QUI-GON JINN's Brass Saber 20 (BS-20)

[QUI-GON JINN]

Coming soon:


The original saberbuilder.com render:


And before anyone asks,  no,  it will not be for sale when completed,  this is a commissioned piece for a friend in the Great Lakes Base of the Rebel Legion!

Here's a few more pictures of the parts that will be used to construct this saber:
 
The plan for now is to use 4-AAA's in this one,  like CS-20,  but if I can squeeze a 4-AA pack in there,  I will.

 

 

and a sneak peek at the assembled parts:


The main blade led for this one will be a bin 4 amber,  for a nice orange blade.  It it seems to be too yellow,  I'll get a bin 6 Amber instead.  The illuminated switch is also orange:
 

[Darksaber 3]

Can I as where you found that switch, Qui-Gon? I haven't been able to find any, except form a site in Australia that wanted $30 for shipping alone, and like 15 for the switch... which is a bit more then I wanted to spend.

[QUI-GON JINN]

Yes,  you can ask!  (Ga'day,  mate! ;) )

[Darksaber 3]

So you got yours form Australia, huh? Dangit, I was hoping for some source around here. Guess I will just stick with a red. Man, though, this saber will be AWESOME, Amber switch, Amber LED, and brass. Nothin better =-)

[Darth Matth]

This is going to be another yummie thread.  :D :D :D
Go QUi Gon, go QUi Gon, go QUi Gon, go QUi Gon.

Just made it sticky again. :D

[QUI-GON JINN]

Yeah,  this should be a nice one,  and should compliment it's sister,  CS-20 very well,  even though they will have two totally different owners. ;)

I got started on cutting the brass pieces tonight:


I think this will do for the emitter:
 

For the switch section,  I think I'll use a similar method to what I did to BS-16,  only reverse it:
 

Now for the top of the ribbed section,  I have a couple of choices,  but I'm leaning towards one already.  Here's the first option:

 

Here's the second option,  and the one I'm leaning towards:
 

The final say will of course,  be the owner's but I think I'll be able to convince him to go with the second one.  If I do that style,  I'll be able to drill the ribbed extension for auxilliary sound holes,  like I also did on CS-X and CS-20.

In the meantime,  I drilled and tapped for the brass CT wheel:
 

After tapping the hole,  I removed the nasty burr it left with the sanding drum attachment on my rotary tool:
 

 
Now the battery pack/speaker combo should slide right in without any interference.

I then attached the CT wheel,  which will also serve as the retention screw for the Jade grips:
 

Here's a picture I may never get to take again,  CS and BS-20 together:

[Master Durangus]

Looking great man! Loving option 2 there with the dual-shrouds over the ribbed extension. Excited for how this one will turn out! I'm surprised CS-20 hasn't had more action in the auction :(.

[Darth Frodo]

I am shocked with such little turnout for CS 20 ... I just hope that people are waiting to SNIPE at the end ..... Anyway IMO the more the brass the better

[BEN KENOBI]

 :o :o

This is going to be a masterpiece of a saber Qui-Gon!!By the way to the person who was asking about the switch----They sell them at the custom saber shop. ;D

[Darksaber 3]

Yeah, but the custom saber shop doesn't have amber is the problem for me, since it's the color I was looking for for my custom. If, only, if only...

And yeah, I agree about the option 2 looking cool. That is going to be quite a saber when it's done.

[QUI-GON JINN]

Well,  the website I got these switches from had them for only $9.50 U.S. and shipping for four of them was only $16.00 so, I'm not sure we got them from the same place that you are thinking about,  Darksaber 3.
http://www.gammods.com.au/store/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=7_15_70_72_84&zenid=9bd5003c9a6090ad05049da810d988c3

I got more done this one last night,  but had to go to bed early,  as I have a costuming event for the Rebel Legion today,  but here's what I got done:

As I expected,  the owner had decided to go with the second option for the brass pieces,  so I had to clean up them up,  and started out by sanding them down with a piece of 400, grit paper,  800 grit ,  then moved to 1000 grit and polished using my rotary tool and some Mother's Aluminum and Mag polish:


The sanded piece:


Polished:
 

Here's a comparison between the first piece for the top of the ribbed section and the switch area piece:


I moved on to the switch area piece:


Those pieces didn't turn out too bad:
 

I also finished up the the piece for the emitter:



Oooh,  that's PURTY!

Here's a couple more shots of this one next to it's "sister" saber,  CS-20:
 

Next up,  I need to drill the 16mm hole for the switch....let's hope it doesn't destroy the hilt when I drill it....drilling large holes in these hilts can sometimes be a real challenge....stay tuned.....

[Darksaber 3]

yeah, thats the place I was looking. I hadn't checked latley, but a few months ago my only option for shipping had been $30, so I wonder if they added the $16 recently. And I didnt remember the exact price... Eh, if I order 2, its only a couple bucks more then ordering 2 from TCSS, so yeah...
But back to your build, I'll stop with these pointless posts.

[Weld Twiin]

ooops!....the title of this thread should read (BS-20) instead of (CS-20) :)

[QUI-GON JINN]

yeah, thats the place I was looking. I hadn't checked latley, but a few months ago my only option for shipping had been $30, so I wonder if they added the $16 recently. And I didnt remember the exact price... Eh, if I order 2, its only a couple bucks more then ordering 2 from TCSS, so yeah...
But back to your build, I'll stop with these pointless posts.

Well,  I bought four of them,  so it worked out to about $16.00 per switch.

ooops!....the title of this thread should read (BS-20) instead of (CS-20) :)

D'OH!!  Fixed it!

So here's how I drilled for the big switch hole:

I set the mark using a hammer and nail punch.

In order to help the larger bit drill the hole,  I started off with a smaller,  3/8" hole to act as a pilot hole.




Then I swapped out that bit for the 16mm (5/8") one:

Here goes nothin'!!

Success!

I next had to de-burr the hole,  and used a sanding drum on the rotary tool for that:


It also left a rather large burr on the inside of the hilt,  and the sanding drum will also make quick work of that:


So will the switch fit?


Yep!  Well,  sort of...I still need to get one of these nifty little mounting bezels for it,  like I used on CS-20:

I have already ordered one for this saber,  and a couple of others I'll be building soon to help reduce the shipping fees per part.  Saves money that way,  in the long run.

Here's a full shot of it with the switch sitting in the hole:


Next up is to drill a hole for the recharge port to fit through:

That was easy...no pictures of that...drillin' holes is drillin' holes...looks pretty much the same,  every time.  :lol:

Now,  to get the sound to come out of the grip section,  with the speaker being in the bottom,  I'll have to drill some holes in the soundboard mount's aluminum disc:


I loaded it up,  and eye-balled the location of each extra hole:


This'll work:

You'll also notice that I drilled another hole and then made a slot in the center of the disc...this will allow for running the wiring to the sound board beneath the board,  rather than over the top. 


This ought to work well.

The next step will be making the mount for the recharge port.  Stay Tuned!

[QUI-GON JINN]

to mount the recharge port,  i'll be using my flush mount system,  which is made up from a 1/2" wide piece of 1 /4"o.d. plastic drain extension.

I'll start by drilling an appropriate sized hole in the pvc ring:


I don't have the exact size drill and tap for this yet,  so I'll just enlarge the hole a bit at a time until the recharge port can be threaded into it:
 
I threaded it through from the outside to ensure it would fit,  then removed it and threaded it in from the inside of the ring:


Next,  I split the ring,  to allow it to be collapsed in on itself for installation into the saber:
 

Last thing to do before wiring the saber,  is to attach the speaker mount to the 4-AAA battery holder:


I'll thread some wire through the holder:


These will then be soldered to the speaker: