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"EL-Ready" Larbel Qui-Gon Jinn Hilt?
Greetings, fellow enthusiasts! I hope someone out there can help me with a vexing question I have.
I recently acquired two Qui-Gon hilts on eBay, both supposedly made by HK Larbel. One is solid aluminum and has a socket for a blade, but no room for electonics. The second one I bid on precisely because it was billed as "EL-ready." The black shaft of the hilt is made of a hard plastic and can be disassembled. There is a little room in the upper end of the hilt for electronics, but the red button is just a plastic screw, and the lower portion of the grip (the scalloped "energy cell" section) is solid.
Does anybody out there have experience in mounting an EL blade in one of these hilts? I've never seen one with a working blade. I own a Larbel-like Obi-Wan Ep I & II with an EL blade, but I can't figure out how anybody would mount the works for an EL blade in the Qui-Gon grip. The space available is small and the red button is actually in the solid part of the handle, so replacing it with a switch would be tough. Has anybody attempted this? Would it be possible to perform "radical surgery" by drilling a channel in the solid half of the lower, scalloped part of the grip? [?] [?]
Thanks for any help or advice anybody can provide. I'd love to have a working Qui-Gon, but have very little idea how to modify the Qui-Gon hilt.
--SteveWindu, Jedi Arms Master
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Hey Steve,
First of all welcome to the forum.
Although I have no experience with EL, I have done a few sabers with LED that all fit into a one inch inside diameter machined aluminum tube. I would be happy to help if I can.
Ultimately - if you are patient enough, and willing to try creative solutions - there is almost ALWAYS a way to do it.
Post some pics of your saber issues, and we'll see what we can come up with.
Regards,
MC
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You want to go home and re-think your life
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<font color="green"><font size="3">5 inches? I honestly don't know how that would be possible. That would be an awfully tight fit, not to damage the wiring and connections.
You have the female connector, the inverter, and switch. Those all take up roughly an inch of space each. Then the 9V battery is, what, about 2" long?
So I suppose it's theoretically possible, but it sounds like a nightmare, logistically! I don't envy you that task.
The smallest EL saber I've made was from a 1.25" tube and the "guts" took up about 8" of space inside, but that was with a 2" blade holder and I left space around things so I didn't damage the connections.
I call it a "lightdagger" and I made 20" long, 5/8" diameter blades for it on purpose so that it can't take a full sized saber blade. I was making "youngling"-like sabers before most others had thought of it, so once again, I was ahead of most everyone else. [
] And I haven't heard of anyone else custom making smaller diameter blades. [
]
Good luck and let us know how it came out!
I've actually seen one of these already set up and working, but I never saw how the "guts" were installed. I doubt that the owner wants to open it up and mess with any of it. Or let me look at it myself.
I think I'd be afraid to open it up anyway. If something fell out, I'd probably never get it back in! [:0]</font id="size3"></font id="green">
In order to see the Light, you must sometimes risk the Dark.
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I've messed around with mounting the swich/button through the heat sink (drilled a hole)... or into the housing for the lense. I am just not happy with having a switch in the middle of the saber - where you are gripping it.
MC
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You want to go home and re-think your life
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