a better bullet tip

[gucabe]

Yesterday a saw a post in a different forum where someone asked how to fully light a bullet tip. As you know that tip channels the light like a fiber optic and it appears as if the beam jumps from the end to the tip. So i figure that it needed a surface that could diffuse the light so i decided to hollow out the bullet tip. Just got the bullet tip back from the machinist. Basically he just drilled a hole deep enough not to reach the tip and he left about .100" wall on the sides, so it still goes in the tube and attaches normally, but now has a hole in the middle about .625 diameter and conical towards the tip. It was not the best job in the world but it was just a proof of concept.




You can see how deep it went.


This bullet tip now has a new meaning for me... I have a poliC blade (unsanded) with celophane or giftwrap inside and here are the pics




 
As you can see the tip is now fully lit... it looks as bright as the bottom of the blade... and on the third pic you can see the policarb tube and how it transitions to the tip....

Now i tried it with a white policarb whitout celophane and was i impressed.... it looks just like a beam of light... at least on the pics it does...




So i dont like the white poliC blades so i sanded the transparent one. Plus i added the reflective film (anti static bags) two layers on the tip to reduce the amount of light and reflect some back... I totally love it now... its a great compromise...  in person looks a lot better... and for the first time (at least to me) it looks like a complete blade from emitter to tip...

Unlit

Blue P4



Deep Red Ledengin 10W



Lastly i sanded the tip to match the sanded polyC tube this makes it look more softer and the transition from the tube to the tip is less visible specially in the unlit state...I dont have pics to show but you get the idea...

Thanks.

[Clark Kent]

what a great idea, wow, how come no one has thought about this before? nice work. it looks so much better now.

crap, this means i gotta re-do all my blades   

[Wat Tambor]

I made a machine polycarbonate, shouldered hollow blade tip back in 2005 for my first LED saber.



Obviously, 2005 predates the bullet tip.  Look at the diffuser - it also predates cellophane wrap and Corbin film.  It is actually clear fishing line wrapped tightly around an inner tube.  This is the idea that to the Corbin film (not my idea - the original idea belongs to Psab Keel who sold kits to make fishing line blades back in the early days of the hobby).

Anyways, enough history - back to the tip.  I made a solid tip originally for the blade but very dissapointed in the way it did not light up.  The original tip had a very expensive (and hard to get) reflective film (again, back then, we were all experimenting to find the best way to make blades) that blocked a lot of light - but it was necessary to get the blade to light up near the tip.  I got the idea to hollow out the tip to see if that would help the blade light up.  So I made a new tip and this time I drilled, turned, snaded and polished it so it was hollow.  It definitely helped light up the tip, but with no reflective film, it really hurt the overall lighting of the blade near the end.  So I made a seperate piece that fit inside the hollowed out tip.  Somehow, I got the bright idea to tape a piece of mirrored automobile window tinting on it.  It worked but made a huge flare at the tip because of the mirror reflecting the light back down the blade.  So I went back to the drawing board and made a convex plug to fit into the blade.  My thought was it would eliminate the tip flare and do a better job of reflecting the light back down the blade.  I again glued a piece of reflective film to it and it worked OK.  But the problem was it took forever to do and would have cost a minor fortune to make in bulk.  So the idea never really caught on. As LED tech progressed, they got brighter and it wasn't so hard to light up the blade tips anymore.





As you can see, the blade lights up fairly evenly (still a pretty good flare at the base but that wa not uncommon back then) and there is not much of a flare at the tip end.  Viewed from the end, you can see the blade tip lit up very well.  (that saber was running a white Lux III LED with a megenta filter).

[JANGO FETT]

The two layers of anti-static bag/mylar instead of the mirror has been in use for years.
At least by me. I know there are a number of other sabersmith's onsite that use that technique.

[gucabe]

Wow 2005 predates anything i knew about lightsabers LOL... love the fishing line approach, very clever actually...

To be honest the best effect you get in the pictures is the white poly carb tube plus the hollow sanded tip specially using a camera with no flash and low shutter speed. I'm not in to dueling so its mostly for show. However i do not like the white milky look of the  white diffuser or the white polyc tubes...so i will be keeping the clear ones and sanding them... it looks like a frosted silver blade.. make's it look less of a toy IMHO.

I am now a fan of the bullet tip... and the next ones i drill will have a better contour to follow the tip shape. This one was simple done as a proof of concept.

The two layers of anti-static bag/mylar instead of the mirror has been in use for years.
At least by me. I know there are a number of other sabersmith's onsite that use that technique.

Yeah that one is nothing new... i use it all the time... im thinking of using 3 layers to reduce a bit more the brightness of the tip... now it just looks brighter than the end of the tube where it connects...

what a great idea, wow, how come no one has thought about this before? nice work. it looks so much better now.

crap, this means i gotta re-do all my blades    

Thanks

Please refrain from triple or double posted and use the MODIFY & QUOTE buttons, instead ~ JANGO <- Got it...

[Psab Keel]

Oh wow!  Very cool to see one of my old fishing line blade designs!     The idea was inspired by an old Kenner lightsaber toy prototype that never made it into production where the blade had concentric circles that when lit appeared to give the blade a coring effect.  My design was very labor intensive and was shortly after perfected by Corbin Das with his blade film.  A FAR better solution and much easier to make.

Saber tech has come a LONG way since then.

I've also had a similar idea for a redesigned blade tip that would allow it to be evenly lit while also reducing flare.  It's mostly a combination of hollowing out the tip some and using different size/ shape reflecting tapes.  Still working on the design though.  Very cool modified bullet tip and it really makes a big difference in the look of the blade.

[Wat Tambor]

Oh wow!  Very cool to see one of my old fishing line blade designs!    

I still have that blade.  I keep it for sentimental reasons (that and it took forever to make ).  I still use it from time to time when I am showing off sabers.  I think it shows a prime example of what the tech was like early in the hobby.  The tip, sadly, was too far ahead of it's time to produce easily.  I could probably make them now, but with my manual lathe and mill, I think I spent days making that one tip. 

[Clark Kent]

hey guys, this is amazing, how come no one sells the blades with these tips?  and if they do, who sells them? i never heard of this before 

[EyeoftheRaven]

My blades from Jango light up all the way to the tip. 

[IndustrialAction]

So do my blades and those of others that use materials other than the solid mirrors from TCSS

I tried this on a blade prototype last year but wasn't satisfied with the results. Since the light is bent to a point at the tip I found that the tip got brighter than I wanted and less light was reflected back to the emitter because of the new focal point and the blade wasn't as bright (at least not to my eyes) as my standard shine-through tips.

[EyeoftheRaven]

So do my blades and those of others that use materials other than the solid mirrors from TCSS

Cool, I'm looking forward to my first SabreBlade with CorSec. 

[Clark Kent]

ok, so i tested all my blades i have and only one of them have the light going through all the way to the tip, and thats a blade i bough off LDM. it was one of his Nylon blades, 7/8 with a 1" adapter.  super even, super bright. love it. but thats my only one.

some of the blades i got from TCSS doesnt go all the way to the tip, and even though i love this blade to death, my VV blade doesnt do it either. and thats my favorite blade. never dueled with that one, display only because its so beautiful 

darn, i wish i knew about this earlier, i would have gotten my blades off you guys.

[Alex Gordon]

VV offers illuminated tips.   

[Clark Kent]

darn, i wish i knew all this before i got all my blades 

oh well, that just means i need to buy more blades, hahahahaha.

ok, another question for you guys. when VV sells their blades, they also give you this really cool black rubber thingy to cap off the bottom of the blade, so no dust gets inside and stuff. where can you get more of those little caps? 

you guys know what im talking about right? 

[Darthvix]

I believe VV's do come with that cap, i am almost sure my VV blade did.