Luke ESB Hero Lightsaber

Clutch

Clutch

Master Member
RPF PREMIUM MEMBER
Yeah, I know, not another one...

Had the day to myself, so I finished this one up quick.

esb04z.jpg


I used socket head screws for the grips and rivets for the d-ring. Does anyone know what kind of rivets were used? Mine are filled in the centers and the prod. ones look empty.

esb03z.jpg


Made sure that the tab was popped off.

esb02z.jpg


Here are my 'Dagobah' and 'Hero' together.

esb01z.jpg


For anyone using Gino's grips, this is by far the best method to cut the slots out. Use a grinding stone:

First I tape the grip to the table. This serves two purposes. It secures the grip so you don't have to worry about holding it. It also protects the grip from the sanding wheel should you start to go too deep.

I then make sure it is lined up and at a speed just lower than highest, I drop the wheel straight down and then pull it back cutting out the slot. The plastic will melt and build up, so you will have to stop and peel it off, but it comes off easily.

trackcutz.jpg


A final step is polishing the grips with Novis Plastic Polish 2. It darkens the grips and removes any whitish areas/scratches from cutting.
 
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My favorite kind of Threads !!

Looks fantastic. It's always great to see attention to detail like the circuit boards. Great job.
 
That's a great technique for cutting the slots. Can you share how far up the slot starts from the bottom and how wide the slot is? I know there used to be blueprints on my hard drive, but they seem to have been lost along the way.
 
I am not normally into lightsabers, but wow. I can appreciate a job well done and you have raised my interest in attempting one myself :)
 
Thanks everyone!

Gregatron said:
Lovely. As noted--
--I just finished fixing up my Larbel, and I love it. Yours is a real Graflex, yes?
Click to expand...

Saw that. Very nice work! I was kind of in the same boat as the previous owner of this had drilled the holes incorrectly and have everything mis-aligned. What I had to do was drill new holes (grips cover the old ones) and grind the tabs off of the clamp so that I could rotate the lower half to a correct position! I'm still not satisfied with my rivet work. If I find better ones, at least I can drill these out. :unsure And yes, it is a real Graflex.

cayman shen said:
Can you share how far up the slot starts from the bottom and how wide the slot is?
Click to expand...

I went with 3 5/8" for the grip length. The slots start 3/8" from the bottom and are 5/16" wide.
 
It's great seeing justice done to such a fine piece, Clutch.

The entire bottom section being misaligned on arrival in addition to the grips were what ultimately led me to sell that saber, as at that point I wasn't confident enough to try fixing a genuine Graflex. I'm glad that you've been able to restore it to the accuracy it deserves!
 
Great job, I am just getting back into collecting sabers again as I had to sale off my whole collection a few years back and the Luke ESB is my next project. I have been able to pick up a couple prequel sabers, but now Im ready for a few original trilogy sabers, and this one is the first one. I found two larbel graflex's one for a esb, and another for a ANH version. Will use your tip on the grips, as that is where I had problems on the first one I put together. I think it was a parks kit. The larbels I found are complete but I wanted to change the grips, and clean the saber up some. I also didnt know that the piece in front of the button was missing. Learn something new daily! Goodjob!
MTFBWY
 
And if you prefer a found item over a fan-made, then you could use the t-track that Marv offers.
 
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