Happy B-Day to me!!
all these goodies and only about $50 of it came out of my pocket - it's good when a plan comes together.
BWA-HA-HA!!!!
saber_parts.jpg
View on OneDrive
Happy B-Day to me!!
all these goodies and only about $50 of it came out of my pocket - it's good when a plan comes together.
BWA-HA-HA!!!!
saber_parts.jpg
View on OneDrive
Last edited by LarryJ; 11-19-2018 at 12:05 AM.
Started painting:
Pieces were first soaked in metal etch.
Primered and baked at 250F for an hour.
Three coats of paint and two coats of clear - again baked at 250F for an hour after each coat.
Because of the pieces used, I could feel a bit of play in the blade, so I printed up a spacer to fix that.
saber_1.jpg
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Put the pieces together and wired it up for a test:
No smoke and we have sound / lights - I'll call that a pass!
Last edited by LarryJ; 11-19-2018 at 12:07 AM.
Finished with the paint. A little more gloss than I would like, but it will work.
Used one clocking washer and did maybe 10 minutes of sanding to get everything all lined up.
saber_painted.jpg
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Now that it's together, the grip feels a bit small, would probably work better for a kids saber. I think I'll order another main body, moving the cut-outs for the grips down .25" and moving the switch up .25". Then I'll use this one to make a new, smaller saber for my daughter to play with - I already have a plan on which pieces to get.
Next up is chassis assembly and installing the electronics.
Last edited by LarryJ; 11-19-2018 at 12:10 AM.
Though I purchased everything pre-wired, I wanted to shorten the wires to make assembly a bit cleaner/easier. I didn't have enough JST pins to redo all the connectors and I was too lazy to de-solder/cut/solder all the pre-wired connections, so I just cut and spliced the existing wiring.
saber_2.jpg
I had made a chassis out of 3mm rod and 3D printed chassis parts, but the V4 Nano didn't fit very well, since I was modifying parts anyways, I decided to make a single piece chassis that holds a 18650 battery, the Nano board and a 28mm speaker. The new piece fits perfectly inside the hilt, held in place by the pommel, yet sized so that the pommel can be installed/removed without spinning the chassis inside the hilt (and twisting the wires).
saber_3.jpgsaber_5.jpg
Here is the chassis installed in the hilt and wires pulled and ready for connecting.
saber_4.jpg
and here it is, all wired up and assembled. I opted to not use the crystal chamber as it made the hilt too long, it was ok for two handed use, but too bulky when using one hand.
20181123_161807.jpg
I also printed up a wall mount for display:
saber_6.jpg
Last edited by LarryJ; 11-23-2018 at 11:31 PM.
I really like the hilt's color and design, looks sithy. Is it finished?
Thx - I thought it came out pretty well for the first one.
For now it is done, though I may change the main body for the hilt. Along with the grip feeling too small (because of where I had the switch holes drilled), I'm not sure I like the rubber strips. They actually give a bit too much grip when twirling - and I foresee issues with them coming off when I don't want them to.
I may also keep this one the way it is and use it for display only - then build a new one for sparring.
The rubber grips look awesome in my opinion.
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