Slothfurnace's OBI ANH Reveal saber - WIP

slothfurnace

Sr Member
RPF PREMIUM MEMBER
It's my "holy grail" saber. Everything leading up to this has been practice to me.

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I plan (hope) to make this one a springloaded chamber reveal.

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I have enough stuff from Russreps to do it, and a couple clamps. I also have a chromed emitter and powdercoated booster, which I might make an AFBB out of.
A nice bundle of wires, a connector, and....

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A Crystal Focus v5 LS version! Erv was so kind as to allow me to test the LS version, so this will the be the heart and soul of my ANH Obi chamber reveal saber.

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GORGEOUS! I cannot wait to get out in the garage to begin the housing for this. I have to clear a couple things off my plate first, but this one has my juices flowing. It's time to get the drawing paper out and start designing the mechanism, start the search for the right chamber crystals, etc.

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The PC is just there for size reference for the CF-LS.
I had quite a lot of trouble getting my head wrapped around the chamber lock mechanism for this one. I was trying to make it too much like my ROTJ Luke. Then tonight I just scrapped it for a much more obvious and elegant solution, once I get something that works, I 'll post that.

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I started tonight with boring out the Russreplica's aluminum ANM2 booster piece, and fitting it to a hollow tube that also works as my main can and crystal chamber base.
It's been so long since I did any saber work, lately I am inspired to get back to it though.
 
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The real problem with this saber, is the fact that I have a LOT less space to work with. The outer contour of the clamp, the booster, the grenade, is a lot smaller than the ROTJ Luke due to all the cuts into the shapes. Designing a chamber reveal lock is proving to be challenging. On the ROTJ Luke, I had support rods running the entire length of the rear section, from the grenade piece to the pommel. The ANH Obi has a design that precludes these support rods. I may remove them from the design altogether.

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However, I think I figured it out once I abandoned the "twist pommel lock" method I developed with the ROTJ Luke, and tried to do something new for this one. My plan is to use the Graflex clamp lever bolt as a pivot, and the natural gap between the bars as a slot for a lever that will have a hook on the front that engages a notch in the grenade, and a nub on the back to press with my thumb.

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Here I am milling out a notch in the "top" of the grenade section. To determine the top, I screw in the brass windvane till it stops, and the notch in that points up. Then I mark the top of the grenade, clamp it in the vise and mill.

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This is the notch where I plan to have the chamber release lever catch on.

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I'll machine my latch that pivots on the clamp lever bolt next, since I have to machine that to fit the notch, so that there's as little slack as possible.

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Here's my release lever. I had a plate of aluminum scrap laying around with just the perfect width, perfect hole already drilled in it for the bolt, and I just had to machine it to fit. I also milled down between the bars and partially into the main housing to allow for the spring that keeps tension on the lever, keeping the chamber locked.

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There is excess material on the thumb nub left, I will machine that down as I get closer to finishing this section. I don't want it to stick out TOO far, but I want to be able to get hold of it. All this will be hidden under the bubble strip.

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This is the tooth that locks into the notch on the grenade section. I will probably get this anodized black, or painted a dark color so it doesn't show up as much. The aluminum crystal mount temp piece is there as a doodle, till I get my brass in to make the final part. I need to shorten it, and narrow the inside opening, and make the curve a bit more prounounced before I am satisfied with this part.
 
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Not that it shows up much at all, really, but it should be a dark grey or black. Here it is all closed under spring pressure, not too noticable. I'll need to do a good weathering pass when I am done machining so it matches my original static Obi Wan hilt.

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This is about as far open as the chamber will go with support rods. Without them, I might get another inch of opening. No crystal chamber yet, that solid aluminum cylinder is there to test the latch functionality, and to let me know how much more support I will need to make things as sturdy as I can. I may not have outer support rods at this point. I am entertaining a new design that might not need them. If that turns out to work well, it will help me with the quick detatch bladed section vs. non bladed section setup I have bouncing around in my head at the moment.

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So a few points here. I needed some way to keep the pommel cube ring from rotating. Not that it would spin freely, but they tend to move over time. So I used a 1/8 endmill to cut a slot down into the inside surface of the ring. This slot engages the raised 6/32 setscrew I use to secure the pommel to the booster. I also took the steel pommel endcap, and cut a larger hole through it, and angled it so as to be sort of a speaker amplifier.

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Tonight, I am machining out my main canister for the battery tray. I have to cut this away so the two 18350 batteries have a spot to sit. This also lets me get down to the other side of the can on the inside to mill out a flat spot and drill and tap for the recharge port, which I will do later.

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Battery tray version 1. Hopefully I won't have to do a version 2, since this is a lot of work on one piece.

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Batteries are heatshrunk still, don't worry, they're not going to ground out against the aluminum. I think I will enlarge my battery tray a bit more. I have another millimeter or two I could shave off the back, as long as it doesn't show a gap through the booster section, it will be fine. I want plenty of room in here for wire, solder, and heatshrink.

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With just enough room for the speaker and MicroSD card. I may machine a delrin speaker enclosure and scoot it back into the screw cap of the pommel a bit more.
 
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My brass for the crystal chamber finally arrived, and here I am cutting a radiused face into it for the crystal mount using my Holdridge Radius cutter mounted on my tool post on the lathe.

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I need a new short cutting tool though, this one is chipped. But it will do for now.

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I also drilled a temporary hole through the middle and concave radiused the inner corner.

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Here I have an assortment of crystals to pick from for the chamber, I think I'll go with the top middle one.

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After an evening of milling, drilling and tapping, I got the three 4-40 support rods evenly spaced, the three LED holes set, and the channels for the wire. I also had to keyhole mill the slots for the crystal.

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I'll probably do a lot more work on this, but I like where it's headed. I'll need holes for wire conduit, possibly some more decoration, but I do love the curved face of the mount.

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Normally, I use flat plates to do my "radiator fins" for these crystal chambers. This time, I wanted to do something a little more challenging. I want to try making domed fins, carrying the curve from the crystal mount all the way through the chamber. To do this, I need to make several of these radiused blanks. It's a process that involves facing off the brass rod, using and endmill to cut my 3/8 internal hole, setting up the radius cutter, getting it in the right spot, making my concave radius, taking the radius cutter off the tool mount, setting up the part off tool, parting off the blank, facing off the back of the blank. Rinse and repeat four times (or more) and then I have to transfer my hole pattern from the crystal mount to the blank. Once I am done with that, I have to flip them all over and cut the convex radius in a process yet to be determined. It's tedious work, but I have a feeling it will pay off. Right now they're quite a bit thicker than I need, but that's to allow for working with them easier. It's really hard to chuck thin things up into my lathe. I'll need to make a radiusing jig to bolt each one to so I can get to it with the radius cutter.
 
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Well, my jig worked finally after a few revisions, and I was able to get inner and outer radius cuts on my fins. These will be pretty thick. I might thin them out afterwards, once I get more of the assembly done.

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These won't go all the way around the chamber in the final build, I'll have a window cut into them so you can see the crystal, much like the other fins I have done. Next up, getting some brass tubing that fits the 4-40 threaded rod, and milling flats so the spacers fit flush into the fins.

Broke a 4-40 tap last night or I'd be further along on this. BUT I was able to drill out through the center of my brass rod, which was nice.

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Comin along, as I get time to work on it.
 
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So the plan is to cut these fins in half, and do a little more milling, but this is the test first piece to see what I think.

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I like it, I want to shave some more off it, but it's getting close to what I have in mind. Pardon the crumby cellphone pics, I took these at my desk at work.

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Here's the plan, I hope I have illustrated it correctly, it's kind of hard to draw these compound curves and such.
 
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Here are all of the fins cut across the middle.

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The bottom cutouts didn't turn out too bad. I need to drill my radiator pipe holes just above these next.

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I need to machine out my spacers, they will be the next pieces I need to make.

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I still need to mill flats in the other two plates, so my spacers will seat properly, and everything will stay straight once assembled.

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What do I call this.... the plug can? Top of the crystal chamber? Whatever it is, this is where my wires exit the conduit and go to my top focusing crystal and on to the DIN plug to interface with the blade.
 
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I couldn't resist trying out my LEDs for the chamber and blade... I did a quick wire up to see how the light spills through the crystal.

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I think it's going to work ok.

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At this point I had cut a hole in the side of the Graflex clamp for the recharge port, and needed to replace the stock nut that came with it with a custom nut that was threaded for the recharge port, but replicated the "transistor washer/heatsink" thing that was on the original prop. Here I have a half inch section of aluminum drilled and threaded for the recharge port.

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And after parting off and cleaning it up a bit, I have a valid transistor washer piece that holds my recharge port. I will fabricate a transistor kill plug like I did with my first Obi saber

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Here I am drilling out some small brass rod so I can thread it for 4-40 so I can use it as my support rod collars/dome fin spacers.

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And these are the holes those spacers will interlock with on the domed fins.
 
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Tonight, I spent a few hours getting this cut right. This is the cut out for my slide stop cap screw. This was one I sweated over, because it had to be far enough towards the center to let the screw overhang enough to stop the slide from flying off, yet far enough away from the inner wall of the grenade so that the threads wouldn't exceed the inner wall.

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Also the screw head couldn't exceed the outer wall of the grenade. I think I got pretty close. Now to do it two more times. Although I think in tests, this single screw is strong enough to stop the action.

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I don't know where I got these tiny 6-32 screws, but they're just short enough not to have to drill into the next line of grenade ribs after the first one, and still be able to be threaded in there.

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I did have to grind off the tip of my 6-32 tap to make it short enough to work in such confined space. Once this is assembled, weathered, etc. The hole won't be visible, also it will be covered by the graflex clamp to some extent.
 
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Today I took care of a lot of little issues. I stabilized and shimmed the pommel to the booster section, shortened my crystal chamber so it would leave enough room for the DIN plugs and spring in the top, evened up my spacers between the domed fins, secured the chamber base to the main can under the clamp.

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I also cut my quick detach groove into the top section of my crystal chamber. I need to get over to Fry's for some DIN connectors, and I'll be able to finish that. I was also finally able to test my latch, when it is pressed the chamber pops open like it should. I had to lock down the chamber base with another setscrew to secure it, but it's working fine now.

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Here's a vid of the springloaded reveal mechanism... no electronics yet, those to come soon.


www.slothfurnace.com presents: ANH Obi Reveal Chamber Function Test - YouTube
 
It looks very much like practice has made perfect. :thumbsup



It's my "holy grail" saber. Everything leading up to this has been practice to me.

000.jpg


I plan (hope) to make this one a springloaded chamber reveal.

001.jpg


I have enough stuff from Russreps to do it, and a couple clamps. I also have a chromed emitter and powdercoated booster, which I might make an AFBB out of.
A nice bundle of wires, a connector, and....

005.jpg


A Crystal Focus v5 LS version! Erv was so kind as to allow me to test the LS version, so this will the be the heart and soul of my ANH Obi chamber reveal saber.

006.jpg


GORGEOUS! I cannot wait to get out in the garage to begin the housing for this. I have to clear a couple things off my plate first, but this one has my juices flowing. It's time to get the drawing paper out and start designing the mechanism, start the search for the right chamber crystals, etc.

008.jpg


The PC is just there for size reference for the CF-LS.
I had quite a lot of trouble getting my head wrapped around the chamber lock mechanism for this one. I was trying to make it too much like my ROTJ Luke. Then tonight I just scrapped it for a much more obvious and elegant solution, once I get something that works, I 'll post that.

009.jpg


I started tonight with boring out the Russreplica's aluminum ANM2 booster piece, and fitting it to a hollow tube that also works as my main can and crystal chamber base.
It's been so long since I did any saber work, lately I am inspired to get back to it though.
 
Saw this in person at the North Texas prop party, and it certainly doesn't disappoint! :thumbsup

Can't wait to see it finished!
 
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After a bit of a hiatus, I am back on this saber. One of the things that bugged me was the state of my main canister, the part that sits under the clamp. I had cobbled it together while figuring out how I wanted things to go. I was hesitant at first, but knew I needed to remake this piece. Mainly to allow for the activation/aux switch setup and a little more support for the crystal chamber mount. The extra lip around the brass chamber mount also mates to the step I machined in the grenade section, for a bit more stability when it's closed. I just lathed the threads out of that spot to make a smooth shoulder.

You can see the clamp in the top part of the picture. It is cut out for the recharge port that you can see floating in the rear of the canister. In front of that, is a pivot that is hinged in a milled out spot.

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The arm that is attached swings between the two 90degree tactile switches. One will be for activation of the CFLS, one will be for the aux button. I had to machine a 'transistor' button that is threaded into the other end of the swing arm. This will go through the square tab in the graflex clamp from the outside, and tie into the arm, letting me push the transistor down for activation, and up for aux.

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This whole setup fits within the inside diameter of the clamp, and the inside diameter of the battery compartment.

To mount the switches, I have a set of 1/16 holes drilled in the flat spot, where I will crimp the switch mounting tabs to. I also have a spot milled out under the switches for the wires to clear.
 
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Beginning the final fit of the hardware, I still need to shave off about 3/16 from the crystal chamber DIN plug housing so the grenade shell will fit flush against the battery can when it's all closed down. Wires are long enough from Erv' to fit all the way from the soundboard around the battery pack, through the chamber mount, across the chamber, and into the top of the chamber plug housing. I'll wrap the exposed wires in some fine scale braided steel hose.

Once my hardware is done and working, I'll weather it and install the electronics.
 
man dude.... ever since seeing this in person I have been watching your blog daily just in case. Can't wait to see this done, and then see it at the prop party. ^_^

This thing is pretty epic.
 
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