QUI-GON-JINN's (Jay-gon Jinn's) BS-2 Crystal Focus 2.63 Install

[BEN KENOBI]

 :o :o

wow great saber!! :o

[QUI-GON JINN]

Thats DEFINITELY a saber to be admired, let me know if ya ever sell that bad boy

Don't hold your breath!!!!   ;D

[pickupman63080]

Lol don't worry i'm not

[KI-ADI-MUNDI]

That's really nice Qui-Gon...I found a plastic sink pipe the other day that looks like your sled...so you just use a little hot glue to tack the board in place?....I like the fix for the speaker that really takes the stress off of the wires.... :D

[QUI-GON JINN]

That's really nice Qui-Gon...I found a plastic sink pipe the other day that looks like your sled...so you just use a little hot glue to tack the board in place?....I like the fix for the speaker that really takes the stress off of the wires.... :D

Yup...found it at the hardware store.  I had to scrape the sides of it with my exacto knife pretty good to get it to slide in and out like I needed it to,  but it worked!  The speaker mount was actually made to be attached like that,  so it just made sense.  It does take the pressure off of it too....no worries of wires twisting when I screw in the pommel.

[Lord Dracus]

Very nice !!! :) Excellent job !!! ;D

[bulldog]

Nicely done, The lay out and as I go steps. I'm impressed, As for the "how to" question I too, liked naration w/ pics. This can give alot of buding smiths a reference. As for the saber,,You did as good a job on the saber as your instructional process. Do that again any time..

[QUI-GON JINN]

Holy Necrothread Batman!  I'm reviving this topic to post an new development on this saber!

With all of the functions that the CF has,  it seemed a shame to not use more of them than I had when I originally installed the CF 2.63 in this saber,  so I decided to take it apart and re-do the whole wiring set-up!  No small taks,  it took the better part of a day to do.....I really needed to change the battery access and the SD card access....and I decided the best thing to do was use one of my soundboard cradles:

This will allow me to place the soundboard in the ribbed extension,  and it will be held in place by the pressure of the tightened-up extension.
The soundboard is a pretty good fit on the cradle.  It fits in the saber like so:

One thing I did,  but didn't get pictures of,  was move the recharge port from the pommel insert to the center of the saber where I usually put it.  This will make it much easier to change the batteries,  which was one of my goals with re-doing the wiring.  Now,  to change the batteries,  I need only remove the pommel,  and pull out the battery/speaker combo:


The other feature I wanted to add,  is some accent led's.  The CF has the best ability to handle accent led's than any of the other sound boards n the market, and I decided to add some to the control card:

I started by drilling some holes in the card for the led's to sit in:

I hot glued the leds to the back of the card.

Well,  this'll be a fun job wiring these up..... :o

Since it won't wire itself,  I got started on it:

I added the four blue wires to act as the positives for the leds.  I resistored the red one,  but the green and yellow ones are straight off the board.  I attached the negative leads to each other,  and ran a wire from the first led to the negative pad on the soundboard.  I also added a second green led,  as there are pads for four acccent led's on the CF board.  I got them all soldered,  and carefully slid the card into place,  while feeding the wires back into the hole in the saber.  This wasn't easy....but I managed to get it...sort of....:

I tested it to be sure it worked,  and then began re-assembly of the hilt:

You can see the CF in the ribbed extension with the SD card right there in front for semi-easy access (it requires tweezers or very small needle-nose pliers to remove and replace) right under the led:

All buttoned up and polished:

Look for a demo video of the accent led's in action tomorrow on my youtube channel!  (I'll post the link here along with a few new pics of the saber in this topic).

[Jedi Knight Logan]

That is a beauty of a saber... the smiths on this site never cease to impress! :)

[OBI-WAN KENOBI]

Nice work, man.  That saber was cool even before the mods, so it's really gonna shine now!  8)

[QUI-GON JINN]

This saber might actually be finished now!  (Yeah,  right! :))
   
   


And here's the video,  as promised:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgtsa_ZM0KI

[QUI-GON JINN]

Okay,  as usual,  this saber was not finished after that last upgrade!   ;)

I recently took it apart (as in today) to remove the CF 2.63 in favor of the 4.1 I have installed in this hilt:

That saber was recently modified to use an illuminated blue dot AV style switch,  too.  It will be retired until such time as I can get another appropriate sound board for it.  It's now had an Ultrasound 2.1 in it,  and FX and a CF....only thing left is a Petit Crouton,  I guess.  

Back to BS-2.....

as you can see in this comparison picture with the new 1 1/4" saber I'm building,  this saber has no protective finish on the brass tubing so it tarnishes easily after trooping with it all day long with sweaty hands:
 
It used to not bother me much,  because I had time before the next troop to polish it up and get it looking good...trouble is,  that laser cut Parks clamp is a bear to polish around....so I took it apart to sand and polish the tube prior to sending it out for powder coating.

I used the method that Master Jedye posted about with a drain plug that you use to sand off the chrome from a sink tube to get to the brass underneath,  but didn't have it set up quite right,  and the brass tube got flung off the plug when I started the drill press....it hit the that handle for raising the vise and dented the tube some thing fierce....so I took it up to the garage after much cursing and hammered out the dent using a ball-peen hammer.....I then modified my plug set up with a 1.2" MHS extension and a piece of chrome tubing and did it again using my cordless drill instead of the drill press....live and learn,  I guess!

Here's how it looks now,  prior to powder coating:
 
As you can see,  this one gets a lot of use....it has several scratches already....on the blade holder and on the pommel.  Oh,  and I also cut off the angle from the emitter end of the brass tube....it got in the way too much while handling the saber and had to go.

 
Here you can see the scratches left from the dent and subsequent hammering on my bench vise in the garage.  Oh, well,  it'll be right at home with the gouge that the rotary tool left when I originally made this one.

 
Oh,  and it also has been upgraded with a set of brass cubes from Acerocket....don't ask him to do these he won't do them again,  these were one of a few sets he did,  and I got lucky enough to get a set a while back.

so this is ready to be boxed up and shipped off to Gemini Concepts for some custom clear coat powder coating,  and then I get to re-wire it.....it needs that redone badly....I used 26 gauge wire for the accent led's before I got my rolls of 24 gauge....should make for a cleaner install this time.

Updates as I get 'em..... ;)

[QUI-GON JINN]

Zombie thread,  oh noes!  ;)

Did some upgrade work to this one recently,  since it was without a sound board.  (Sold it to member gucabe ;) )

I replaced the mis-matched tactile switches with the metal ones I first used in CS-36:
 

The new sound board is a Crystal Focus 5.1 that was supposed to go in a saber for a friend,  but he changed his mind,  so I used it in this instead.
 

This has been set up for Clash-Flash,  too:
 
The led is a Tri-Rebel GGW.


While it was apart,  I also sanded down the clear coat and re-sanded the brass tube,  but did not polish it before clear coating it again:

All of the damage from the previous rebuild is still there...it gives it character,  I think.  ;)

 
It's all re-assembled,  but I haven't taken pics of it yet.