What is an ATS Saber, you may be asking? Well it's an "Aluminum Tube Series" Saber built by yours truly! These are relatively easy for me to build, and are actually something I've been wanting to do but never got around to working on. I had the basic design in my head for over a year after having built
CS-41 and thinking how easy it might be to build something like that using all aluminum tubing. I was also inspired by Eastern57's
"Machining without Machines" topic after reading it and thinking I'd like to give it a shot someday. The recent parts shortages at TCSS were also part of my motivation to get something built, since my entry-level Padawan Series Sabers rely on MHS parts stacked on top of a 1 1/4" aluminum tube.
I currently have 4 of these on the bench, with the first two staying with me as proofs of concepts:
The two sabers in the background are proofs of concept, or prototypes....those will not be for sale, I need to keep a couple of these for myself for reference as as display pieces.
These two are more likely the production style I would offer for sale when I have them:
Like the Padawan Series, the ATS sabers are based on a 1.25" o.d. aluminum tube for the main hilt body, with the rest of the pieces being 1.375" o.
The emitter sleeve has a simple angled cut and a thumbscrew to secure the blade:
At the front of the rear grip pieces on the "bottom" of the saber is where I plan to put the recharge ports on these:
By putting it there, and making the speaker removable, it should be easy to access the SD card if the saber is equipped with a Crystal Shard. A R.I.C.E. port could also be placed right next to it.
Pommels/end caps:
The prototype ATS-001 uses a TCSS MPS Insert that is current press-fit inside a piece of the 1.125" o.d. tubing I used to make the blade sockets for three of these. This is just a simple 3/4" knock-out plug I found at Menard's in the electrical section. Sound vents could be drilled in the knockout, or maybe around the outside of the pommel.
I only have one wired up right now, ATS-001:
This particular one has a wet-sanded and polished finish that I don't think I'll want to do to all of these. As it is, the unprotected finish will leave your hands black after handling the saber for extended periods:
Electronics in ATS-1 consists of an 18650 3400mAh cell, an MR Yoda Force FX sound board and a blue Luxeon Rebel:
ATS-2 is built a little differently...it uses a TCSS 1.18" blade socket and a 1.25"tube with a 1.18" i.d. This one needed to have the outside of the blade socket sanded until it would slide smoothly into the main hilt tube. It also features grip cut slots in the rear grip section:
It also uses a 3/4" knock-out plug as the end cap:
I had to bend the tabs outward on this one to get it to fit, but it's on there. A small precision screw driver is required to remove these things, but they are much less expensive that using the TCSS MPS inserts. (I'd still use those if someone wanted it, though.
) This one I plan on keeping for myself.
Here you can see the difference in the blade sockets...ATS-1 is on the right, ATS-2 on the left:
I would just use the 1.18" blade holders, but they add about $10 to the overall cost and require a different I.D. hilt tube that 1.1" o.d. speakers just don't fit in quite as well and would require having a custom made speaker mount done.
Pricing for these is still being worked on, and I'd like to have a few of these available for sale in the coming weeks. ATS 3 & 4 may be ready next week, or possibly this weekend. I'll add these to my build log as soon as I get one of them wired up.