First timer - saber design

[Kal El Rah]

My mom has a soldering iron since she makes stained glass pieces, and I plan on obtaining the required tools and parts as soon as I can.

Loremaster

The iron your mother has is for melting lead, 200 watts?

If so , you only need a 30 watt max, soldering pen type iron.

[Thaxos]

Finer tips are best for electronics projects. As for solder, I'll leave you to choose between lead and lead-free. (Lead is easier to solder [lower temp] but definitely not as good for you)

[draftnbyu]

silver solder is best for circuit connections but expensive! becarefull using solder with resign core, the resign is not conductive but can make a mess. lowes sells de-natured alcohol that can be used to clean the resign off,but dont wipe acrooss the whole board. just dunk a acid brush into the alcohol and wipe only the affected area.also, a de-soldering tool is usefull. i have a PACE solder station, well worth the price. NEVER, leave iron on the traces or circuit pads to long, it will seperate them from the PCB!

[Thaxos]

silver solder is best for circuit connections but expensive! be careful using solder with resign core, the resign is not conductive but can make a mess. Lowes sells de-natured alcohol that can be used to clean the resign off,but don't wipe across the whole board. just dunk an acid brush into the alcohol and wipe only the affected area. Also, a de-soldering tool is useful. i have a PACE solder station, well worth the price. NEVER, leave iron on the traces or circuit pads to long, it will separate them from the PCB!

You're referring to rosin, correct?
In that regard, as long as you only melt as much solder as you will need, you shouldn't have a problem with excessive rosin.

[DarthHideous]

The first threads that you should...
Go to the first page of the forums. Click on "New to the saber scene? Start Here."
Read (at least) the threads "Electronics Design," "MHS Builder," and "LED sabers."
This should help you understand how the basics work and how the MHS System goes together. Also, if you want to use those sink tube adapters in future sabers, you can combine them with a custom hilt creation of your own. Ask Mom for a Dremel for Christmas with a Diamond cutting wheel for cutting metal sink tubes.

[Thaxos]

Ask Mom for a Dremel for Christmas with a Diamond cutting wheel for cutting metal sink tubes.

I don't know, sounds like Santa will have to help with that one, it's a bit expensive! haha, I should definitely pick one of those up at some point.

[DarthHideous]

Tell me about it. I decided to start drilling & tapping my own threads so I finally broke down and bought a drill press. Big bucks, but I will get my money's worth after building a few sabers. I think that the diamond wheels alone are $19.

[draftnbyu]

You're referring to rosin, correct?
In that regard, as long as you only melt as much solder as you will need, you shouldn't have a problem with excessive rosin.

yes,sorry but a 16 hour work day has me loopy. yeah most solder is fine, but ive had some that was very thin based rosin and kinda flowed more rosin than solder.

[Rhyen Skytracker]

One thing that can also help you is looking at alot of the sabers in the gallery. It will help you see how some of the parts look together.

[B5813]

Hey Loremaster, when you say you're eliminating the extension piece do you mean the gear section? The gear will in fact fit between the blade holder and the main hilt body. It has a male and female end. The blade holder will screw into one end of the gear and the other end of the gear will screw into the main hilt section.