Tom's Real Parts Obi Wan Saber

thd9791 · May 20, 2015

I'm halfway there! I got that grenade today! It's in pretty rough shape, the neck is actually bent slightly, and it's the whole brass piece so I don't think I can correct that. The body, too, has enough corrosion up top that I worry it will just flake off?

the brass and pineapple portions are in great shape though, even though the rod is like welded to its base. I may drill or tap out the weld (not screws) that holds the pin in place inside (which is also in great shape)

the he inside is covered in a solid rust color, should I be worried about that, will it eat through?

This is is so cool!

NeoRutty · May 20, 2015

Welcome to the club!

mugatu · May 20, 2015

Tom, on the one I got, I didn't know that the piece holding the detonator pin in were screws either. A hundred years of corrosion will do that to screw heads. It's possible they were replaced, but my grenade's screws also looked like welds. Now I'm not saying to do what I did, but I took that long metal stake with the brass part on the end, and put it into the brass shaft against the flat backside of the detonator pin. Then I hammered and hammered on it. Eventually the screws did pop out of the sides. Again, I do not recommend just banging away on it as I warped my bottom brass disc by doing so. I am certain you will think of something wiser to do to overcome this.

As far as the brown, do you mean inside the frag body? Mine is like that too. I don't think it will spread anymore than it has over this long time, but again, I'm newer to this than most people here are.

teecrooz · May 20, 2015

Glad someone here picked this up! The "screws" are actually pins that had rounded heads. When the windvane spun off, the pins would eject, and a spring would pull the detonator pin toward the explosives. They should pop out, just be careful not to bend the brass neck.

What part are you looking for next?

thd9791 · May 20, 2015

Thanks everyone! For all the info too, I'm drinking this up.

does anyone else have corroded threads up top? I had this crazy idea of swiping some apoxie sculpt (and painting it) to reinforce the rim...is that blasphemy? Lol the fan blades have a part that's "ripped" open too, and I could do the same thing

and yea, I might try taking off some rust on the inside and outside and sealing it with wd 40 or a clear coat

I'll update you guys on the firing pin lol I tried hammering it for 15 min too and stopped.

The last two parts (my clamp, transistors, bubbles and knob are all real) ...either a booster or a balance pipe. The sink knob....isn't a priority. I have a vintage kind, and I'm happy with that. I need to actually get one off a sink out of the trash, I can't pay hundreds of dollars for one and sleep at night haha, militaria is different in my eyes.

teecrooz · May 20, 2015

Well you have a great balance pipe replica, so do t worry about a real one anytime soon. Yours is from one of the original runs when it was discovered what they were, and then finished by boba debt. There hasn't been a run that was finished in that way since (that I know of). I wish I had one.

Kevin Gossett · May 20, 2015

Look how far you've come!

thd9791 · May 20, 2015

I had no idea it was that special! Almost like the current V2 run, I take it.

thanks for the kind words, and thanks to Kurtyboy for selling it to me haha

Since I have an extra grenade now, I may just buy up replica parts over time and make a second replica saber.

I've got some fan sleeves coming this week from Roman's older runs..still hasn't sunk in

Halliwax · May 20, 2015

very nice find tom!!

thd9791 · May 20, 2015

I have hit a snag. Since the neck is crooked...with a threaded rod in, the grenade is also sticking out at an angle. I tried to force it into a graflex clamp and almost warped the clamp. So! I wonder if there is a way to straighten out this neck...or flatten out the threaded plate that goes into the grenade body...

Edit - looking at the parts I have, Roman's weathered neck is the same black/brown as the real grenade body. They look wonderful together, and I fitted the bent neck on my brown Roman's grenade body....the brass looks nice with it, I may buy a new neck from Roman and keep the original for archives sake, I can't use it. pics to come

NeoRutty · May 20, 2015

Was going to say to try heating and bending... but if that works for yah!

Brass is a bit softer metal... so I would assume you COULD straighten it somehow...

thd9791 · May 21, 2015

I may still try that for kicks - I forgot to mention, I took a drill press and a #22 or 19 drill bit to those screws, drilled them right out! The firing pin fell out like a loose chicken egg immediately after.

thd9791 · May 25, 2015

Here are some pics folks. (I picked up some horrible tonsil thing and have been completely non functional - I'm a bit better today so I thought I'd take some pics of what I have and where I can go! Some pics show the corrosion on the top rim. It's so thin I can see the threaded neck portion and it could easily flake off. I'd like to do something about that.

There are rust spots, only a few, and I can just buff those off with a wire brush/steel wool and then seal this thing.. What is this blackish coating on the grenade? That can't be the color of the steel, it's too nice

As you can see, even after my decent drilling job, that original neck is still too crooked to use on a threaded rod.

I do have the fan portion, though it doesn't quite fit into the wind vane sleeves I have here (Thank you Roman!) -not pictured: I "rubber mallet" hammered this fan into a windvane sleeve. it fits.. it warped the sleeve to fit the ancient fan blades, but it's in there and it's still roughly circular...haha..the fan blades were unaffected, surprisingly-

My graflex clamp is a bit loose, I think that's because the grenade is smaller in diameter. I could just wrap something around the bottom there..what have other folks used?

That being said, I was amazed at two things
1) the weathering job Roman did on the replica neck is incredibly similar to the patina on this real grenade

2) everything really does screw together. All the replica parts and real parts are perfectly interchangeable, this is an incredible community able to produce these things.

I'd like to use as many real parts as possible - but this roman neck and real grenade body works for me! (As long as I can stabilize the grenade a bit) I may look for a more accurate sink knob that doesn't break the bank.... MAYBE a booster, but this powdery one I have from Roman is pretty awesome...

Oh yea, is this rod thing supposed to come off? Mine is near welded on

mugatu · May 25, 2015

Tom,

The Graflex clamp I used was only secured by tightening the clamp lever pin/screw, plus I have one of Roman's clamp spacers that goes underneath. So the clamp is secure to the clamp spacer. My grenade is also wobbly against the clamp spacer due to corrosion at that end of my frag body. Once I screwed everything together, my securing ring (I really don't know what the real world name of this nut-type of device is) kept everything taught enough that there was no wobble anymore.

That brass piece on the end of the rod is welded (or seems welded/unremovable) on mine too.

thd9791 · Jun 14, 2015

Okay, so I DID begin to reinforce my grenade. I just had to, I will be handling this and I don't want anything to break off.

this is what I started with. I decided to go with JB Weld over Apoxie sculpt, bondo or glue, for a number of reasons. The color of finished JB Weld is much closer to this grenade, and the stuff is actually made-up of dissolved steel. They call it cold weld for a reason, so it should mesh with my steel grenade rather well.

I also decided to not apply it directly to the inside or outside without the neck being screwed in. This allows the weld to form to the shape of the threading. (Quick Weld cures in roughly 4 min, around 3 min it's very gummy and I will be able to twist the neck off and on to reiterate the thread shape without welding the neck to the grenade)

thd9791 · Jun 14, 2015

Here it goes. Just like epoxy, it comes in a quick steel tube and a hardener tube. I mixed them together with a toothpick, which served two purposes. It's cheap and disposable, but it also lets me do minute spot work, as opposed to a putty knife.

It mixes like thick frosting, so I began applying it to the rim. To avoid the frosting ribbons that come when you pull away, I pulled along the rim when I was done applying a spot! this allowed the ribbon to lay along the curve of the rim instead of poking up. It helped move me along too, applying the excess to the next spot I was going to do. (I forgot to clean the area, but oh well. it's not going anywhere thankfully)

Once it was gummy I unscrewed the neck back and forth and rolled the toothpick along the side of the rim, at roughly the same angle, to push the weld up higher than the grenade rim. I'll be able to sand all of this down once it cures.

thd9791 · Jun 14, 2015

Here are a couple curing shots. I plan on sanding and maybe painting those areas. I have to sand off a few rust spots too - does anyone know what the finish is on these grenades? is there a color I can match, or a material I can apply?

I'll finish off with a Krylon flat clear coat.

propmainiac · Jun 14, 2015

Wow there still out there huh? I'd love to get my hands on one of those! Nice job so far.

thd9791 · Jun 14, 2015

Thanks man! Yes they are, but very few. mugatu That would be a T nut! Thank you for all the advice and attention. I hope my restoration here helps you :lol

thd9791 · Jun 14, 2015

Found out two things guys. 1) when this is sanded down, the inside is very white/light grey. So I want to get this as smooth as possible beforehand

2) the couple hour cure time is bull****. I accidentally peeled it off, so I re-applied it and I'm leaving it at least overnight

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