Darth Maul cutaway lightsaber COMPLETED! Pics on first post

[Hez]

Edit: So, here it is. There's a lot of pics, so bear with it. For a first attempt at a cutaway, I'm reasonably pleased. There's surprisingly little space to work with inside this saber, and it's all pretty uniform, I'm sure there's more could be done with it though.

I'd love to get some feedback from you all, especially the experienced cutaway builders here. Sadly, it's off to ebay almost immediately for this one...link will be in the junkyard.

Well, this is a bit of a work in progress that I've had in mind for a good long while now, so I thought I'd post up a thread following it until completion, hopefully sometime this week. The saber itself is one of my own that I had lying around, and since I didn't feel like making a battle damaged version (about the only thing you can do with half a Maul saber), I thought I'd try something a little more ambitious. So far, so good...

This is what I started with:

And after a lot of cutting work, this is what I have now:

I've cleaned up the cut and smoothed out the inside a little, it was a little messy visually, but nothing that some elbow grease and sandpaper couldn't put right. I've also put together a few parts that will form the innards, but so far don't have any pics. I'll try and get them up tomorrow.

 

[Dann]

Re: Darth Maul cutaway lightsaber

Cool! So was this machined from one piece of solid aluminum and then drilled through with a really long drill or a really long boring bar, or was it tubing?

Also, did you cut it in half with a slitting saw on a mill, or just a bandsaw or a hacksaw?

I remember you used to make these, but I've never been much of a Maul saber fan so I didn't really follow the machining process in how you did your sabers.

Anyway, I'm excited to see the innards!

 

[Darth Maul]

Re: Darth Maul cutaway lightsaber

:thumbsup

Very cool! Looking forward to seeing how this turns out!

 

[Planettera]

Re: Darth Maul cutaway lightsaber

Can't wait to see how this will turn out.

 

[Sporak]

Re: Darth Maul cutaway lightsaber

Interesting...
I love cutaway sabers...can't wait to see what ou have gathered...

 

[Chingon]

Re: Darth Maul cutaway lightsaber

I've always thought the profile of this saber would make an excellent cutaway, but I never attempted it because I just dont have the talent required to do it right. Good luck, hez. I cant wait to see what you do with it.

 

[Hez]

Re: Darth Maul cutaway lightsaber

Well, here's todays progress. I have a few more bits that are awaiting assembly, like the 'powerpack' part which will sit near the pommel end of each half, or in the centre of the complete saber.

Dann, these were originally CNC milled from solid aluminium, and I've had it drilled out to fit all the parts for a cutaway. The cutting was done by hand with an xacto razor saw. I looked into a machine cut, but there are few places with equipment that could do such a fine cut. Those that do have the kit, are expensive and busy. As it is, I've achieved 95% of the quality of that cut by hand. Just a lot more labour!

 

[Dann]

Re: Darth Maul cutaway lightsaber

Wow, by hand, eh? Impressive! Looks like a great start!

 

[Hez]

Re: Darth Maul cutaway lightsaber

And added this evening...

So far nothing is fixed in, I can take everything out to add bits, take bits away or whatever. This is all the major components that I plan on adding, next will come crystals, wires, buttons, all the fiddly stuff that will take hours. :wacko

 

[silverskyes402]

Re: Darth Maul cutaway lightsaber

That looks pretty damn cool, great job of cutting it in half!!!

 

[Howard]

Re: Darth Maul cutaway lightsaber

That's looking great, Paul. :thumbsup
It's the fiddly stuff which bring these builds to life, it'll all be worth it in the end.

Can't wait for some more progress shots...

EDIT: So that's where that Creme Egg went!

 

[defstartrooper]

Re: Darth Maul cutaway lightsaber

Cool saber, how longs it take to cut that with an exacto saw :eek i'd try to do one but i know my cut would be all over the place by hand :lol

 

[Kadajiroth]

Re: Darth Maul cutaway lightsaber

Can't wait to see the finished result, it's looking nice already. I can't imagine how much of a pain that would have been to cut in half! :lol

 

[Hez]

Re: Darth Maul cutaway lightsaber

Time taken to cut it in half - 9 hours. :confused Obviously not 9 hours straight, you'd die, but yeeeeah...about 9 hours of work altogether. Plus an hour to clean up the cut and deburr the edges.

Todays progress: Duplicating everything for the other damned half. :lol

Oh yeah, The creme egg was my reward for finishing the cutting Howard!

 

[MooMooEgg]

Re: Darth Maul cutaway lightsaber

looks nice ^_^

it seems like your not planning to have the crystals at the damaged ends of the sabers like the now-famous MR design... good choice imo, since having them there doesn't really make much sense ^_^

 

[RacerX]

Re: Darth Maul cutaway lightsaber

great job on it

 

[Ham Solo]

Re: Darth Maul cutaway lightsaber

Well done, Paul. It's progressing nicely.

 

[vaderlin]

Re: Darth Maul cutaway lightsaber

Wow! Another piece of art!
Looking forward to see the result.

 

[Hez]

Re: Darth Maul cutaway lightsaber

For some reason, it looks much more impressive like this.

 

[JOATRASH FX]

Re: Darth Maul cutaway lightsaber

Spiffy exacto work there, man!

Tip from the vaults of secret untold Jedi cutaway building knowledge:

If you want to get rid of the sharp green "sting" of the circuit boards, go over them with a brass Dremel brush at high speed. You'll get a slightly metallic gold tint over them and they will look as if they had been heated up repeatedly. Steel brushes work too, but the brass gives them a kinda of antiqued look. Also, certain circuit boards (like computer memory) can be sanded to bring out the copper pathways underneath the outer coating.