Randy/Korbanth asked me to continue our conversion relationship, and sent me a father/son duo of hilts to convert.
A Vintage Graflex he acquired, and his polished Tridcloudwalker Anakin AOTC hilt.
Well, I had a lot going on work-wise and it took me a while to get these completed since I had so much of my own business to catch up on, but the final touch came today when the knurls from littlemachineshop came and I could finish the anakin pommel.
So... first was the vintage graflex. Since this was a basic Nano B install, I chose to do a simple PVC chassis. Well, simple is relative, as it still required custom fabricating the PVC parts to fit together and work properly with the TGS blade holder and heat sink setup.
Its running an 18500 LiOn battery pack, and a Tri Rebel BBB wired in parallel.
REAL Exactra bubble strip came with the Graflex. It was in poor shape with dings, scratches, and some horrid chrome tape underneath, but I cleand and polished it to revive it as best I could. Still, it's vintage and purty!
Early Graflex glass eye
It came with this inaccurate D ring which I could do nothing about. The previous owner drilled some massive holes under there, and I had no choice but to use them. Hidden sound holes also under this monster.
It also came with some old blastech grips, but they were super glued at some point, although loose in a bag. I cleaned them up and applied new 3M 950. You can still see where the previous owner tried to clean up his mess and scratched the bottom tube around the grips.
Now the Anakin… I recently converted my own, but really was never happy with the grips or having to get inside it to recharge it all the time. So I came up with a new solution, inspired by MH's efforts as well.
I explain it all in the video, so I will save some typing here and show the pics with smaller captions
Used the hollow core, but cut the entire bottom half off.
machined this lip for a custom made tube to fit into. The tube will be the place for the grips to be fastened to permanently
This tiny lip fits onto the machined end of the hollow core.
Perfect fit, and the covertech holds it in place, as does simple tension.
MAchined down the TCSS heat sink, so it will fit just in front of the accent LEDS
Some epoxy and press fit will keep in in place.
prep for momentary switch
This pommel I made was machined from a solid hunk of aluminum
After grips cured, you can see how they slide into place.
These are non functional
One of these is the activation switch
VIDEOS:
Vintage Graflex conversion with Plecterlabs Nano Biscotte - YouTube
Anakin AOTC conversion with Plecterlabs Nano Biscotte - YouTube
A Vintage Graflex he acquired, and his polished Tridcloudwalker Anakin AOTC hilt.
Well, I had a lot going on work-wise and it took me a while to get these completed since I had so much of my own business to catch up on, but the final touch came today when the knurls from littlemachineshop came and I could finish the anakin pommel.
So... first was the vintage graflex. Since this was a basic Nano B install, I chose to do a simple PVC chassis. Well, simple is relative, as it still required custom fabricating the PVC parts to fit together and work properly with the TGS blade holder and heat sink setup.
Its running an 18500 LiOn battery pack, and a Tri Rebel BBB wired in parallel.
REAL Exactra bubble strip came with the Graflex. It was in poor shape with dings, scratches, and some horrid chrome tape underneath, but I cleand and polished it to revive it as best I could. Still, it's vintage and purty!
Early Graflex glass eye
It came with this inaccurate D ring which I could do nothing about. The previous owner drilled some massive holes under there, and I had no choice but to use them. Hidden sound holes also under this monster.
It also came with some old blastech grips, but they were super glued at some point, although loose in a bag. I cleaned them up and applied new 3M 950. You can still see where the previous owner tried to clean up his mess and scratched the bottom tube around the grips.
Now the Anakin… I recently converted my own, but really was never happy with the grips or having to get inside it to recharge it all the time. So I came up with a new solution, inspired by MH's efforts as well.
I explain it all in the video, so I will save some typing here and show the pics with smaller captions
Used the hollow core, but cut the entire bottom half off.
machined this lip for a custom made tube to fit into. The tube will be the place for the grips to be fastened to permanently
This tiny lip fits onto the machined end of the hollow core.
Perfect fit, and the covertech holds it in place, as does simple tension.
MAchined down the TCSS heat sink, so it will fit just in front of the accent LEDS
Some epoxy and press fit will keep in in place.
prep for momentary switch
This pommel I made was machined from a solid hunk of aluminum
After grips cured, you can see how they slide into place.
These are non functional
One of these is the activation switch
VIDEOS:
Vintage Graflex conversion with Plecterlabs Nano Biscotte - YouTube
Anakin AOTC conversion with Plecterlabs Nano Biscotte - YouTube
