So... A while back, I want to say 12 years... Maybe more... a friend was taking machining classes and from what I remember he took on a lightsaber as a term project! The deal was I would give him a blueprint and a bottle of bourbon and he'd give me and my dad the project when it was done. Not bad huh?
Back then... I mean, let's do some math, the best things out there were the Darth Lars (?) hero/stunt blueprint .jpg that was like.. close enough. That's what we gave him, and obviously if you remember: some of the measurements were off, some were missing, etc. so it wasn't perfect. Anyway, he came back with this:
Ironically, we had to ask him to fix the upper neck, AND see if he could pull off the pommel cubes. They did both, and did the pommel cubes on a drill press... so risky, but it generally worked. I painted it back when we had no freaking idea what the V2 looked like, and I had a Rylo grenade body, and a russrep emitter weathered by boba debt for my Obi Wan saber... if that dates it for you.
Well, I took another look at this saber recently. I decided to use what I had in front of me to make it better. It already had a V3 style recess in the emitter, (as does the V2 we now know) so I sat down at my mini lathe to see if I could make a "nipple" for a random piece of steel rod I had lying around.
Bingo. I don't know how I pulled it off, but I'm getting better at lathing metal! Anyway, I cut the emitter off and tried to drill it out. Dull bit + drill press actually tipping when I press the parts together... went crooked. So I had to bore out the rear of the emitter by hand and rely on the nipple to center the damned thing.
Nicely, I stuck the emitter recess on my lathe chuck and was able to cut the emitter into a nicer shape, cleaned up every single surface and added V2 style M3 grub screws.
So, that sorta worked out. I drilled into the body, just the length of the neck, and added a set screw like the V3 for the tang, then used that as a drill shaft to sand the hell out of the body on my hand drill. That was very satisfying! I also blanked every original hole I could. A crappy cone knob, a badly placed D ring hole, and actually a huge hole in the side of the emitter like the V3. Can't even tell... its where the dent is on the side.
I added a clamp I salvaged from an Anakin Starkiller and Halliwax batch and just used some of my weird vintage screws to hold the clamp together for now.
I'm gonna see what paint I should use..... but first the pommel cubes need some hand filing to clean them up!
Back then... I mean, let's do some math, the best things out there were the Darth Lars (?) hero/stunt blueprint .jpg that was like.. close enough. That's what we gave him, and obviously if you remember: some of the measurements were off, some were missing, etc. so it wasn't perfect. Anyway, he came back with this:
Ironically, we had to ask him to fix the upper neck, AND see if he could pull off the pommel cubes. They did both, and did the pommel cubes on a drill press... so risky, but it generally worked. I painted it back when we had no freaking idea what the V2 looked like, and I had a Rylo grenade body, and a russrep emitter weathered by boba debt for my Obi Wan saber... if that dates it for you.
Well, I took another look at this saber recently. I decided to use what I had in front of me to make it better. It already had a V3 style recess in the emitter, (as does the V2 we now know) so I sat down at my mini lathe to see if I could make a "nipple" for a random piece of steel rod I had lying around.
Bingo. I don't know how I pulled it off, but I'm getting better at lathing metal! Anyway, I cut the emitter off and tried to drill it out. Dull bit + drill press actually tipping when I press the parts together... went crooked. So I had to bore out the rear of the emitter by hand and rely on the nipple to center the damned thing.
Nicely, I stuck the emitter recess on my lathe chuck and was able to cut the emitter into a nicer shape, cleaned up every single surface and added V2 style M3 grub screws.
So, that sorta worked out. I drilled into the body, just the length of the neck, and added a set screw like the V3 for the tang, then used that as a drill shaft to sand the hell out of the body on my hand drill. That was very satisfying! I also blanked every original hole I could. A crappy cone knob, a badly placed D ring hole, and actually a huge hole in the side of the emitter like the V3. Can't even tell... its where the dent is on the side.
I added a clamp I salvaged from an Anakin Starkiller and Halliwax batch and just used some of my weird vintage screws to hold the clamp together for now.
I'm gonna see what paint I should use..... but first the pommel cubes need some hand filing to clean them up!
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