Fitting things into a Graflex hilt

[A Pieroway]

My Graflex hilt is coming along.... 4 years going, off and on, and currently working on version 0.7 (i.e. i kept changing the design as i found new ways to put things together).

I'm posting this to let people know of two things I've discovered that might help others in the Graflex build process.

1. Travel sized cans of hair spray (aerosol version) fit perfectly into a Graflex hilt, come in two sizes a short and a long, and easily hide the sound card, Li-ion battery, recharge port, and speaker, if your cram fu is decent. With the right HDD spindle, the spindle will perfectly grip on to the lip of the can. The only hard part is getting a clean cut off the end of the can in order to allow you to get the battery, board, etc in. I put my recharge port at the bottom of the can where there is a very convenient dimple to allow the kill switch to not poke out.

cram fu.jpg

2. If, like me, you want to be able to remove the core without dealing with wires dangling, connectors, or craming the wire and connectors back in, etc. then you can do what I did. Use a set of custom made pcb boards - one to have four pogo pin connectors and to be attached to the core Crystal chamber and battery/sound board container (see point 1) and the other board to be fixed in the head of the hilt near the LED and blade holder.
With the pogo pins you're assured good contact as long as the core components aren't all loose in the hilt. And, with the use of circle contact points, they will always line up, regardless of how you insert the core.

pogo.jpg

I know that one of the most frustrating (and fun I think) things about building sabers is fitting things in the hilt. And to me its all about the realism of the core components.
I don't own a metal shop, and have limited tools, so its taken years to find or build the items that make it all come together in a way I like.
TCSS is a wonderful place, but often the forums leave it to the builder to fumble around (rightly so, for the most part) but it helps to have others tell their stories with LOTS of pictures.

I hope to finish this thing eventually so I can get on with version 2.0 using the 2nd Graflex hilt i have, both of which I picked up back in the 80's as a kid when the demand wasn't so high.

Al