Aphelion's Introduction

[Aphelion]

Howdy all. Let me start my introduction by giving you a brief history of my lightsabers...

I'm 24 now, but when I was a teenager, I owned a few of the original Hasbro plastic sabers. These motivated me to lathe some copies of a ROTJ Luke saber in woods class. I was never satisfied with these sabers, but they do look interesting and have turned into nice stunt sabers after I put fiberglass driveway markers into them. Still in high school, we put on a choreographed lightsaber fight/musical for our talent show where we won first place.

In 2001, my freshman year of college, my friends and I purchased four EL sabers from Jeff Parks after trolling the Dewback Wing ASAP forums for almost a year. I got a Qui Gon and my friends got an Obi-Wan and two prototype Maelstrom 1's which he linked together. We loved them to death, each of us going through a blade due to EL "twisting" eventually ripping the wires off the substrate. In fact, out of our 8 blades total, I believe only 2 are still working. We never experienced sound or "Deuce" technology.

MR FX sabers came along, but how could we buy them when we had invested so much into our Parksabers? Just by feeling them, we knew they wouldn't withstand the intense duels we would subject them to so we passed on the FXs.

Now, it's 2008 and I'm supposed to get married in Feb 2009 to a hot redhead that almost hates Star Wars. In order to kick off our marriage right, I've been considering getting my groomsmen lightsabers instead of the usual pocketknives/leathermans. I check out YouTube and the first video I find is Edwin's (Eandori's) video of the differences between Lux III, K2 & V. Then I see Erv's Crystal Focus video and now I am completely floored. Finally, everything I've ever wanted is now available in a saber!

I think I'm going to start small though. I'll make a nice sink tube saber, then see if I can't upgrade my Parks Qui Gon to a green Luxeon V. If I'm still bored, I'll try to make that custom saber I've always had in mind but never the drive enough to create.

If all that goes well (and the fiancee doesn't get too mad!) I may try to price out 5 cheap sabers for my groomsmen. I know that Do-clo sells a really cool looking stunt saber for $80, but it looks like I can beat that price if I do it all myself and just go with sink tubes, resistors & Lux III's.

I'm really pumped about all the tech and all the new lightsaber manufacturer's out there. When Episode I came out, I only knew of Parkssabers and Lighttech that actually sold finished products. It's really awesome to see so many manufacturers with so many options now, especially the parts/tutorials for an industrious soul like myself.

Any and all advice is welcome, about my future plans for lightsabers as well as marriage advice!

[Drichar Deis]

Sod the sink tubes mate, use MHS!
As for marriage, Ive got a hater of a wife too, I just let it role of my back

[Jak'Kan-Ur]

Hey she has red hair. Call her Mara, she won't know.

Congrats on your wedding!

I remember just using metal poles with my cousin and dueling all day long in the woods behind his house.
Man those were the days.
Then after many injuries we went and made wood sabers, which helped a bit with the injury department.

It's a load of fun making your own custom I been making mind for a couple weeks now, i'm slow at it but it is a ton of fun.!

[DARTH KALEL]

I really like the sink tube sabers, gives you so much to work with and modify. The MHS are great but if your looking to give them away spend the time and make the sinktube sabers. You might want to think about going with the 1.25 blade holder and use 1.25 instead of 1.5, main reason is the 1.25 holder is an adapter and blade holder and allows you to use the heatsink with no issues, and you can use the 1.5 to build shrouds and the like. If your just going to resist them you should have no probs and should be able to complete under the 80 dollar mark. have fun, and when you get a chance you have to try the MHS they are truly great.

[Aphelion]

Thanks for the advice everyone! I'm really attracted to the sink tube idea now. Aren't Graflex's closer to 1.25 than 1.5 anyway?

That's good to know that I won't have heatsink problems too. I had heard that the 1.5" tubes fit over MHS parts, but I totally forgot that you could use the 1.25" tubes on the INSIDE as well! After I get home from work tomorrow, I'm going to order the first parts for the "budget-saber."

[Do-Clo]

Thanks for the advice everyone! I'm really attracted to the sink tube idea now. Aren't Graflex's closer to 1.25 than 1.5 anyway?

That's good to know that I won't have heatsink problems too. I had heard that the 1.5" tubes fit over MHS parts, but I totally forgot that you could use the 1.25" tubes on the INSIDE as well! After I get home from work tomorrow, I'm going to order the first parts for the "budget-saber."

The Graflex flash handles are 1.5" the same with a Heiland flash handle.

[DarthFender]

I'm a little late to this party. But, hello Aphelion. Welcome to the Forums. I love that name. Very Sith. Farthest from the light. (The sun literally).

[DDanDevious]

yo yo yo.

sinktubes would be the cheapest way to go if you want to make a few for your groomsmen. Get some tube, a few adaptors, some blades and off you go.

I like the fact that your bride to be almost hates star wars, but you are willing to give out sabers as a gift. Hahah. Nice.


...as for marriage advice, well I dont have much of that, im on marriage #2 (oddly enough, my first marriage was to a hot redhead... got to watch out for them) Traded her in and got a hot brunnette that seems to enjoy my nerdyness. Wierd. All I can say is you got to suprise her with stuff as much as you can. Even if its something as simple as doing the dishes or folding the laundry in the dryer. Now, dont do those things too much or it will become your job hahahaha.

welcome and good luck!

DDD!

[Aphelion]

All I can say is you got to suprise her with stuff as much as you can. Even if its something as simple as doing the dishes or folding the laundry in the dryer. Now, dont do those things too much or it will become your job hahahaha.

Oh my God, frikkin hilarious!

Thanks for the specs Do-Clo! All I could remember is that I made my wooden hilts WAY too big because I based them off the picture in the Weapons & Tech guide but scaled them up to original Hasbro saber size. Yeah, I think it's almost 2" at the widest part (the Graflex clamp).

You know what DarthFender, I've always known what my name meant, but I never realized that it would be associated with the dark side. Ironically in video games, I usually play Aphelion as a good guy and Perihelion as a bad... Guess I'll have to change that up from now on.

Well, I went to fill up my shopping cart with all the parts to build a Frugal-Saber DeluxeTM with a red Lux III, but there aren't any collimators at the online shop. I'm searching for an alternate source now, but it seems like everyone is out of them as well! Is there a worldwide collminator shortage?