Dann's All-Encompassing Lightsaber Thread!! - (Latest) Rylo Reveal Cave Scene Electronics Mods
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Yesterday I made myself a replacement emitter for my old Rylo Hero. I had messed with the original emitter a few years back, changing the proportions to a more V2 looking emitter. It was kinda just something I did for fun.
Anyway, I regretted it, and had planned to make a new one, at some point. So I ordered a few pieces of stock (I'm also having a go at the control box) and yesterday finally got around to turning one out.
I still need to drill the hole in the nipple for the grub screw, and enlarge the center hole a few hairs, but it's just about there.
It took forever to turn down that 1 7/8" stock in my little Sherline (something like three hours), partly due to the fact that I need some fresh cutting tools, like stat. But also just because those are the limitations of such a tiny lathe. Something like this would take maybe thirty minutes on a proper full-size lathe. Just guesstimating here, but I'd say the biggest cut I can make on this little fella is somewhere around .030", whereas back in machine tool school, or in any of the shops I worked in the past, I could take off .250" in one go. So that's like what, almost ten times faster?
So, it was a bit of a chore, but worth it. Next up I'm gonna take a crack at a more accurate control box. The one on this old Rylo is a bit short. If I had a proper (even a small hobby size) mill, that would be easy peasey. I really need to get one, and a rotary table. Then I could make a new pommel, as well as just about anything, ever.
Hahaha, anyhow, I do have a vertical milling attachment for the Sherline lathe, and an XY table for my drill press. I'll likely go with the former, but we'll see. I'll be sure to let everyone know how it goes!
Thanks for lookin'!
Edit: Shoot, almost forgot. I went over the grip rings again, making the thinner ones a little bit thinner. I think I could actually do just a tad more, but I'm pretty happy with where they're at. Not totally accurate, of course, but closer.
Anyway, I regretted it, and had planned to make a new one, at some point. So I ordered a few pieces of stock (I'm also having a go at the control box) and yesterday finally got around to turning one out.
I still need to drill the hole in the nipple for the grub screw, and enlarge the center hole a few hairs, but it's just about there.
It took forever to turn down that 1 7/8" stock in my little Sherline (something like three hours), partly due to the fact that I need some fresh cutting tools, like stat. But also just because those are the limitations of such a tiny lathe. Something like this would take maybe thirty minutes on a proper full-size lathe. Just guesstimating here, but I'd say the biggest cut I can make on this little fella is somewhere around .030", whereas back in machine tool school, or in any of the shops I worked in the past, I could take off .250" in one go. So that's like what, almost ten times faster?
So, it was a bit of a chore, but worth it. Next up I'm gonna take a crack at a more accurate control box. The one on this old Rylo is a bit short. If I had a proper (even a small hobby size) mill, that would be easy peasey. I really need to get one, and a rotary table. Then I could make a new pommel, as well as just about anything, ever.
Hahaha, anyhow, I do have a vertical milling attachment for the Sherline lathe, and an XY table for my drill press. I'll likely go with the former, but we'll see. I'll be sure to let everyone know how it goes!
Thanks for lookin'!
Edit: Shoot, almost forgot. I went over the grip rings again, making the thinner ones a little bit thinner. I think I could actually do just a tad more, but I'm pretty happy with where they're at. Not totally accurate, of course, but closer.
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Put my vertical milling column to work the other day, and finally bought a little Sherline Mill vise. It's basically a little toolmakers vise, made by Sherline.
I don't have a proper end mill holder (I don't have a proper MILL, either), but I figured the nice chuck that came with the lathe would be fine for this job.
I need to make some adjustments to my control box 3D model, mainly the placement of the two tiny screws (need to be lower and a bit further apart) and the triangle LEDs.
But I tried my hand at making the little plate, and THEN milled myself a new, taller aluminum box for my old Rylo Hero! The chamfers/bevels at the bottom were added by hand, with a file, after these pics were taken, so you'll see them next time I post my progress.
The box that's on the hilt in the pics is one I printed, to test out the hand made LED plate. I think these LEDs might be slightly larger than the ones on the real prop, but I'm not positive.
I also modified my model of the black buttons, they're a little larger, now, and they stick out a bit more. I think they're really close!
For now, here's what happened over the past couple days!
I hope y'all get a kick outta these pics! I've also repainted the whole saber and finally got around to drilling the grub screw hole in the nipple of the new emitter I made, and enlarged the blade hole to 7mm, roughly. I'll get some pics of that soon!
I don't have a proper end mill holder (I don't have a proper MILL, either), but I figured the nice chuck that came with the lathe would be fine for this job.
I need to make some adjustments to my control box 3D model, mainly the placement of the two tiny screws (need to be lower and a bit further apart) and the triangle LEDs.
But I tried my hand at making the little plate, and THEN milled myself a new, taller aluminum box for my old Rylo Hero! The chamfers/bevels at the bottom were added by hand, with a file, after these pics were taken, so you'll see them next time I post my progress.
The box that's on the hilt in the pics is one I printed, to test out the hand made LED plate. I think these LEDs might be slightly larger than the ones on the real prop, but I'm not positive.
I also modified my model of the black buttons, they're a little larger, now, and they stick out a bit more. I think they're really close!
For now, here's what happened over the past couple days!
I hope y'all get a kick outta these pics! I've also repainted the whole saber and finally got around to drilling the grub screw hole in the nipple of the new emitter I made, and enlarged the blade hole to 7mm, roughly. I'll get some pics of that soon!
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Been working on my printed Kyle Katarn lightsaber!
I haven't had one of these since the early 00s, from that run all those years ago. Sold that sucker long ago, along with that solid green lucite/acrylic blade.
So, it feels good to have modeled, printed and finished this replacement, myself.
Real brass strip, real aluminum strip/bar and cover plate (?), and a screw-eye for the belt ring. I re watched the cutscenes on YouTube, and that's what it looks like, to me. Could be something else, but it looked like a screw-eye.
Assembled on a threaded rod, and there's some 3/4" steel tube in there, too, to give it a realistic weight.
I haven't had one of these since the early 00s, from that run all those years ago. Sold that sucker long ago, along with that solid green lucite/acrylic blade.
So, it feels good to have modeled, printed and finished this replacement, myself.
Real brass strip, real aluminum strip/bar and cover plate (?), and a screw-eye for the belt ring. I re watched the cutscenes on YouTube, and that's what it looks like, to me. Could be something else, but it looked like a screw-eye.
Assembled on a threaded rod, and there's some 3/4" steel tube in there, too, to give it a realistic weight.
Thanks, friends! Yeah Danny, you can't even tell it's a print when it's in your hand! I don't think there are ANY visible print lines anywhere!
I've always loved this design, it's rather simple, as are all the hilts from that game. It totally looks like a flashlight, though. Always liked the Yun version, as well. I actually saw a nice FX rendition of that one, recently, though I can't recall who made it. There was a YouTube video from Kal of the UK saber armory, who I guess did the electronics installation for whoever bought it.
I saw some Kyle versions, as well. Only ever seen one or two attempts at the Jerec hilt, and none of the other characters. Though they barely get any screen time. It'd be really sweet to find photos from the production of the live action scenes from DF2. All I've seen are the couple shots of the Bryar pistol and the Kyle hilt, which I believe were all created by Don Bies.
I kinda miss the days when PC games used that weird mixture of live action and crap 3D graphics. Does anybody remember "The 7th Guest"? What a silly, yet spooky game that was! I really preferred Doom and Wolfenstein, but had played lots of King's Quest, Space Quest and all those Sierra adventure games a lot before Doom was released. Is my age showing?
So that was a weird tangent! Anyway, back to the Kyle lightsaber, the aluminum cover plate was an experiment, of sorts. I used some low-grade aluminum tubing that I'd gathered lots of scraps of over the years working in movies and TV. The kind that the rigging electrics and grips use as rails (they call it speed rail) for mounting equipment and hanging blackout fabric from.
I basically cut a section of the tubing away, then hammered it into shape so it'd wrap around the hilt nicely. Nothing fancy, really, but I'd never attempted it before. I can't tell if the flat section was actually part of that cover on the real prop, or not. I've seen some folks make it all as one piece, though, which looks pretty cool. I may try that out, as well. The first all aluminum version I had, didn't even have the cover plate detail, I don't think any of us had noticed it, yet.
It's also hard to tell, but in some shots looks like there could be a greeblie/switch/button or something on the black midband opposite that plate. The video quality is so poor, it's difficult to make out whether it's just an artifact or there's really some part there.
Oh, I forgot to mention the two screws in the flat aluminum section. It does look like there's something there in the real prop, possibly button head Allen screws, maybe something else. I used two small lengths of 1/4-20 all thread (actually just scrap from cutting screws to length), and cut slots into the tops, basically creating two slotted grub screws. I kinda like them, but would gladly swap them out with whatever is SUPPOSED to be there, if it's ever made clear!
Dangit, forgot one more thing! The black E tape! For the life of me, I couldn't remember what tape it was that I used on my original Kyle saber, but I knew it was a thick electrical tape of some type. I finally found some great thick stuff at Lowe's. I bought two types, one is around .030", the other is thicker. I'll add their numbers when I get back home, they're both 3M products. I ended up using the thinner of the two on the "activation box".
I've always loved this design, it's rather simple, as are all the hilts from that game. It totally looks like a flashlight, though. Always liked the Yun version, as well. I actually saw a nice FX rendition of that one, recently, though I can't recall who made it. There was a YouTube video from Kal of the UK saber armory, who I guess did the electronics installation for whoever bought it.
I saw some Kyle versions, as well. Only ever seen one or two attempts at the Jerec hilt, and none of the other characters. Though they barely get any screen time. It'd be really sweet to find photos from the production of the live action scenes from DF2. All I've seen are the couple shots of the Bryar pistol and the Kyle hilt, which I believe were all created by Don Bies.
I kinda miss the days when PC games used that weird mixture of live action and crap 3D graphics. Does anybody remember "The 7th Guest"? What a silly, yet spooky game that was! I really preferred Doom and Wolfenstein, but had played lots of King's Quest, Space Quest and all those Sierra adventure games a lot before Doom was released. Is my age showing?
So that was a weird tangent! Anyway, back to the Kyle lightsaber, the aluminum cover plate was an experiment, of sorts. I used some low-grade aluminum tubing that I'd gathered lots of scraps of over the years working in movies and TV. The kind that the rigging electrics and grips use as rails (they call it speed rail) for mounting equipment and hanging blackout fabric from.
I basically cut a section of the tubing away, then hammered it into shape so it'd wrap around the hilt nicely. Nothing fancy, really, but I'd never attempted it before. I can't tell if the flat section was actually part of that cover on the real prop, or not. I've seen some folks make it all as one piece, though, which looks pretty cool. I may try that out, as well. The first all aluminum version I had, didn't even have the cover plate detail, I don't think any of us had noticed it, yet.
It's also hard to tell, but in some shots looks like there could be a greeblie/switch/button or something on the black midband opposite that plate. The video quality is so poor, it's difficult to make out whether it's just an artifact or there's really some part there.
Oh, I forgot to mention the two screws in the flat aluminum section. It does look like there's something there in the real prop, possibly button head Allen screws, maybe something else. I used two small lengths of 1/4-20 all thread (actually just scrap from cutting screws to length), and cut slots into the tops, basically creating two slotted grub screws. I kinda like them, but would gladly swap them out with whatever is SUPPOSED to be there, if it's ever made clear!
Dangit, forgot one more thing! The black E tape! For the life of me, I couldn't remember what tape it was that I used on my original Kyle saber, but I knew it was a thick electrical tape of some type. I finally found some great thick stuff at Lowe's. I bought two types, one is around .030", the other is thicker. I'll add their numbers when I get back home, they're both 3M products. I ended up using the thinner of the two on the "activation box".
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Did lots of work to my new control box for the Rylo Hero!!
Milled the front half of the side away to allow for the LED plate (although now that I've looked, I'll have to do a new plate, I think this one's a tad thin), resized the triangle LEDs so they weren't quite so large, drilled and tapped holes for the tiny screws and threw it all together.
I think it's looking pretty darn close to the real prop, but still not QUITE there!
Milled the front half of the side away to allow for the LED plate (although now that I've looked, I'll have to do a new plate, I think this one's a tad thin), resized the triangle LEDs so they weren't quite so large, drilled and tapped holes for the tiny screws and threw it all together.
I think it's looking pretty darn close to the real prop, but still not QUITE there!
Thanks, Tom!
Yeah, I may have gone just a bit too far in shrinking the LEDs, they're really close, but I think I've made them perhaps slightly too small, now.
The screws should be a few hairs further down, as well, closer to the body of the hilt.
But I DID manage to get the wonky red triangle! Ever so slightly skewed.
Yeah, I may have gone just a bit too far in shrinking the LEDs, they're really close, but I think I've made them perhaps slightly too small, now.
The screws should be a few hairs further down, as well, closer to the body of the hilt.
But I DID manage to get the wonky red triangle! Ever so slightly skewed.
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