DIY Graflex 3 Cell Help Needed

WhiskyLima

WhiskyLima

New Member
Hey all! I am brand new here and haven't yet even made a proper introduction for myself but I will soon. Just wanted to see if anyone could help me. I have been looking around for information about the Graflex saber, I am planning to build (Anakin's then Luke's then) Rey's saber from scratch - or at least as close as I can without spending too much money.

What I was interested to know is what thickness the metal parts are on the Graflex? I think have the wall thickness of the pipe (although confirmation wouldn't hurt as I have read conflicting answers to this too), but what about the bunny ears and the clamp cover that holds the edge connector card?

Sorry in advance if I have misplaced this thread or asked a question that has already been answered a thousand times, I did try to find the answer but couldn,t find much more than the basic dimensions of the tube itself.

Thanks guys, looking forward to getting to know you all throughout this project!
 
hey, so I just have very flimsy plastic calipers next to my computer and a graflex, but I read a bit more than a milimeter for the main tube and a bit under a milimeter for the bunny ears and clamp. Sorry that I cannot help more.
 
Excellent thank you! I have been thinking about how the shoulders could be formed and that provides a great solution. Thank you for the help guys :)
 
I have been looking on ebay and have ordered a 38mm diameter aluminium pipe with a wall thickness of 1.5mm. I read somewhere the original is around 1.25 which would seem to be quite close based on what eethan said above. I'm a bit concerned that 1.5mm might look quite bulky but I have been having a hard time finding a pipe with a thinner wall thickness. Will see how it goes when it arrives and perhaps do some more searching if it's not the one.

Edit: I opted for 0.8mm thick aluminium sheet for the rest of the parts seems like a good thickness based on info and reference images
 
1.5mm will be a bit thick probably but not too far off. worst case scenario you could maybe file/sand/turn a bit of thickness down at the open end of the tube. 0.8mm seems great for the clamp and bunny ears :) you'll need a small strip around 0.5mm or less for the ring/bulb holder of the bunny ears. It's riveted on one of the side of the bunny ears thicker material, if that makes sense.
good luck and looking forward to your progress.
 
also, be very carefull when bending the aluminium, it's a lot less forgetting that steel. The worst part I'm thinking about is the bent small squares from the main tube where the bunny ears attach. be very carefull when bending those, probably use heat to help at least.
 
Ok thanks dude, seems like sound advise. I will have a look at the pipe I have ordered once it arrives and decide what I'm going to do about that. Also the info about the bulb holder strip is very useful, just working the details for that out as we speak!

EDIT: Just ordered some 0.5mm sheet for the bulb holder strip.
 
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Ok guys, a bit of an update and a request for help. First of all, the pipe arrived and although it does seem a little think, I'm not too worried about that right now. My only concern is that is is going to be a bit harder to work with. I have cut the pipe to size and got the basic shaping done at the end of the saber. I'm sure it's not perfect but I am happy with the result so far.

20200116_163035.jpg20200116_163052.jpg

I have made some small indentations where the holes will be cut but I haven't ventured any further yet. So, I am confident I can make the holes and after some testing on a scrap piece I am happy I have a method for the small wings that connect the 'bunny ears'. What I can't figure out is how I can make the small shoulders for the buttons.

I tried a method I seen in another forum on my scrap pipe, basically drill a hole through and mount a hunk of flat material on the outside and a heavy duty washer or 10 on the inside and bolt it all together. Then keep tightening the bolts until it starts to push the metal out. That worked fine until the bolt gave up and the threads stripped off (perhaps I will try again with bigger hardware). Does anyone know of another method I could try, any and all suggestions would be greatly appreciated!!

Thanks in advance guys!
 
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I would recommend some needle files - especially for the rectangular holes.. just drill as exact circles as you can like a traffic light and file out the corners!
 
Looks good so far! What's the source of your template?

For a little inspiration, here's a pic of my crappy hardware Graflex build:
image.jpg
It was built from a lamp tube, so it's a little undersized. The bulb holder only looks as good as it does because it's real. It and the clamp have since been replaced.
 
That's far from crappy dude, good job! I hope I can get mine looking as good! The templates I am using are created from scratch in Photoshop using blueprints and other templates as reference. I found the available templates quite low resolution for printing so I made my own high res images to print onto A4, stick back printer paper. If anyone is interested in those I will post them here once I am reasonably pleased with their accuracy. For now they are still a work in progress. Thanks for your suggestion thd, I have a set of needle file so I tried that out today with the small hole at the very top of the saber. It is looking good so far but still a very long way to go.

Here is where I finished today, some of the edges are still very rough but with some work I think I can get them close enough

3.jpg4.jpg
 
Very nice work so far. Make sure to not loose to much time on details before bending those squares holding the bunny ears, If they break, you'll have to start over.
I know this isn't very motivating, but trust me, it happened to me, and this is a friendly advice.
good luck for the rest of the work, it's very interesting to watch (y)
 
OK so 2 questions: 1. Should I drill the small holes in the bunny ears first and then bend them or the other way round? It seems like it will be easier now but is that a bad idea? 2. Is it better to pull the shoulders before I do the bunny ears? I think I can work around them but I am concerned that something might bend in an unusual way. I don't know a lot about this material, been reading about annealing but if you guys have any advise before I make the pulls that would be great. Thanks
 
Thank you for the tips, I am pleased I managed to get it done first time. Basically I heated the metal up (not sure on the temp but my heat gun goes to 500c), then let it cool and bent it a little at a time. The whole process was repeated over and over until it was the correct shape. I still have some work to do to tidy the edges up but once that is done I will post some more progress pics.
 
Just finished a bit of preliminary polishing (I find it more motivating to see something that resembles a finished product as I move along the process). It's not fully cleaned up yet, there are still some nicks and scratches to take care of but I'm not worried about that at this stage. Anyway this is my progress so far:
5.jpg6.jpg7.jpg8.jpg9.jpg
 
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