MCM's (Mance Vader) Darth Vader saber projects and such - ENERGIZER COMMERCIAL SABER

Re: MCM's (Mance Vader) Darth Vader saber projects and such

After some extensive reconstructive surgery, I think that I might use this ball tension catch after all! I started by rounding off the corners of the flat part near the mounting screw hole with a dremel and hand file.

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On the actual piece, there is a lip that goes around the circumefrence of the flange of the catch. The piece that I received has no such lip; the boxes that houses the ball bearing continue to the bottom of the catch.

I masked off the area of the catch with tape that I wanted to remain intact and then took a hand file to the sides of the boxes in order to create a lip. This step was super tedious! It probably took an hour or so to file down both sides. I worked on it while listening to a podcast (multi-tasking ftw!). All in all, I maybe only took .5 mm off of either side, but it really helped the boxes to visually stand out from the flange

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The ball bearing boxes on the actual prop are rectangular. Simply nobody makes them that way anymore (they just don't make them like they used to!). All of the catches that I've seen in the wild have rounded tops. In order to remedy this, I used a cutting wheel bit on a dremel to score the crap out of the top and sides of the bearing boxes. I then mixed up some JB Weld epoxy putty and put a couple blobs on top of the boxes. After the putty cured, I then spent about another hour (again listening to a podcast) filing the top and sides into the correct rectangular shape.

The catch wasn't quite wide enough (it should cover most of the allen bolt head with just a bit peaking out of the sides). In order to remedy this, I cut a few strips of plastic from an old gift card and glued them around the circumference of the catch, making sure to keep the top edge of the plastic level with the flange of the catch. I trimmed up any overhanging plastic, then blasted the whole thing with 3 or 4 coats of filler primer. The result is what you see here:

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I also managed to get a template printed out and I've marked the holes for drilling on the upper shell. I think I'm going to keep the stock 2.0 core and have the bolts thread into that. It might be kinda difficult tapping the threads in the the holes that go into the ribbed section. Anyone have any advice on the best way to approach this? For the initial hoes, I definitely need to use a drill press, which I've never used on metal before. The last time I used one was literally half my life ago while in high school, so any advice on drill bits/speeds/technique would be greatly appreciated!
 
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Re: MCM's (Mance Vader) Darth Vader saber projects and such - BALL CATCH PLASTIC SURG

Now that's a real propmaker's solution to those door catches ... well done sir :)

Chaïm
 
Re: MCM's (Mance Vader) Darth Vader saber projects and such - BALL CATCH PLASTIC SURG

I wanted to let you know that your hybrid endcaps for your Heilands convinced me to try to make one of my own for my conversion should the day ever come. Well, that day came today...

....And I completely made a botch job of the "correct" endcap.

I made it work out for me in the end but I just want to say this was all your fault.;)
 
Re: MCM's (Mance Vader) Darth Vader saber projects and such - BALL CATCH PLASTIC SURG

I wanted to let you know that your hybrid endcaps for your Heilands convinced me to try to make one of my own for my conversion should the day ever come. Well, that day came today...

....And I completely made a botch job of the "correct" endcap.

I made it work out for me in the end but I just want to say this was all your fault.;)


There was one point when drilling out the hole for the ANH endcap the the metal sheared in a really screwed up way. I seriously thought that I had screwed up the endcap for good. Thankfully, the shearing didn't extend too far out from the center of the end cap and I was able to ream the hole to the correct size with a dremel. I think I have pock marks from the bullets I was sweating :lol
 
Re: MCM's (Mance Vader) Darth Vader saber projects and such

The latches came in... and they're terrible. Rounded tops, they aren't wide enough; a total mess. I might try modelling something up in sketchup to 3D print. I'll post some pics later when I get access to some Wi-Fi (plus I've got some updates on the other sabers).

I'm still interested in a ball catch.
 
Re: MCM's (Mance Vader) Darth Vader saber projects and such - BALL CATCH PLASTIC SURG

Energizer Commercial Maglite Saber

A few months ago I was super-fortunate to get a casting from @thd9791 of the post-ROTJ ILM saber believed to be the one used in the Energizer commercial from the mid 90s.

I busted out the calipers, started taking measurements, and built up this model in Sketchup
first draft 8.pngfirst draft 2.pngfirst draft 3.pngfirst draft 4.pngfirst draft 6.png

I've got a new 3D printer coming this week (Ultimaker 2go for those who are interested) and this will be the first project I tackle once I get everything calibrated. I don't plan on using 3D printed parts for the final pieces, at least not PLA parts. I'll either A) make resin casts of the greeblies or B) upload the pieces to Shapeways and order them printed super high-res in some material that won't deteriorate (like PLA supposedly does). I may or may not make the grips from sheet styrene. I'm pretty sure that's how they were made on the original prop.

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The hardest part of this project is going to be finding a suitable maglite. All of the ones I've found so far have WAY too much knurling. Between the grips and the section between the "clamp" and shroud there needs to be at least 22 cm of smooth, non-knurled tubing. I'm not opposed to hacking a maglite into pieces to get what I need (the join of the 2 sections would be hidden by the clamp band), but it looks like I would need to buy a 6 cell(!) to get the necessary amount of tubing. Alternatively, I could screw a maglite endcap into another piece of smooth tubing. Does there exist in the wild a length of tubing that would accept a thread maglite endcap? In the meantime, I'm going to hit up some hardware stores to see if I can find anything suitable. I will report my findings.
 

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Re: MCM's (Mance Vader) Darth Vader saber projects and such - ENERGIZER COMMERCIAL SA

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My new printer arrived (I'll finally be able to get back on track with sooo many projects) and I've printed the first round of prototypes. I scaled the parts to fit MHS tubing. I may go that route instead of using a maglite. I just can't find any suitable specimens, plus MHS tubing is cheaper than a maglite. I scored a maglite endcap on eBay; if I can't get it to fit into the MHS tubing (which I'm not counting on) I can at least use it as reference for a 3D model. Alternatively, tcss sells a knurled end cap that, while not accurate, would be at least be functional (can you say "battery reveal"?).

Sent from my SM-J700P using Tapatalk
 
Re: MCM's (Mance Vader) Darth Vader saber projects and such - ENERGIZER COMMERCIAL SA

I've tweaked the models for just about every part and now I've finally gotten something presentable put together. Without further ado, the pics
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I redid the t track completely, increased the diameter of the clamp sleeve ever so slightly, tweaked the rectangular and triangular boxes on the control box, added the rivet on the shroud, redid the rivets on the d-ring holder, and added the inset concentric ring around the emitter hole. I also devised a 2-piece endcap plug that allowed me to convert an MHS endcap (#9 from thecustomsabershop.com) into something much more maglite-like. The clamp card is my educated guess as to what the activation strip must have originally looked like before the original prop got dinged up.

I have to find a suitable key ring for the shroud, but I might use a d ring instead, since this is cleaned up/ idealized rendition of the saber. There is also a bit of epoxy in between the grips that I still need to clean up, but this dude is just about done. Well, I'm still working on the batteries for the reveal. Stay tuned!

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Re: MCM's (Mance Vader) Darth Vader saber projects and such - ENERGIZER COMMERCIAL SA

GREAT JOB on this one!! I thought I went far by completely destroying my cast to use for pieces.

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I love how clean and new yours looks!
 
Re: MCM's (Mance Vader) Darth Vader saber projects and such - ENERGIZER COMMERCIAL SA

your 3d printing skills are complete! well done sir!

i just saw last night on youtube a 3d printed V3 you made, that came out awesome too!
 
Re: MCM's (Mance Vader) Darth Vader saber projects and such - ENERGIZER COMMERCIAL SA

Thanks to teecrooz I now have a casting, but would still love to do an idealized version like what you have there....

Will you be making the parts available??

Also, how did you get the chrome tube threaded? or did I miss something.

Anyway, looks great!

(I LOVE "ugly" Vader sabers!)
 
Re: MCM's (Mance Vader) Darth Vader saber projects and such - ENERGIZER COMMERCIAL SA

Do you mind if we check with adamata ?

I know you've done a lot of modeling work and tweaked everything, but it would technically be reverse engineered from his castings.
 
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Re: MCM's (Mance Vader) Darth Vader saber projects and such - ENERGIZER COMMERCIAL SA

Good call. Lemme send him a pm.

Sent from my SM-J700P using Tapatalk
 
Re: MCM's (Mance Vader) Darth Vader saber projects and such - ENERGIZER COMMERCIAL SA

Good call. Lemme send him a pm.

Sent from my SM-J700P using Tapatalk

Is your ad "nothing to see here" cuz you were denied?

Hope not!
 
Re: MCM's (Mance Vader) Darth Vader saber projects and such - ENERGIZER COMMERCIAL SA

Should be no problem - who wants a resin kit will ask him, who doesn´t want resin and prefers "as metal as possible" would use your detail parts on a tube.

In fact i would use some of your parts, and make others additional from metal, combined on a alu tube, and with a maglite endcap - in each case, i´m not in the market for a full saber resin kit.
 
Re: MCM's (Mance Vader) Darth Vader saber projects and such - ENERGIZER COMMERCIAL SA

Is your ad "nothing to see here" cuz you were denied?

Hope not!
I'm still waiting to hear back. The second post was the Energizer commercial [emoji41]

Sent from my SM-J700P using Tapatalk
 
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