How to create uniform radii for ANH lightsaber grips?

[veektohr]

Thanks for saving my butt before I installed them. It is what it is, time to move on. Luckily I was wrong on my price. I bought a few different parts at the same time. This was only a 25 dollar boo boo. Better than 50.

Just ordered another set from roy. If this is the worst thing I do this year, then I will be off to a good start. Lol :lol

I installed a d-ring bracket on a Folmer Graflex only to realize it was about 60 degrees off after I'd already riveted it on. Mistakes happen. It never feels good, but time heals most wounds. It's now my future ROTJ Vader stunt saber


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[kevin926]

I installed a d-ring bracket on a Folmer Graflex only to realize it was about 60 degrees off after I'd already riveted it on. Mistakes happen. It never feels good, but time heals most wounds. It's now my future ROTJ Vader stunt saber


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Yeah, mistakes are stinkers for sure. I have to remeber this lesson and move on.

Here's to boo boos:cheers


On the bright side of things, my cuts are perfectly uniform. Lol

 

[Darth Lars]

I know a lot of people go straight angled, but I want curved angles on my ANH grips. Obviously I can radius each corner with a dremel or file, but repeated 14 times...I can't imagine them ending up uniform. Anyone got brilliant thoughts for a process, jig, something? Or a technique to ensure uniformity when radiusing by hand?

You could construct a "sanding tool" (or whatever you want to call it) in the right profile. To use the tool, you would glue sandpaper to it and move it back and forth across the piece you want to sand in that profile.
I would cut the tracks roughly and clamp them down onto a flat surface, and let the tool slide on that surface back and forth across the edges.

I think that to build a tool for making a perfectly circular round edge, you could build a negative out of a pipe of the correct radius and some blocks, to lift a surface to the thickness of the radius. Cover the negative with a single layer of packing tape - of polyethylene that nothing sticks to permanently. Then slather some putty (epoxy putty or Bondo) onto it. When it has cured, remove it and you have a surface of the right shape for the sandpaper.
I use contact cement or office glue - because those are not too strong, allowing me to change the sandpaper.

The tool on the right in this picture is one that I made for shaping another type of track, but lengthwise. (side of slide-rail on a Mauser upper receiver for a DL-44 blaster). I had taped the track I used as template, slathered on Milliput and pressed on a alu bracket. The flat side of the alu bracket guides the hand by sliding against a flat surface on the prop.

 

[LTsmash1200]

Yeah, mistakes are stinkers for sure. I have to remeber this lesson and move on.

Here's to boo boos:cheers


On the bright side of things, my cuts are perfectly uniform. Lol

I read over and over and over, "make sure you do not wire the positive and negative backwards on your board, and make sure you double check it before you pull the kill switch and send power to the board," when I did my nano biscotte install on my V2. I KNEW not to do it. I looked over all of the wiring...pulled the plug...aaaaand poof, the positive and negative were backwards, fried the board.

It happens, haha. I almost did the same as you with my grips. I was literally about to cut the first one when I thought, "wait, that looks too steep," and realized that Roy meant 30 degrees from vertical, not horizontal.

 

[kevin926]

Ah, live and learn. I always felt it was too steep, and I get the vertical, but how would I cut it. That's why I stopped over thinking it and cut what was posted.. Oh well. Water under the bridge.

 

[thd9791]

There are always mistakes like this in this hobby, I've had a few recently myself. best to cut your losses and take a lesson from this,

Todd's Costumes sells track thats pretty accurate and very affordable

 

[Edraven99]

Yeah, mistakes are stinkers for sure. I have to remeber this lesson and move on.

Here's to boo boos:cheers


On the bright side of things, my cuts are perfectly uniform. Lol

Yeah, unfortunately I learned that lesson as well. I cut my Gino ESB tracks to his measurements but they're just a tad too short. Lessen learned is measurements and instructions are great, but you still need to visually confirm everything yourself to make sure that it works for your build since there are variants in even mass produced parts...

 

[teecrooz]

Yeah, unfortunately I learned that lesson as well. I cut my Gino ESB tracks to his measurements but they're just a tad too short. Lessen learned is measurements and instructions are great, but you still need to visually confirm everything yourself to make sure that it works for your build since there are variants in even mass produced parts...

And don't forget that the grip that goes toward the bubble strip is longer than the rest on that Vader due to the sleeve not being there! I didn't catch that when I cut mine yesterday...

 

[teecrooz]

Also, if you're brave enough to remove the MPP plaque, keep the posts partially sticking up... I'm keeping the plaque on mine for now.

 

[Edraven99]

And don't forget that the grip that goes toward the bubble strip is longer than the rest on that Vader due to the sleeve not being there!

Really? D'oh!! I was actually referring to the grips I cut for my *Luke* ESB... which I haven't attached yet...

Sadly, if this is the case, it might be too late for my Vader ESB :cry

 

[russellsch]

And don't forget that the grip that goes toward the bubble strip is longer than the rest on that Vader due to the sleeve not being there! I didn't catch that when I cut mine yesterday...

That's what happened to me, & I didn't catch it till after I already started glueing.... & of course I started laying the t-tracks with the one next to the bubble strip. D'OH! It's nice to know I'm not alone :cheers

 

[Edraven99]

And don't forget that the grip that goes toward the bubble strip is longer than the rest on that Vader due to the sleeve not being there! I didn't catch that when I cut mine yesterday...

Yeah mine lines up perfectly with the clamp... a product of using o-rings to replace the missing clamp sleeve in my initial build. This I think I can live with... though good to point out for any future builds for anyone....

 

[teecrooz]

Really? D'oh!! I was actually referring to the grips I cut for my *Luke* ESB... which I haven't attached yet...

Sadly, if this is the case, it might be too late for my Vader ESB :cry

Oops, I have Vader on the brain today.