QUI-GON JINN's Chrome Saber 31(CS-31) Build for Jedi Exile

[QUI-GON JINN]

This saber is being built for Jedi Exile.  It will use MHS parts,  a chrome sleeve,  an illuminated anti-vandal switch,  a Crystal Focus 2.63,  a green P4 led for the blade,  a low-battery indicator led and will be powered by two 25500 Li-Ion batteries.  


The render:


The parts arrived today:


 

 

 

 

This saber was heavily influenced by CS-22,  but as I don't like doing exact copies of previous sabers,  we went with a different style hilt,  a shilt4 instead of a shilt2,  and different blade holder,  a 16 instead of a 5.  The powder coating was done by Tim at TCSS,  and as usual,  it looks great!  

I'll start work on this next week,  after Halloween and after i get BS-2's upgrade to the CF 4.1 I had in my RLSA saber completed. (You'll have to look those up yourself if you want to see what I'm talking about. ;) )

Just an idea....I probably won't do this,  but it may make it easier to build,  and saves some space in the hilt:
 
This would make locating the aux button and recharge port much easier,  then all I'd have to do is add the low-battery indicator in the pommel insert.  Again,  just an idea,  Exile.  ;)

[Jedi Exile]

An interesting idea indeed, and it would also set it apart from the other sabers based on CS-22 as well...

[QUI-GON JINN]

An interesting idea indeed, and it would also set it apart from the other sabers based on CS-22 as well...

Yes it would....it's actually not that bad as far as placement goes,  either....depending on your grip,  it might not even be in the way,  and really is lower profile than most switch boxes.  If you want me to go that route,  it's no big deal....I can swap it out for the bezel,  no extra charge,  as it will make building it easier for me.

[Jedi Exile]

What the heck, lets do it!  :D

Besides, it will be small nod to the saber that John built me as it also had a control box. (Though it wasn't low profile)

[QUI-GON JINN]

What the heck, lets do it!  :D

Besides, it will be small nod to the saber that John built me as it also had a control box. (Though it wasn't low profile)

Okay,  cool!  ;)

[Jedi Exile]

Never mind.

[QUI-GON JINN]

Since I was cutting parts for CS-32 and CS-X,  I cut the angle on the chrome sleeve for this one too:

I need to de-burr it and mark it off for the grip window next.  I'll do that this week sometime.

[QUI-GON JINN]

I had the day off from work today,  thanks to deer hunting season (actually it was our "observed" holiday for Veteran's Day) and while waiting for the repair guy to come and fix the washing machine (long story there) I got some work done to this saber!

I started by cutting the grip window out of the chrome tube.  I marked it off where it would reveal the most of the grips on the hilt:


 

I taped off the ends of the window:


I located the centerline of the top of the sleeve,  then used my circle template to locate the centers of the sides:
 

I used my engineering scale to mark the line on the tube:

The triple sided construction keeps the scale level on the tube.

I taped off the sides:


I took the part to the drill press and used the cutting disc to cut it out:

After cutting out the grip window,  I used the sanding drum to round out the corners:
 
After deburring the edges,  and filing them for straightness,  then also sanding them smooth,  I checked the fit:

It needed some touching up,  and that didn't take long:
 
There's only one issue with the grip window being as large as it is...the sides tend to bow out a bit:
 
This is one of the drawbacks to using a chrome plated 22ga. brass tube...if I had a piece of the TCSS sleeve material,  this wouldn't be a problem.  It actually doesn't feel that bad in the grip,  though. 

Now I need to drill and tap it for the switch box mounting screws:

I did the first screw,  then secured the box to the hilt.  I used the hole in the box to locate and drill the second hole:

I'll need to cut the front screw shorter:
 
I cut it off,  and it fit just fine:
 

With it securely attached to the hilt,  I used it to center and drill for the other holes in the hilt:


I did the recharge port hole,  then the hole for the switch:


I'll need to remove the material in between the holes:

I used the cutting disc on the rotary tool for that:
 
I did the hilt first,  then the sleeve:

I slipped the sleeve back over the hilt after it was de-burred:

I needed to do a little tweaking of the switch hole,  but after a few minutes,  the switch box fit right on the saber:

The only thing the sleeve may need now is a few scoring lines....if Jedi Exile wants them,  that is.  I thought about doing some thin ones like I did on CS-32:

It may give it the illusion of having a clamp on the saber,  rather than a simple box bolted to it.

Now I can turn to the rest of the saber....I was thinking about putting the low battery led in the pommel insert:

I can drill the center out and bolt the yellow led directly to the insert.

I made up the led:

This is the high-bin green Rebel...should put out 166 lumens at 3.05v and 700ma....we'll be over driving it,  but also using the CF's flicker settings to maintain the led's lifespan,  and keep from going to far with it.  I already tried it out in BS-2 and it's pretty bright. 

These are the batteries....two Li-Ion 25500's....the current plan is to wire them in parallel and get some ridiculous run time out of them....hopefully.  ;)

With any luck,  they won't interfere with the sound waves from the speaker.

Before I go any further with it,  I need to locate and drill for the CT button:

Usually when I put one on a saber with the larger grip window,  I put it on the bottom of the saber,  opposite the switch box:

I could put it on the side....well,  sort of:
 
This would put it on the side,  but at an angle to the control box.  lately I've been putting them on the side,  since they are out of the way when holding the saber,  and make the buttons face forward when wearing the hilt on a belt.

What do you think,  Exlie?

[Jedi Exile]

Go ahead and put it on the side of the saber, it should still be out of the way when I wield it. Also, make sure to keep the flicker settings stock on the SD card, I like them to be subtle. Besides, the run time will be fine I'm sure with the total mAh rating, lol.

Scoring lines will be fine, but I'm not sure how well you're gonna be able to center them with the control box appearing to be slightly off set towards the pommel side of the hilt, though...

[QUI-GON JINN]

Go ahead and put it on the side of the saber, it should still be out of the way when I wield it. Also, make sure to keep the flicker settings stock on the SD card, I like them to be subtle. Besides, the run time will be fine I'm sure with the total mAh rating, lol.

No problem there,  I don't like messing with those particular settings in the config files anyway.  ;)

Scoring lines will be fine, but I'm not sure how well you're gonna be able to center them with the control box appearing to be slightly off set towards the pommel side of the hilt, though...

The control box had to be set back to keep the front mounting screw from being smack in the middle of the threads for the ribbed extension.  That would have made it difficult,  if not impossible to install the extension if the threads got damaged from drilling through them.  We can skip the lines....it looks good the way it is,  too.

[Jedi Exile]

Skipping the lines works for me, I think it looks fine the way it is.  8)

[QUI-GON JINN]

These are the batteries....two Li-Ion 25500's....the current plan is to wire them in parallel and get some ridiculous run time out of them....hopefully.  ;)

With any luck,  they won't interfere with the sound waves from the speaker.

Looking at this again,  and seeing the room available in the hilt,  i'm not sure a 3.7 volt set up is going to work....these may need to be wired for 7.4volts instead.  They should still have around 3000-3200mah capacity,  though,  if not longer using the pwm/flicker settings on the CF.  I think there's just not quite enough room for the wires that will need to be in between the batteries for the speaker to fit....I'll give it try at 3.7,  though,  and see how it works out.

EDIT:
I made it up as a 3.7 volt pack....well,  sort of:


Slid the pack into the hilt:


Then installed the speaker assembly:

It all fit just fine.....I am thinking it may be best to set it up now for a 7.4volt pack,  though,  in case it ever needs to get upgraded to a newer version of CF to include FoC....it'll need the extra voltage for that.

The only problem of course,  is that the pommel wanted to crush the wires that were coming out around the speaker....still need to find a way to fix that so I can install the low battery led in the pommel.  I may need to move the speaker to the other side of the mounting ring for those wires to pass through properly.

[Jedi Exile]

Go ahead and wire it up as a 7.4 volt pack, it should still get around a 3 hour run time give or take and that's plenty for me. The one that John built got a 3hr 20min idle run time and that was @2400 mAh using a K2 LED driven at the full 1500 mAh!  :o

As for the low battery LED, maybe you could mount it elsewhere on the hilt like you might an accent LED, perhaps on the other side of the middle section of the hilt opposite from the control box? Not sure how that would look, but it might not look too bad....

[QUI-GON JINN]

Putting the low batt led on the side did cross my mind,  actually.  There might be room for it just behind the main switch,  right where the aux button is.  I'm going to try and make up another speaker mount,  but I'll put the speaker on the back side of the pvc ring instead of in front.  That's how I did it on some of the other sabers in the past,  kinda like I did on BS-21:

Now I'll need to cut some channels for the wires.  I'll use a side scrolling tungsten carbide bit for that:
   
Hmm...those need to be deeper,  I think:

That should work....let's try a piece of wire in there and see how it looks:
 
Yeah,  I think this should do the trick!

Let's try it against a pommel:
 
Yup!  That's definitely going to work. The wire was tucked in nicely inside the speaker mount and shouldn't be a problem when installing the pommel after changing the batteries.

I think something like this will work for keeping the wires from being pinched,  and still allow the led to go in the pommel insert.  I have a couple of other inserts for Cs-32 that I can use to mock something up with.

[Jedi Exile]

Do what you must, my friend. Can't wait to see more pics.  ;D