Cape Fear Stormtrooper TENT POLE Lightsaber

[SFXER001]

HEMA fighting with Longswords require longer hilts (longer than hand-and-a-half/bastard sword) for control of very long blades. Their diameter usually isn't that much heftier though. And I see you point about the traditional Graflex rubber grips. I love the top half of Anakin/Luke ANH's saber, but I hate the bottom half of Graflex sabers for that reason; they look so pommel heavy and uncomfortable. In all cases, I believe the original Graflex sabers would look better without the grips, and with a leather wrap or a traditional sword pommel. Fortunately, MHS would let me build something like that if I desired!

I don't want to hijack Tom's thread anymore than we already have, but thank you for your feedback.

Tom, Vereous suggested grunging your tent pole handle and I wholeheartedly agree with that. Make it look you picked it up at a junkyard. Think Dieselpunk, Steampunk's cooler cousin who smells like an ashtray. Think the built out of scrap feel that Starkiller's lightsaber gives off. Kylo Ren's crossguard saber is also very rough and grungy looking, with poorly placed wires and scuff marks. If you google "junkyard lightsabers", you'll see some ideas I've personally been taking note of for my own efforts.

[Tom Tilmon]

Since its not "my" saber per se, I'll let the end user do the weathering. Typically, I don't enjoy weathering other peoples' sabers. So, Robert can "grunge" it up on his own. I painted the emitter shroud black, left the pommel/shroud polished aluminum, and the hilt is that dull gray which is oxidized aluminum. Then it has a brass pommel insert, and a brass switch box, along with 2 brass thumb screws on the emitter. Gray, Black, Brass, Silver color profile. Its growing on me. The 16mm switch has some kind of weird travel fault in it. Its a cog illuminated 16mm from TCSS. I'm not happy with it, but to pull it out would be a nightmare. I did successfully wire the PEX to get RGB functionality out of the NBIV. That was relatively simple. So, I picked up that skill. I'll try to get some pictures and video up tomorrow night. Its a cool little saber, I think Robert will like it. Not too shabby since it was originally a tent pole. I'm currently re-building/re-configuring Mako to neopixel with I3. So might have a couple of things to show off by the end of the weekend. Jediseth gave me a bunch of ideas to help improve Mako, and I'm using his tutorial to make it happen!

Tom

[bigkevin61]

I did successfully wire the PEX to get RGB functionality out of the NBIV. That was relatively simple. So, I picked up that skill.

I’ve used a couple of NBv3 & NBv2s and I’m thinking the wife’s saber will be a NBv4.
Have you played around with using/changing color of the blade/FOC?
I’m interested how effective adjusting the drive parameters of the 3 die work as color mixing.

Oh, and good job on this saber! I’m sure he will love it!

[Tom Tilmon]

I think the NBV4 is a great card, and yes I have played around with color mixing, as well as FOC. With the PEX, which was fairly simple to wire, the great little NBIV is pretty awesome. The only thing I don't like about the biscuits is the lack of lockup and blaster block via the second button. With that being said; however, the sensitivity and simplicity of the NBV4 are pretty awesome for most sabers. Once you add the PEX to get the third color channel its really a powerful little board. While there is no "color changing on the fly" like on Prism, you can program each font to have a different color and a different FOC blend of all 3 dies. Its cool.

On this saber, font 1 is a vader font red blade with green foc. Font2 is The Gray (by Jediseth), and has a purple blade with white FOC (mix of all 3 dies), the 3rd font is a graflex font with a blue blade and white foc (mix of all 3 diodes). It works fantastic. This saber came out really nice, and I like it a lot. I hope he will too.

Tom

[bigkevin61]

Thanks Tom!
The Family is currently used to the NB series (and the single button, without lockup & blaster bolt), so making the wife’s a NBv4 won’t be a letdown.

[Tom Tilmon]

Some more build pics:
So, I didn't say, but a 1" ID aluminum pipe that I use for other saber projects fit perfectly inside the tent pole. So, its my blade holder/LED holder. Here you can see all 3 layers. Inner layer is my 1" ID Aluminum Pipe, then tent pole, then MHS Shroud:

Whole saber prior to paint, almost finished machining:

MHS V6 Speaker Holder Chassis, originally modified for NEC board, but switched to NBIV midstream, shows the biscuit/power extender:

Fairly finished saber, have some minor projects left to do, but for the most part its done, tent pole turned lightsaber:



Video coming, maybe tomorrow, maybe late tonight. Short and sweet.

Tom

[Tom Tilmon]

Video of the tent pole in action:


Ha! From tent pole to lightsaber!

Next project: firebladed Kylo with Arduino and Neopixels!

Tom

[PCModulus]

Oh, i thought it was going to be a tent pole. Like, the full thing

[Tom Tilmon]

Someday I will make a pike, but Robert wanted a "saber", not a pike. So saber it is. This piece of tent pole wasn't long enough to make into a pike anyway.

Tom

[PCModulus]

Someday I will make a pike, but Robert wanted a "saber", not a pike. So saber it is. This piece of tent pole wasn't long enough to make into a pike anyway.

Tom