Graflex 2.0 build

[orntar]

Hello all! While I just recently joined, I have been a lurker here for years. I have been making harry potter wands for years and used the forums as a great reference.

I have always loved Star Wars, and I finally have a project I feel worthy of posting.

I stumbled upon empty hilts after seeing awesome chassis in your tube videos over the years. I settled on a Graflax and start the process of lots of learning. I didn't know what a chassis was, neopixel, cree led, sound boards, etc. After finding the Korbanth Graflex 2.0 for a good price, I decided this would be a good starter to learn saber building.

I found Goth 3designs after that and found out he designed the awesome chassis I had been seeing over the years! While expensive thru shapeways. I decided to do it! I started planning a master build.

Alright with the story out of the way, here is the start of the build. I will be a slow process.

Korbanth kit pared down to my build. I am going with TFA version.

I 3d printed a guide and added the rails and rivets (not from the kit, they were screws)

Also riveted the cobold ring.

First shipment arrived from The Saber Armory. I am going to use a proffie board and neopixel blade/plug. Bottom item is a glass eye for the bottom. Not sure if I will illuminate it, but I am planning to so far.

Got my first batch of shapeways master chassis parts. the main frame so I can get started fitting it.

I found the battery holder is quite a bit different from the one in the videos and Goth instructions. it is a lot thinner and appears to be able to hold a proffie. I know it doesn't go there (for me anyway) because there is a dedicated chassis part just for it. The black one in the first pic. I had to do a lot of sanding and fitting in order to get it into the korbanth aluminum frame. To the point I thought it wouldn't fit, but I did get it.

Thats all for now. While I am waiting on the rest of the shapeways parts, I plan on assembling the electronics on the bench for testing.

 

[mikesprops]

Great job so far mate. Can't wait to see the finished saber.

 

[orntar]

Upon trying to actually fit the chassis in the aluminum frame, there is no way it was going to work.

So I modeled a new in fusion. After a few tries, it fits perfectly now.

A bonus to that is that now the neopixel holder fits lower than expected and I can mll out the lowewr eye and the blade plug or blade diffused plastic should glow thru the eye nicely. This will save me an led and wiring. More on that later.

I hope to mill out the wiring hole and eye in the next few days.

 

[orntar]

Got some new cnc bits in today and started milling the new recesses.

First up was the wire access for the red button switch.

Here it is with the battery holder inserted, rotated slightly to show the access.

Next was the glass eye opening.

Lined up nicely with where the neopixel lens sits.

I can now start the final assembly with the Goth 3Designs chassis components.

 

[Bubuks Garage]

Goth3D have revised his master chsis for the parks graflex. Probably the latest one on his shapeway follow 2.5 dimension. My 10 cents. But im excited to see your finished build.

 

[orntar]

Yes, it's the master chassis for 2.0, and he has notes saying it fits the 2.5 now. The battery holder is definitely different, so some sort of redesign happened.

Perhaps my battery is just a smidgen fatter than would fit. It is a wired 18650.

The rest fits as expected so far.

 

[Bubuks Garage]

Could be bad tolerance too. I remembered that I have to shave quite an amount of plastic parts to fit the hilt on my previous GOTH build.

 

[orntar]

Made a bit of progress. I got the button wires routed thru the aluminum body with the chassis. It wasn’t too easy.

I got all the mid plates weathered and the main one mounted. These are natural brass, and the crystal holder is polished brass.

The lower plates, I opted for plastic to save money. I plan on painting them dark aluminum metallic and weathering them.

Also - this chassis is an older design, so the crystal camber is designed for a 5mm through hole led. I ordered some diffused 5mm pixels. Does anyone have experience with these? I am wondering how bright they are and if this would suffice for the crystal led, or if I should try to mount the single pixel in there somehow.