon green blade looks good with a blue LED but for whatever reason I am having trouble finding information on it with green LEDs. I worry that it will look too yellow.
    The photon blade is supposed to be used with a blue LED (the regular blue not royal blue are supposed to work best). The blade material has a dye that reacts with the blue wavelength of light and emits its own wavelength which is green.

  6. #6

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    Ok some more progress. First of all after a bit of research it seems that the brightest green lightsaber is now a blue lightsaber and there is no getting around this. In order to use the photon green blade you need to have blue led. I didn't understand why this was till I looked into a bit but its quite clear now. It is also apparent that a photon green blade is brighter then a regular green blade. So I ordered some more parts from TCSS including a new rebel b/b/w star.

    All that being said the progress on my lightsaber is not going as well. I cut out my sinktube with the aid of a dremel but I am frankly just unhappy with how it looks. Currently it just looks like a sink tube.... I need to do something more to make it stop looking like a sink tube and start looking more like a lightsaber. I think the first thing I need to do is dramatically increase the size of the "windows" I have in the sinktube. Hopefully that will help. Here is how things currently look:

    4K9fSPV.jpg

    YGvVWMZ.jpg

    vI8ELM5.jpg

    I just laid some walnut pieces I cut out ontop to see how it would look. They are not glued and I probably will end up making new walnut pieces as these ended up too small. But this is how the wood contrasts:

    VpLeCXz.jpg

    If anyone has suggestions I am definitely open to them.

  7. #7

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    Use a tubing cutter to score the tube, simulating grips, or part lines to add some detail to it:

    Got a question? Start Here. Have you tried the Thread Index yet? Most questions can be answered there.

  8. #8

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    Hey Jay-gon Jinn, thank you for the feedback! It was your tutorial that I randomly found online that convinced me that making my own saber was within the realm of possibility. Thank you for that! My wife is going nuts but I certainly appreciated it!

    I have been trying to decide if I want to "weather" the saber or not. If I go for heavy weathering the method you use for scratching the saber wont really work. I can still add the scoring lines though. Definitely something I will think about.

    I was very discouraged earlier in the night when I first made my post. Since then I have been thinking a lot about what I need to do and looking at various other peoples sabers. I will definitely increase the size of the windows in the sinktube such that there will always be both windows visible no matter what angle you look at it from. Also, it seems to me that layering to create complex designs helps a lot in making these tubes look like sabers. The scoring is one method to achieve that. I am going to try to create a very large (possibly 2 very large) layers of walnut that will go around most of the diameter of the blade and for several inches as well. No matter what one will be at the front of the blade. I might also add another for the back. Whereas before I tried to sand my pieces of walnut on the belt sander, this time I think I will do it much slower by hand, but I will have the most control possible that way.

  9. #9

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    Some more progress, I widened the windows in the sinktube and also made them asymmetrical which helps a lot with making my less then machine precision cuts less noticeable. I also have begun the process of making larger walnut pieces. The first of these had a large knot in it (it was scrap after all). The knot definitely has some soft spots in it which I removed. I think the result will actually be really spiffy since it will expose the metal underneath in the knot hole. Once I cut it apart and shape it a bit I think it will make a nice addition.

    fn3MsO5.jpg

  10. #10

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    VERY nice! I'm loving the wood accents...from the minute I saw Gunji's saber, I wanted to make one with wood, I lack the skill & equipment to do it. I will definitely be keeping an eye on this build for more progress!


    Naasad Tal - A.K.A. Chris S.
    My Saber Build - http://forums.thecustomsabershop.com...from-MHS-parts

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