I'm curious. Out of all the machined Luke ROTJ sabers out there...
Why hasn't anyone machined the grip (rings) off-sized? One peek at the screen caps and you can see this area was clearly machined by hand and the rings are not uniform. They're slightly staggered in size.
Do people simply prefer the idealized look of the uniform rings? I admit it looks cleaner. I'm torn...
Just curious. I'm trying to figure out which one I want to go with on my personal replica.
Thoughts?
Last edited by Rylo; Jan 7, 2008 at 11:32 PM.
Check out AnakinStarkiller's run of ROTJ Yuma blanks in the JY. This is the first I've heard of a run with the non-uniform rings.
Um...kinda doing my own but thanks.
bcstanding said:
I like idealized mostly. I like to think that if the item was real and actually produced that it would look clean and precise. On the other hand, if I can get all real parts, I'd go for that like on the OWK ANH!Rylo said:
My Elvis Trooper ROTJ Vader saber is pristine with symmetrical parts.
FB
Nice! I almost always go with 'clean' on any run I've ever done.
Honestly, I think it has to do with labor more than anything else. It's most likely easier to set the lathe to one setting or one set of measurements and go from there than to have to deal with a dozen different measurements that only the truly anal would notice anyway
-Fred
Yup, its definitely easier and cheaper to do them all the same rather then all different.
I tried to go the uneven route with my last V2 & Stunt run but my machinist took one look at the drawing and went "The uneven rings section alone will cost more then the rest of the item."
A big shop with a CNC machine can probably make them for less since everything is pre-programed anyway. But big shops need big orders-in the hundreds-to justify the set-up cost & programing fee.
I made mine by hand from steel on a plain ol' lathe. Very time consuming project. I was doing it in shop class that I had for 2 hours each day in school. Took me around 3 months to machine all the metal parts. Not very acurate, but its close enough for me, and it was a fun project.
I can see why a machinist would charge more for the uneven rings though. It's very time consuming to machine something to exacting tolerances. Your paying them to get it right, not to get it "close enough" so they have to go through all that extra work to make sure each ring is the correct depth and width and all that. Speaking from experience, I'd charge more for it too.
I machined mine with the uneven rings. I didn't want it any other way.
Forget idealized sabers. I want uneaven rings. It's screen acurate, but more importantly (and always forgotten) a Jedi's lightsaber is all made by hand. They shouldn't look machine perfect.
That all depends on how crafty the Jedi in question is!TridCloudwalker said:
FB
Well, it WAS his first attempt at making one!
But seriously... the original saber must've been done really, REALLY quickly for the rings to have come out that uneven. I have turned TWO things on a lathe in my life- a Han ESB flash hider and my Luke ROTJ. Both done on old manual machines. The Luke took two tries to get right, but the finished piece was done in a couple of afternoons and is pretty even.franz bolo said:
That all depends on how crafty the Jedi in question is!
FB
Personally... I usually go with the idealized version of props since I want to have the item it represents rather than an identical copy of the real-world prop. No wonky barrels or hanging wires for me, thanks! But there are times when I do think the flaws on the original actually give the piece its personality... like with a Stormy helmet.
I have machined at least 6 metal Luke ROTJ sabers: the Hero version, V-2 and Shared Stunt and mine don't come out totally uniformed because I eye ball them and don't use a CNC, or a machinst. I think deliberately making them not to be uniformed would be interesting. I have never seen actual closeup pictures of the the rings to know which ones are not uniform.Rylo said:
All my OT props are as close to screen accurate as I can afford and I had a blast weathering my Roman's Obi-Wan ANH saber. I'm looking forward to weathering the Luke ROTJ once I get mine. But I prefer the clean, idealized look for my PT props though. Seems to fit with the PT style better, IMHO. Definitely post progress pics when you start yours Rylo!
Hi guys there is other way to get the rings un even!! Machine the rings all even, Then PAINT,ANODISE or WHAT ever your gonna do the black part. Then when you machine the rings again to show the ALU under the paint!! just go down a little deeper on the tool the rings will look bigger and smaller ,
Does that make any sence??
Russ
Wouldn't that like... destory all the black coating you just put into the grooves?
yeah, it would, i understand what hes saying tho, but that would only work if the rings were black, not the grooves, which is the opposite of what its suppose to be
Actually what Russ is saying is exactly how I wanted to do my V2 & Stunt last year.
Let me try to explain. The top of the rings are supposed to be bare metal while the grooves(valleys) are black. So you start by painting/anodizing the entire grip section (valleys, top of the rings, everything), then you put the saber back on the lathe and gently lathe away the paint on the top of the rings only. What Russ is proposing is to lathe certain rings a little more, so a little bit more of the metal is taken away, and thus making the top of those rings wider.
However one drawback of this method is that the rings will have slightly uneven height as well, which is the reason why i didn't go it with this method, and decided to just leave all the rings at the same width. You might not see it since the difference is only a fraction of an mm, but you can feel the unevenness it if you handle the saber. Also with tolerance in the +-0.1mm range there's a very big risk of skimming off a little too much and ruining the look of the saber.
If its still unclear I'll have to illustrate by doing some drawings...
Hey Pol, Go ahead with that idea, just sand off the paint or anodizing...
yeah i understand what your saying nowSaberFreak said:
finally had a chance to get a picture of mine
not the best one ever, but maybe you can see the rings
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