The Daughter's Saber (and comments on powder coating)

[bigkevin61]

So, the parts arrived for my daughter's personal saber.

Just after Christmas, so it will have to be for her birthday in February.

As always, I am impressed with the quality of work Tim and Co. do at the shop.
All parts are smoothy powder coated, and millwork & etc, and are exceptional.

So, a bit of feedback to those who may NOT be familiar with getting parts drilled & milled by the shop, and having those parts powder coated by the shop as well.
1) If you ask for specific positions for the drilling & milling (say all in line) they ARE done so (sometimes before Powder Coating, as by the nature of some of the requested work).
2) Powder coating, parts, will add just a bit of thickness to the face of the part that buts up to the next part (once fully screwed together), and will SLIGHTLY change the alignment of the assembled saber. THIS IS NORMAL & EXPECTED.
3) The misalignment is relatively easy to correct. Madcow (Rob Petkau, of Genesis Custom Sabers) made an excellent video for the shop on this topic (amongst a whole bunch of useful videos on other saber topics). See this link: Making threaded parts line up.

Below are pictures of the saber (assembled with no internals, and with no adjustments for clocking).
The Pics on the TOP are without flash, those on the BOTTOM are with flash.
The saber is sitting on a bright white bathrobe (for color comparison).

Layout 1.jpg	Layout 3.jpg	Layout 5.jpg
Layout 2.jpg	Layout 4.jpg	Layout 6.jpg

So, I am super happy how the Black Chrome came out OVER the Diamond Knurling!! It is actually quite smooth (no "rough" grip on the Knurled section).
As always, the Wet Black on the Emitter and Pommel are SOOO Glossy!
BUT, to be honest, I am a bit disappointed on JUST HOW PALE the Translucent Brass is. I read in another thread, Translucent-Brass-or-Copper-Examples, that someone said the Powder coating "It's close, but real brass is a richer, slightly darker colour", and the included picture, they looked pretty close. Well, THAT was a bit on an understatement. It is QUITE PALE. Almost looks like there is barely anything on the part. Now, I'm not upset (as the craftsmanship is well done, and I got what I ordered), but that little faint yellow pick of Translucent Brass in the Powder Coating examples REALLY is that light shade, just so you all know.

The "with flash" pics are closer to real life than the "non flash" pics, but there is several shades of "deeper" between the Powder coating, and the Real Brass parts, such as the Pommel Insert, and the Box 9.

NOW comes the fun part!
Making the clocking adjustments, and starting to wire everything up.
I'm trying a different chassis design than my previous completed MHSv1 saber (which had the chassis in a ribbed section), and hopefully minimise the wire connectors needed (I DO want to be able to swap out the LED module if my daughter ever changes her mind).

Wish me luck!