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

[virus692]

But we are helping we're the helping hands

Flash back anyone?

[Jay-gon Jinn]

Well, it's not that I can't see or hold down what I need to for soldering normally, it's just right now, I went back to work doing a different job, and it's got my fingers, wrists, forearms, elbows, shoulders, and back very sore.

I wasn't planning on using blue, but thanks anyway, X! I have plenty of room now to use any star-based led, as I was originally planning anyway.

I now have to wait on parts, but I can show you what I did yesterday. Now the pics were taken after a bit of frustration...I started out by drilling out the spacer in the end on the grip section with my 3/4" drill bit. This was where the fun began! (Not really, just being sarcastic!) I got down to about 1 1/2", and what was left of the spacer decided to JAM the bit into the grip! I worked for 20 minutes to get it out...and did some damage to the saber's exterior. Oh, well....now it just has the old and used look to it for now. After that, I set up to drill the hilt out for the lens holder. I used my 7/8" bit for that, which looking back now, I probably should've used in the first place:




I drilled down about 3/4 of an inch and tested the diameter:



Yup, that'll work!

I put the grip section back in the vice and drilled it further. I went over 2" this time. This should give me plenty of room for the optics, led, and a heatsink that I need to have someone machine...I'll llook into that later.

Looking in the grip now, I can see a set screw in there, in the middle of the grip...How did that get in there? I have no clue...but I'd guess this grip/emitter is pressed together somewhere near that screw. It was what was holding the female half of the EL plug in place:


From the other end:

This is the emitter end, believe it or not...the face ring came off while I was trying to get the 3/4" drill bit out of the grip...it looks like it was epoxied, and/or pressed into place also. So, then I decided it was time to take a measurement. I loaded in the lens holder, an optic, and a Lux III led I happen to have and took a depth measurement with my calipers:


Turns out the length of the heatsink/led mount is going to have to be 1.675". The diameter will need to be .873" to fit inside the .875 hole.

[Jay-gon Jinn]

Well, I just received my custom heatsink, thanks to Lord Technous, a.k.a. Do-Clo. I also have the led I'm going to use so.... Work can now progress on the conversion!

Here's the heatsink:


I need to do a bit more work to the grip section to get it in there, there's some material in the hole that is preventing it from sliding in all the way, so I ordered a couple of tools from McMaster-Carr.com to fix the problem. I have 3/4" and 7/8" cylinder hones coming.

[Jay-gon Jinn]

Okay, the tools arrived Saturday morning, so I did some work to the saber before heasding into work and took a few pictures as well. I started out by putting the hilt section back in the drill press vise, and honing the heatsink tube out until the heatsink slid in and out fairly easily:








Time to test fit with the led and lens:




Ahh, sweet perfection! ;D
With that done, I turned it around and did the emitter hole using the 3/4" cylinder hone and got the blade to fit in the socket better as well:



That's a good enough fit, not too tight, but not too loose either. Time to do some soldering next!

[Jay-gon Jinn]

I heated up the iron and soldered leads to the led:


I used the same color coding that comes on the micropuck drivers I used in my PVC hilts; green is negative, orange is positive. I used some heat transfer paste on the bottom of the led. This will help transfer the heat from the led into the heatsink, and is also non-conductive, and should help prevent grounding of the led that reds and red/o's are known for.



I don't have enough clearance inside the hilt to use mounting screws, so it will sit on the heatsink like so, and just be held in place by the heatsink after I reassemble the hilt.

I hot-glued the optics holder to the led, and the wires to the channel on the sides of the heatsink. This is using a 10 deg optic because I've found that in my experience with 3/4" blades that they work better with a 3/4" Ultrafilm than a 5 deg.

I then slid in the assembly:

I wired up the battery pack and a switch next!

I didn't have any fresh AAA's, so I used my rechargeable ones to power it up:



Looks like I ordered a Red/O for this...I couldn't remember if I got a Red or a Red/O, and this is definitely Orange!
But not as bright as I thought it should be...so I checked the battery pack voltage with my multimeter, and was only getting 4.08 volts...tested all batteries individually, and there was a dead cell in there. (It must've been the one from my son's mp3 player!) I popped them into the charger to charge them all up to the same level.

I got home from work around 2:30 a.m. this morning and they were all evenly charged:






Much better! It's shown here using one of my 3/4" blades with a full roll of Ultra's DIY Ultrafilm. I still need to add some Corbin to this blade or sand it to help give it that solid energy beam look instead of the beam of light in a tube look, and also get it all re-assembled and cleaned up!

[Malaki Skywalker]

Sweet Jay-Gon! It came out awesome!

[Darth_DevilGuy]

that came out nice, I wish I had those kinda tools on hand.

[ArkaiHalon]

it is coming along very nicely. very nice indeed. can't wait to see the final product.

[Hasid Lafre]

May i noticed in your images you use what appear to be greena dn blue rechargable batteries that look extreamly clse to the ones that me and my bro used to use.

Might want to be carefull with them as the ones we got after a long while they actually started to suck themselves in like the + end was sunk in flat like the - end would be.

Just an FYI on them batteries.

The red-o looks awsome in that saber man.

[Novastar]

Great work, Jay Gonn!!! And really.... MUCH oblige for taking the time to literally take snap shots of things during the progress... and THEN to explain in detail what you were doing.

It really painted out the machining jobs that people might have to undergo in order to come out with a completed project.

Also... it makes me not feel so bad when I don't have all that kind of equipment! My sabers have never undergone such detailed processes!!