Slothfurnace's ANH Luke Graflex Saber chassis. PICS, Step by step.

slothfurnace

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RPF PREMIUM MEMBER
Howdy folks, I figure I ought to start a thread on my next saber.

I wanted to go back to the roots again, this time with a Graflex ANH Luke saber. This is my interpretation of the internal lightsaber workings.

I picked up a cheaply priced Graflex 2 cell on ebay, and proceeded to make it into a 3 cell.

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Unfortunately, I couldn't find anywhere that offered 3 cell back ends, so I decided to make my own out of some scrap capped 1.5 inch stock I had in the bin.

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I used my lathe to etch the pattern for the tab slots so I could get them even and straight.

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After removing the material with my dremel, it fits just as snug as the original two cell back.

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Next I thought about a crystal chamber. With much inspiration from those who have gone before me, I set off on my own direction, harvesting many parts from harddrives, old clocks, etc.

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I took one entire array of harddrive platters and lathed them down to fit inside the graflex rear. At this point, I have the ... middle decided on more or less, and I will be constructing from there out to either end. I want to make sure I leave enough room in the design for soundboard, speaker, batteries, etc.

The crystal chamber is made of various parts, the most intricate so far is the crystal holder, made of brass tubing, guitar string beads, some brass stock from an old clock, etc.

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Here is my Aqua Aura double terminated crystal, a very nice blue without lighting, but with...

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...it really shines..

And here's an update. I present to you my radiator section!

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Some of you may know I was looking for some brass sheet, and I found 3/4 by 1 foot sections at my local hobby shop. I cut two of these down to sort of 2 inch sections, and drilled through a stack of them in a pattern that fit my three main frame posts. Here is my first rig, that didn't work too well on the belt sander, as it wasn't quite easy to hold, and therefore dangerous.

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Here you see my better rig, bolted to a piece of scrap walnut, this lets me shave the brass down on the belt sander without bending anything near the bottom of the stack.

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Here I have the stack pretty much shaped, I removed the harddrive platter retainer as I got closer to the shape I wanted, so as not to scuff it up.

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Now for the radiator line holes. This, again was drilled out on the drill press.

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I had a devil of a time hollowing them out on the inside, to make a C.. I will probably revisit that inside contour, as I am not quite satisfied with it. Also, after drilling, I sandpapered each section to remove any flash or sharp edges from drilling.

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Here we are assembled and test fit. I am again using brass guitar string ends for spacing, and scrap brass rod from a broken clock to run through the sections.

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Here's where I need to work on the inside contour... I am not quite happy with that yet, I will hollow it out a bit, and add some interesting details in there.

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A closeup of the radiator section, shows my first bend. I will bend the rest of the rod around like that to make it look like tubing that needs to be cooled,,, or heated, or whatever.

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And another shot of the crystal. After assembling this, I think I will lower the placement of the radiator a bit to overlap with the crystal some. The radiator ended up being a bit longer than what I had in my original sketches, but I think it's fine.

I machined a canister for my batteries and soundboard. Then I needed a fore end cap, so I turned down one of the harddrive motor mounts on my lathe, and set it so I could drill and tap for screws to seal it off.

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I like the inset motor coils against the black paint of the motor mount cap. Here, I have threaded for 6-32 stainless cap screws, to hold it together.

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I also took one of the hard drive platter spacers, and meticulously and tediously wrapped it in copper, for my front lens. I figured, a magnetic lens would work as well as an optical one. And I like the contrast of the copper vs the brass and chrome look.

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It fits just fine in the graflex, I left the main support rods long so I can cut them down once my blade adapter arrives, but I have tape about where I estimate the adapter stops. I will fidget with the spacing a bit once I get the adapter, but I think it's really coming together.

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This evening, I shortened up my end screws, wired a preliminary LED into the crystal, and set my batteries and a temp switch in the battery canister.

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Another shot, I love the color contrast between the blue of the light and the gold/yellow of the brass.

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All spread out, I may mount it this way. I'll have to build a mount.
 
Excellent work! That crystal glows quite well!

The capped 1.5 inch stock, is that easy to come by? I'm in same situation, a near mint 2 cell Graflex, but feel it will be difficult to find just a 3 cell bottom for it.

Tim
 
That is absolutely... I'm at a loss for words!

That is a true work of art right there (just like your correct-neck Obi-Wan lightsaber).
 
That is quite possibly the best saber chassis I have ever seen. Every piece looks like it has a functional purpose, compared to the jumble of parts that you usually see in other saber chasis. Yours is truly awesome!
 
Excellent ... wonderful!

Just add that other bubblestrip of Rebelscum and some grips and your journey towards the dar... oops wrong text :lol

I'll be watching your progress with great interest.

Keep up the good work!

-Chaim
 
Wonderfully done! I've never heard of capped aluminum tube. That info would have saved me a lot of custom saber frustration over the years! Where does on get such a thing?
 
Awesome work.

And I am so glad the newbie quoted the entire first post because I didn't quite look at all 40 photos the first time around. Sheesh.
 
Excellent ... wonderful!

Just add that other bubblestrip of Rebelscum and some grips and your journey towards the dar... oops wrong text :lol

I'll be watching your progress with great interest.

Keep up the good work!

-Chaim

Oh, I plan on getting another couple good bubblestrips from Rebelscum. I have used up my first two on my Obis.

Wonderfully done! I've never heard of capped aluminum tube. That info would have saved me a lot of custom saber frustration over the years! Where does on get such a thing?


Ah, well, for one, it was a capped stainless steel tube, and I have no idea where it came from, it was in my box of tubing and scrap. If you're talking about the 3cell back end.

If you're talking about the battery canister, It is a tube, capped on one end by that motor housing piece, and the other by another scrap I will use for my speaker grille.
 
Yeah, I was talking about the graflex 3 cell end. Capped stainless tube? I'll have to talk to the metal shop teacher at my school and see if he has any leads!
 
Wow! Dazzling! A triumph! The radiators and other details really look like they are functional. Very well designed and executed. :thumbsup :thumbsup :thumbsup
 
That's a really awesome design. Do you have any pictures of the end of the bottom piece--the capped stainless steel tubing? I'm working on a project similar to this myself, and that would be perfect to use. I suppose no one has any idea where to find something like that? Slothfurnace--I have one more question: what dremel attachment(s) did you use to cut the stainless steel tube? Thank you.
 
That's a really awesome design. Do you have any pictures of the end of the bottom piece--the capped stainless steel tubing? I'm working on a project similar to this myself, and that would be perfect to use. I suppose no one has any idea where to find something like that? Slothfurnace--I have one more question: what dremel attachment(s) did you use to cut the stainless steel tube? Thank you.

I'll take some pics of that this evening if I get time, I really have no idea where it came from originally. It was in a box of scrap I got off ebay.

As for the dremel attachment, it was a thin cutoff wheel, and I went through about three of them.
 
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