Page 2 of 3 FirstFirst 1 2 3 LastLast
Results 11 to 20 of 22

Thread: Slow Saber Build Thread: A Sentinel Called Sorrow

  1. #11

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Jenny View Post
    Hey, y'all. Quick, dumb question: Chassis discs designed to lock in between threaded sections. I read that they're 0.2 inches thick, and will only fit with parts that have a 0.4 inch male threaded section. Is that the standard length of male threading on MHSv1 parts, or something I need to look for specifically?
    That is the standard length of MHSv1 parts. Some older parts were .5", but anything since TFA (and probably earlier) has been the .4 standard.
    When you do things right, people won't be sure you've done anything at all.

  2. #12

    Default

    Pretty sure 0.4 is the standard length of the male threads...I also learned the hard way that those discs (& the LED housings) clock the parts weird so if you have holes or need something to line up in a specific way, put those parts in before you measure.


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

  3. #13

    Default

    Put in my order for my main body -- a 9" DF extension with MB style 4 grooving along the entire length. Quite excited.

    A friend of mine who is an electronics engineer and works with LEDs for a living made me a buck-boost board for a tri-star which will fit inside the choke section, and included a reed switch so that I don't have to have an external switch. Photos when the board arrives in the mail.

    Now to come up with a chassis design I like... one which puts the recharge port inside, with enough room for a kill key, so the sabre can go into long-term storage without its guts hanging out.

  4. #14

    Default

    You can also sand things carefully with high grit to fix the clocking. I have some printed parts and adapters that I designed a little thick intentionally to allow for adjustment.

  5. #15
    Force Aware
    Force Aware
    Force Aware
    MasterStoddard's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2009
    Location
    VA, USA
    Posts
    120

    Default

    Like your character's back story. Good luck with your build. Looking forward to seeing it finished.

    I know the slow build process as well. I only recently was able to order a few parts for my saber "The Outcast." Haven't really got the character backstory worked out yet.
    Sean

    SciFiHero.net Member; SG Operations Home of SG-Socom Member

  6. #16

    Default

    One of the down sides of SLE is that sometimes you feel well enough to do things, and sometimes... sometimes, you just don't. I'm in the latter place right now.

    But I did want to mention that yesterday, I got the package containing the last of my MHS pieces, and today, some little bits'n'bobs I'd ordered to be able to design around them. I went to the craft store the other day, as well, and got a piece of basswood to make my chassis from -- balsa didn't seem resilient enough, but basswood seems perfect: light enough to cut even with gimpy hands, and firm enough to keep its shape, even [s]when[/s] if I do wild things with the saber.

    I decided that I needed to make a couple of changes to my initial ideas. In addition to having the recharge port and space for the kill key, I need to design in space for a RICE port. I know I'm starting with a Pico card, and they don't really have RICE capacity, but I probably won't stay there forever... I'll likely end up with a Crystal Focus or Igniter board in the fullness of time. So might as well just make the connector have room from the get-go. I also decided to put a type 17 switch on the chassis. I don't plan to have an exterior switch at this time, and the switch my EE friend is making me is just a momentary switch based on a reed switch or a hall effect switch. Since the Pico switches between LED configurations using long presses on the switch, though, I need to have a switch that accepts / generates long presses. So teeny switch on the chassis.

    The MHS part I received is a thing of beauty. I trained in Japanese sword arts when I was younger and healthier, and I want/ed a long hilt to use the forms I'm comfortable with. So instead of a seven-inch main body, I got a nine-inch double-female adapter, and had Tim machine grooves all the way along from end to end. It looks fantastic, and with a little bit of CLP, the threads on all the pieces go together like buttah. With the long choke, and the longer main body, this thing comes in at almost seventeen inches, which is long for a lightsaber of the modern era, but goodness, does it feel right in my hands!

    Anyway. Photos in a couple of days, when I feel well enough to get out of bed for more than a couple of minutes at a time. For now, I'm taking meds and going back to sleep.

  7. #17

    Default

    First, let's have the beauty shot. This thing is massive... shown here with a familiar book for scale, it's nearly seventeen inches long. It's definitely a two-handed hilt, which was exactly what I wanted.



    Okay, note for experienced saber builders who are easily bored. The rest of this is going to be really basic, and really lengthy, because I'm an utter noob and had to figure stuff out as I went along, and I figure there may be other utter noobs lurking who would like to know what I figured out. So if you're easily bored, now would be a good time to go read something else.

    I bought the pieces in two batches. The previous batch, as you may have read further back in the thread, had the blade holder, choke, and pommel. Because my training in sword art is mostly in Japanese styles, I wanted a longer hilt. So I ordered a custom-milled double-female 10" extension (3" longer than a standard main body, and I asked for the grooves to run along the entire length), along with some incidental other bits.

    Below, you can see the four primary pieces lined up from emitter to pommel, which gives a sense of their relative sizes.



    I apologize for lens flare and other artifacts. My hands tremble very badly, which made some of the pictures in the first batch blurry, so I bought a tripod this time... but I'm still using my camera phone, and I got lens flare. Many indeed are the arts of which I am not a mistress.

    Below, we have the blade holder / emitter (I use these terms interchangably). One of the incidental bits I bought this month was the heat sink, TCSS Version 3. Here you can see the copper heat sink screwed into the aluminium lens holder, next to the emitter.



    The lens holder has a little bit of a lip on it, so you drop it into the emitter, copper side toward you:



    and screw on the next most southerly piece. The lip on the lens holder is perfectly scaled to lock in between the male and female threads and stay in place.



    One of the few parts I did not source from TCSS is this blade safety plug. I just loved the heat-patina look of it. Why is it called a safety plug? Because the LEDs we work with are technically class 2 lasers, which means that direct viewing for more than a quarter of a second can cause damage to your eyesight. Even if you think that you're not the kind of dope who will stare directly into a laser, get a blade plug -- accidents happen, and we have not yet reached the point where we can grow you new eyeballs.



    The plug dropped right down into the emitter. It sits on top of the heat sink's lens holder, and the blade set screw holds it in place. Here's what it looks like, looking down the bore of the emitter:



    Assemble the emitter / choke to the next piece south:



    Now, if you read my earlier posts, you may recall that I initially ordered the d-ring pommel insert, and then decided that it wasn't quite what I wanted for this particular saber. So I ordered a couple more:



    I decided to go with the one threaded for a recharge port, even though I'm not putting my recharge port there. I didn't like the idea of people looking up inside the hilt through the pommel's perforations, so I went on eBay and bought a quarter-yard of "acoustically transparent" speaker grill cloth. I cut a circle, and put it behind the pommel insert, and secured it with the snap ring.

    ... is what I'd like to say. But the truth is, I discovered that forceps weren't up to the job, so I bought a pair of cheap snap-ring pliers from Harbor Freight, and the snap ring straight up bent the pliers as I was trying to pull it in tightly enough to engage the groove in the pommel in which it's supposed to sit. So lesson: cheap tools aren't, because now I'll have to spend more money getting another pair of good pliers, whereas if I'd just done that in the first place....

    I hope you found that entertaining, and perhaps learned something with me. My next step will be grabbing a bench power supply and some 6061 T6 aluminum tube, and experimenting with anodizing, coloring, and plating. I'll post those results, but it'll probably be a couple of weeks at the very least.
    Last edited by Jenny; 05-13-2017 at 02:58 PM.

  8. #18

    Default

    I got these snap ring pliers off of Amazon. They work pretty good on the shorter pommels. They work for the longer pommels too, but need a bit of jiggling.

  9. #19

    Default

    Nice backstory for the character.
    Your saber is definitely going to be massive, almost like a single-bladed saberstaff.
    Should be a pretty hilt, though
    "But you are mistaken. I am no Jedi"

  10. #20

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Jenny View Post


    Someone else made a comment that, with a double-female adapter, the choke 3 long would make a decent shoto all by itself. I am kind of interested in making a matching shoto for my daito, but that's down the road... and I'm kind of thinking that maybe an MHSv2 hilt would be better, if Tim ever makes any of those again.
    Could you actually fit anything into the choke 3 long to make it function even as a stunt saber? I love the idea, but that would be some serious cram-fu. Also, switches?

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •