Luke ESB saber rivets?

[tingjunkie]

Hey Guys,
Trying to decide which version of Luke's ESB saber I want to convert a Graflex into. I'm leaning towards the tauntaun saber because I like the look of the silver rivets on the grips. Here's the pic from POSW...

Can you saber experts tell me what kind of rivets these are, where to find them, and how to put them on? Any info would be greatly appreciated.

[And a side note- if anyone is putting together an Obi saber and interested in trading a clean and original Graflex clamp for a slightly rusty original clamp, please PM me. This clamp I have was meant for an Obi saber- it looks sweet!]

 

[Dewy]

Rivets are easy. I can't remember the size for the Luke ESB saber but get STEEL pop rivets they break a lot cleaner than aluminum and look nicer IMHO. What you need is a rivet gun which looks kinda like a pair of pliers. All you need to do is pre-drill the holes, put on the grips, and pop the rivets on. If you go to home depot and get a rivet gun it comes with instructions but they're cheap and super easy to use.

 

[tingjunkie]

Thanks for the info Dewy. Anyone else know the correct size of rivet?

If I decide to go with screws instead (a la Wampa Cave/Speeder Escape) would the screws which come with the Blast Tech Kit be accurate? I would paint them black of course.

 

[tingjunkie]

This thread is going down quicker than a chubby cheerleader on prom night! (Wacka! Wacka!) :lol

But seriously, anyone?

 

[dcarty]

Hi there,
I don't know if a firm decision has ever been made on the subject but, until someone proves otherwise, I believe that the grips were held in place with screws not rivets. For ages I believed them to be flat-head screws, or possibly combination flat-head/phillips, based on what my eyes saw on the US Magazine cover photo.

On the other hand, here is a photo from C3 (not taken by me so if the owner of the pics wishes it removed I will gladly comply) that clearly shows phillips head on the "Ranch Saber" attributed to the Dagobah scenes of ESB:

That of course begs the question--are the Dagobah/Ranch Saber and the Hoth/Bespin saber hilts the same? I think it's pretty fair to say they are, just from different stages of the production and varying states of disrepair.

I used 1/4" rivets on the kobold D-Ring holder of my ESB saber and either 1/4" or 5/32" phillips head screws.

I still want to make some improvements--adding Gino T-Track, and a genuine Kobold piece. If I can get ahold of those then maybe I'll have the guts to use an authentic 3-cell bottom piece and remove the "beer-tab" from the back.

Dave

 

[tingjunkie]

Hi Dave. Thanks for the response. I do think that the Ranch Saber is different from both the tauntaun saber and wampa/speeder saber simply because of the extra set of screws at the top of the grips. Then again, who knows what LFL did to that Ranch saber after filming. :rolleyes

As for tinkering with your Graflex... I have yet to drill mine and can't tell you how easy or difficult that procedure is, but the beer tab and rivet are a piece of cake. I just masked off the area around it with painter's tape, and used a wire cutter to get underneath and pop it right off. A small metal piece broke off in the hole, but it was very easy to take a small nail and tap it out.

 

[dcarty]

Hi Dave. Thanks for the response. I do think that the Ranch Saber is different from both the tauntaun saber and wampa/speeder saber simply because of the extra set of screws at the top of the grips. Then again, who knows what LFL did to that Ranch saber after filming. :rolleyes

As for tinkering with your Graflex... I have yet to drill mine and can't tell you how easy or difficult that procedure is, but the beer tab and rivet are a piece of cake. I just masked off the area around it with painter's tape, and used a wire cutter to get underneath and pop it right off. A small metal piece broke off in the hole, but it was very easy to take a small nail and tap it out.

Yeah the black screws are a puzzle. I don't see why they can't be the same saber though--they just added the screws later in the production--or they're there already and you just can see them. It seems that for years around here people stated categorically that you could faintly see them in the US Magazine picture. I'd held off adding them to my saber then, once I broke down and put them on, everybody changed their minds!

I've popped the beer tab off of my Parks replica. I'm not very comfortable doing that to an authentic Graflex though. I've tried to ensure that any modifications that I make to my real Graflex flashes can be unmade. The likelyhood of my getting a real Kobold any time soon is pretty slim anyway.


Cheers,

Dave