Jay Gon's "Agony" (conversion from EL to luxeon)

[Jay-gon Jinn]

Okay, this will continue where this thread left off.
After having damaged the EL wiring while attempting to upgrade the sabers' switch, I have decided to try to convert this one over to a Luxeon-based saber, and may eventually go so far as to add sound as well.

Since the blade was epoxied into the emiter hole, it was non-removeable. I took care of that with a tubing cutter and my hacksaw:


There is still a bit of the blade inside the emitter:




I'll need to go to the hardware store and get a 3/4" drill to drill out the remaining blade material. So for now, this is what it looks like reassembled:

It has a black switch from the store temporarily installed to fill the hole...it doesn't quite fit as the hole is too large for it, but it looks a lot better.

[Lord Maul]

I hope this turns out well for ya Jay Gon. Your blade removal method was totally redneck

[Malaki Skywalker]

Thats a pretty sweet looking saber! Can't wait to see it Luxed up!

[Jay-gon Jinn]

I hope this turns out well for ya Jay Gon. Your blade removal method was totally redneck

I know....purty cool, ain't it?

[strengthofrage]

lol I love this forum

That is purty cool... I do like the saber and I definitely like it better minus the original square button. Hope it works out Jay-Gon.

[Hasid Lafre]

I think a skinny and short control box would make that look more intresting

[Jay-gon Jinn]

At one point, I had installed a momentary switch from Radioshack that looked like this:



That one looked better, but there was no way to attach it because the retaining nut goes on the bottom of the switch. Right now, I have this switch on it:




A slim "switch plate" would be a big plus on this, and might even allow for some different types of switches to be used. I'm not sure if this will be able to house a soundboard or not.

Here's how it breaks down:

There are three pieces; the forward grip/emitter:

This is one of the little details I liked...the coin edge knurl on the "lens."

This end of the forward grip has what looks like spacer that has been pressed fit into the grip...I'm not sure what it's purpose is, except maybe to strengthen the joint with the switch tube. I'll probably have to drill it out to fit an led mount and lens assembly in there.
Next piece is the switch body tube:


This is where everything will have to go, as far as the switch, batteries, and soundboard, should I try to use one in this saber. there is only room for four AAA size batteries in a linear set up in there. A soundboard might fit on top of them if the right kind of switch is used. Then there's the pommel:

It's a solid chunk of aluminum that really doesn't quite fit with the style of this saber, so a new one may have to be mad for it. I could hollow it out, but I doubt if I'd be able to get much sound out if it anyway; there isn't much room for holes to allow the sound to escape.

With any luck, I should be able to do something with this in the next month or two. I'm still trying to decide what I'm going to do with it, but I think the first thing is to drill out the rest of the blade, and see where I'm at then. (I'm still deciding on what color this should be...I'm thinking amber...or maybe a filtered purple...)

[Hasid Lafre]

I think you should go red-o with a set of pucks.

[Obi-Dar Ke-Gnomie]

I used to have one of those red momentary switches on the first incarnation of my saber. It was a nice switch, but a real PITA to install.

I had to pull the wiring through the switch hole and solder the wires to the switch with the nut on them already inside of the hole. I then had to work from the emitter end with the LED hanging out and try to force the nut to turn with a flat screwdriver. Like I said, PITA.

That's a nice saber. Should be nice when it's done. I know that you can make it work, but I don't know if it's something I would tackle. Good luck, and MTFBWY.

[Jay-gon Jinn]

Well, I picked up my 3/4" drill bit on Friday, and had some time to kill Saturday afternoon, so I popped the forward grip in the drill press:


I squared it up and made sure it was clamped tight, and after an initial pass, there was still a bit of polyC in there, so I pulled it out with a pair of needle nose pliers:


I drilled out some the remaining blade and checked to see what was left:


It looked like I got enough of it to see what was in there so....I got my hammer and punch, and one tap later, this fell out:

your standard EL blade plug...I knew that's what was in there! It's too bad that Random epoxied the blade in the emitter, this would've been cool with a detachable blade. You can now see daylight on the other end of the grip section:


There was still some of the blade in there, so I put it back in the drill press and got this cool action shot:



I think that got it all out, so now I need to figure out how to get the other half of the plug out. I think I may just drill it....