I know what you're thinking. A CF in an MR ani? that's one of their biggest hilts! But I did my very best to make it worthy of a CF. Also, this isn't a standard retrofit/conversion. It's a sith conversion, so there will be some subtle details that give this hilt a sithy appearance.
Vid (for those who don't want to read all of this and look at all of the pics)
https://www.youtube.com/user/agordon117Specs:
Crystal Focus Saber Core v5
MR ani AOTC hilt
TCSS Mace Windu blade holder (heavily modified)
2x 18650 stick pack 7.4v 2600 mAh
Custom PVC sled (obviously heavily drawn from madcow's excellent work)
6 segment bargraph
Tri-Rebel R-O/R-O/G
1.5W Kobitone speaker with machined resonance chamber (what a difference)
2.1mm Recharge Port
Soundfonts (all were purchased through saberfont.com)
1: Korriban
2: Revenge
3: EP III Sidious
4: Blackstar
5: Rainsizzle
6: Hoth
Glams:
here's another spot I got creative. I modified a covertec knob which is something I've never seen done before.
also machined a brass "custom washer" for it and this is also a good view of the pommel.
tri-rebel with a mechanical hold (no glue or adhesives here) and bored out lip in the blade holder for full light passthrough
wiring (neatest I've done if I do say so myself)
speaker view when the hilt is open
chassis pics
greeblie pic
with blade and lights on
FoC
lights off
lights off FoC
the camera likes to play tricks with me, so the brightness and color of the super bright yellow FoC is hard to determine by pics.
build log/pics
So let's get started, I got the hilt and gutted it, then moved on to the first mod. I drilled out the holes in the control box using my drill press that had shown up earlier that day.
if you look closely it looks kinda rough, but that is because I drilled through some support bars and I hadn't yet deburred the holes and removed the support bars to allow the leds to fit.
The second thing was to make a v2 of my tri rebel shim. worked way better this time.
and finished
the BH was also bored out a bit if you can't tell from the pic.
Next I decided on a chassis method. I didn't want to go full custom since my boring tool
is was only 2" long, and starting with pvc didnt' work because 1.25" was too big to have enough material left to be sturdy at the end and 1" was too small to fit. I decided to go with my usual 1.25" pvc slip joint with two spacers to match the inner diameter of the hilt. one is hidden up under the clamp somewhere (halfway between sections when closed) and the second is a custom speaker holder. the custom speaker holder was made with a lip to fit the speaker (snap fit, I was so happy) and another lip to fit the chassis on top (also snap fit, I'm on a roll).
and the topside snap fit lip
and the finished chassis
it was at this point that I started taking artistic creativity on the hilt. I didn't really want to modify the existing design too much, but there was plenty of room for me to improve on the sithiness of the saber. so I went ahead and started learning to make spikes and stuff on the lathe. I also tested out my knurler.
I didn't feel so bad doing that because the stock greeblies were already horribly inaccurate and fat. the top two are held in place by hidden screws and the bottom one is held in by a dab of hot glue on top of another screw holding in the part there.
I also had no clue where to put the aux switch. so, I custom made a brass switch hat and also drilled a hole for it. lined up perfectly and I'm so happy with the switch hat that I may never do it any other way again.
that's all I've got time for right now, but here is the vid. there are lots more build pics and glams come tonight, but as you can see, I've snapped a lot of pics, and this is too big for one sitting.
Well, it's tonight, so I'm ready for more. let me see... where did I leave off? oh yes, wiring.
for starters, I secured the PeX battery + and - to the underside of the board using an easily removable dab of hot glue just to keep it in place during the install.
the bargraph installed. straight as an arrow.
slot cut in the upper hilt section to allow for the bargraph wires to passthrough. done with a drill, a dremel, and a belt sander. no filing required.
here's a blurry pic of the saber mostly wired (not sure why I didn't retake it, but I've got a clear one with the glams)
and backing up a bit, I realized I never detailed the metal bladeholder conversion. I used a mace windu BH and did some modification to it with the drill press for it to work as the conversion kit and a bit further modification (not pictured) to allow for the spikes to be screwed in without interfering with the blade socket itself.
to hold the BH to the hilt, I drilled one full hole and tapped it (6-32) in the hilt only where it would be hidden behind the ani shroud. then, I put the setscrew in place to hold the metal blade socket in the position I wanted it. After that I drilled a hole to be tapped for an 8-32 hole through the hilt and partway into the blade socket (just enough to give the setscrew a specific place to grab and also some extra depth). Then I screwed in the second screw, removed the first, drilled out the first hole the same as the second, and re-tapped the hilt for another 8-32 screw with the same partial hole to grab in the metal blade socket.
as you can see, I lined up the flat spot of the blade socket with the switch slot in the hilt so that I wouldn't have to do any further modification for the original switch to fit.
and there is the shroud in place showing the screws are hidden.
I have a ton more pics, but I couldn't possibly post them all. if there is anything specific you guys want to see, I probably have a pic of it if you speak up and ask. Besides the press fit part that went into the pommel end to hold the mesh insert (also press fit), I have pics of every part that went into this saber. that one was a last minute part and once it was in place I obviously didn't want to try to remove it. anyway, on to the glams (which I put at the top of the page).
vid:
https://www.youtube.com/user/agordon117apparently I said PC 2.0 at the beginning but it is a CF5.
