THE RELIC - Custom 2 Cell Abby lightsaber build

A two-cell Abby came my way. I don't think it's much older than a Graflex, but it looks positively antiquated and overly clunky. I kinda love it for that-- and decided I want to embrace the clunky, old and not very sleek design of it and translate those same concepts to a lightsaber.



So obviously, the key idea here is OLD.

And by old, I don’t mean in a KOTOR way with fancy artisan detail work, or old in a Dark Horse comics way where it’s some arcane piece of scrap metal. Nor do I mean an artful custom saber with wooden grips that’s bejeweled and looks like a museum piece. Nor do I mean a Kylo Ren job where it's an old design built with scrap parts.

At some point this saber was whole, sleek and new. But that was a century ago. It's got a lot of miles on it.


When I say OLD, I mean a tractor rusting in a field on a 100 year old farm. I mean an old car in a junkyard. I mean the usual lived-in Star Wars universe times a few centuries.


My story to guide me is that this lightsaber belonged to a Jedi who was marooned on a hostile world for decades. Maybe even centuries. There were very few settlements and LOTS of threats, so this saber saw constant combat. If it burnt out, he had very little at hand to make repairs.


So it's tired-- maybe a little battle damaged. Some mismatched parts (some old, some new). Definitely weathered, maybe a bit of rust here and there.


But at the same time as all this, it still looks trusty and solid. Like a hot rod. A very UGLY hot rod. Basically, if the Millennium Falcon was a lightsaber. Technically a piece of ugly junk of banged together parts-- but also super cool.


This won't be sleek. I plan to break all laws concerning the amount of acceptable greeblies. If something on this saber broke, my Jedi just bypassed it and added new components— never really taking the time to strip out the old.

After going through my parts and pieces, I think I have the best components for this. Since it is a two-cell, I'll need to find some extra length.

Here's what's on the roster as of now:



1. My super big mystery clamp. So big and unwieldy, I don't know if I'd use it on lightsaber normally-- but if clunky is the name of the game on this one, it seems perfect.

2. A shapeways printed neck design by AnubisGuard. I've justified some 3D printing in my life since I don't have access to a machine shop. After seeing how Anubis used this neck to give a minicam extra length, I want to see if the 3D printning world helps save 2 cells, which I used to consider useless.

3. A shroud designed by me. It looked cool onscreen, but less cool in person. I blame sketchup. I have a lot to learn about 3D software. But wrinkle-painted and in place it will look better I think.

4. The Abby unscrews into two pieces, which is great. That will give me more options as to how to work these parts.

And now for the audience participation portion--

Help me decide the best look-- cause I'm having trouble deciding. (Graflex added for scale)

Option A



PRO: This is the easiest assembly, everything snaps into place. No screws needed.
CON: It's the least visually interesting. I've done the "add stuff to the top of a 2 cell" a couple times already, and I think it's a bit easy and uninspired.

Option B


PRO: This is probably the best balanced look, and seems the most OT to me.
CON: Assembly will be a pain. There's nothing connecting the clamp to the lower body and they are the same diameter, so I'd have to figure out some sort of perfectly sized core to attach them both to. Another con-- the sweet emitter that Anubis designed into the neck would be hidden from the world.

Option C

PRO: my personal favorite layout. not much different than option B. but putting the clamp higher makes for easy assembly.
CON: not sure if the big clamp up high throws off the balance, and again, the emitter design on the neck is hidden

Given that I'm okay with ugly, I am leaning to option C-- but I'd love opinions.

While I mull that over, I can get started on removing the badging...

Ten minutes on a dremmel and a bunch of metal dust in my eyes and presto:



Obviously I am embracing the scratches, mismatched metal tones and scum as part of the aesthetic.

Next up-- grips. I have something new...

Option C looks pretty good to me. :thumbsup

Looking forward to seeing what you have in mind for grips.

I like B, personally.

The clamp in the center, to me, provides a sense of balance to a definitely unique saber design. I really like that printed part. It looks like you pulled it off an engine, Rey style!

I love the Abbey flashes. Cant wait to see this one wrapped up. I would do ScottD style metal grips on this one - heavily patina'd of course.

Scott D grips are one of the options! In bed now-- in the AM I'll show my grip ideas...

- - - Updated - - -

JaxAndTheMoon said:

I like B, personally.

The clamp in the center, to me, provides a sense of balance to a definitely unique saber design. I really like that printed part. It looks like you pulled it off an engine, Rey style!

Click to expand...

Like I said Anubis gets credit for that neck-- my shroud is shrewd

Still undecided between B and C.

C is easier to pull off... but the more I look at B the more it starts to feel vaguely Obi-Wan-ish in proportion and size. I personally like clamp boxes higher... but I don't want to get too stuck in my ways...


Anyway-- GRIPS.

I have a few ideas. First-- I found these guys and thought the looked perfectly greebly, and are about the same sizes a rails/t-tracks. Bonus points to anyone who knows what these are... (Scott... ssshhh.)



I thought they looked like a perfect feature that either way I'm adding them to the perma-frame on the Abby. They could be unique there, or part of a grip scheme.



Or... as suggested, some Scott D style metal grips...



Or-- if I am being truly Star Wars old school retro... seeing it next to the Graflex makes me consider t-track...

Okay-- made some decisions, made some progress.

Decided to go with the more balanced layout, which means I have to figure out how to connect it. I got lucky on my first attempt. I found a battery core in my box from a off-brand two cell and it was almost the right size. I built up it;s thickness just a bit using a super secret method that I totally can't tell you about...



I mean-- it was electrician's tape. The idea is, build it up just enough, carefully and evenly so it sets in the right position, then I can set screws into place without it wiggling about. Do the same thing on the opposite side, pull the mointing ring up a little to hide the tape edge and screws-- and I'm there! Magically, the batter ycase is the same tone as the mounting ring.





Next issue-- this giant gaping space.



My first plan was to bend some thin aluminum sheet metal to fit, a wall with tabs to slot in-- but those curves were going to make for a lot of gaps if I wedged anything in there. Looking at my greeblie stash I found two thin metal rectangles that had holes in them. I trimmed them to fit on the outside of the and cover the curve gaps. I had an extra bulb-socket spring that I unlatched, strung through the holes, then re-latched.

So basically, the two walls are held by spring tension. Through some miracle I had the perfect edge card. I pulled this out of something a few weeks ago for this-- but I am old and can't remember what it was.

But the card was thin enough that it was able to bend and slide it. Added some wires to highlight the battlefield-rigged nature of this hunk o'junk, and I feel pretty happy with it.




Next... I tried the Scotch-Brite light scouring pad trick (ScottD's latest trade secret share!) and got rid of all that shiny. Then it was time to do the scary, damaging work,

My first inclination was to make this thing super rusted and weathered to show its age-- but in thinking about my story, and seeing ScottD's amazingly weathered Graflite, I decided to try something else. My Jedi that owns this saber is still going-- still fighting that 100 year war. So I need this thing to look like it's been fighting for a long time, not rotting in the sun.

Not battle DAMAGE per say-- more battle-worn. Scarred.

So I decided to add in said battle wounds and scars.




Basically-- I do the gouges with a Dremel-- nice meaty scratches, and roughing up of any edges I see. Then I go back in with a file and shape it out.Vary the depth, make it a little more organic. My goal is to expose the brass under the plating and use Birchwood Aluminum black-er (ScottD tip #342345) to tint the brass.

But I have to do that outside... and it's dark now...

Looking good so far. Good job on filling the gaps on the mystery clamp.

Electrical tape and duct tape solve a lot of the world's problems.

Judging from what I'm seeing in the background, you have a much more organized greeblie stash than I ever will. :thumbsup

This looks lovely! I'd vote for layout B as well!

Looking good! I feel like you should give the derelict build a shot, I think you could do some good things with it

Well using acid on metal is fun-- it sizzles! it pops! it smells like sulfur and you probably just poisoned everybody on the block!

But it looks awesome. Scratches and gouges all got blackened. I went in with the file again to bring out some highlights and boom-- now we got some mileage...




I decided my 3D printed shroud was crap, so I'm going to do my best to make a Graflite shroud look cool with wrinkle paint. I may add this cool little sync unit as a second bypassed activation box. Unsure-- might be overkill. Also going to swap out the two knobs for this matching brass knurled pair.

Also also, since I had the aluminum blackening action going I wanted to try some pieces of aluminum I had cut for grips on a future project... and after just dipping them a bit I got this crazy cool worn/burnt look. So I decided these are now my grips.

Also also also, I really didn't like the emitter Anubis designed being hidden internally, so I cut it from the neck and will mount it inside the shroud.



My drill bit died, so after a trip to the hardware store, here's what the final arrangement will be:



It feels very Obi-Wan to me-- which is cool because I don't have anything like an Obi-Wan or Luke ROTJ saber. While this doesn't look exactly like them, it certainly has that vibe. All put together it should actually be the exact same length as Obi-Wan's.

The AB really does sell the battle damage. :thumbsup

It's fun to see it all coming together.

It's also cool to think it was done and come look at it a couple hours later to see it's still working. I thought I neutralized it with water-- but I guess it keeps curing.

It's also fascinating to see how it works on different metals. It bubbled up on the steel clamp and did nothing. The brass took it-- but it came out very matte and turned black slowly. The aluminum was like a bowl of rice crispies and it worked almost instantly.

Didn't make it to the hardware store-- so no grips today.

But I did do a bit of rust action-- very sparingly. Got the brass hardware installed, and the emitter/shroud assembled.

All that's left is to attach the grips and fix the two halves together.

Finally got to the hardware store and was able to finish this monster.



I've never had an Obi-Wan / Luke ROTJ style lightsaber, so the fact I was able to do something in that vein, but still have it be a flashgun was cool. As you can see, I drifted away from found relic, and more toward battle-scarred. It's still a hundred years old-- but it's been in constant use. I had a second activation box mounted near the emitter, as if the original had been bypassed-- but it was just one step too busy on an already busy saber.

Ugly but cool was my plan... it's definitely busy.. but I think I like it...



It may look huge, but it's actually the exact same length as Obi-Wan's lightsaber.

I'm calling it done

Looks rad! [emoji1417]


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Thanks!

Next one is going to be much sleeker... something I won't shred my hand on

Looks great! For some reason I'm imagining that the blade would be sorta unstable, almost like Kylo Ren's, after all that action. It looks sort of as it's just barely still holding together, but is somehow still very reliable, much like the Millenium Falcon... but as a saber.

Also, that activation box is massive!

That was exactly my goal! The Falcon as a saber. Ugly, but cool. Kinda busted, but ultimately dependable!

Looks great and it fits in with the philosophy posted in your sig. :thumbsup

Good to see those knurled brass knobs finally put to good use. If I ever come across some more of them, I'll let you know.

I'm looking forward to seeing what comes next.