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Author Topic: Phantom X, my personal saberstaff - FINISHED!!!! Video up 7/9  (Read 6191 times)

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Offline ice

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So I've posted questions in a few places about this build, but I didn't want to make a WIP thread till I had a good amount of work done, and something worth showing.  Now, I think I do.  This started out as an ultra-sabers Phantom V3, then got the guts pulled out, and some of the anodizing sanded off.


How it looked when I bought it:




First sanding job (done using a belt sander and then hand sanding with a fine grit):







I wanted a star-killer esq crystal chamber in each side of the staff, which I just got the slots milled out for this week.  I originally was going to cut away about 1/3 of the staff for the chamber reveal, but ended up going with a much thinner slot for structural and comfort reasons.  I then sanded down the emitter sections quite a bit using a high grit sand paper (and about two hours on a belt sander) so that MHS sleeve material would slide over it.  I also threw a bevel into the end of the emitter, cause I think it will look great with the overlay, which is designed as a clover with deep slots, so the rings in the emitter will be able to be seen through it.


Crystal chamber slots
























I also added 5 holes to the top of the staff for a spaced out bar graph.  When assembled, the holes face upwards, with the crystal chambers facing opposite directions at 90* of the holes.












This is the crystal chamber I originally designed for this project, but won't be able to use, as I decided to make the slot smaller, and the details in it would be lost.




So I settled by making this








Very simple crystal chamber.  I shaped the crystal from 3/4" acrylic rod using.... you guessed it, a belt sander!  (Can you tell I like that tool?)  The brass pieces are 1/2 and 17/32's tube nested together for more depth and detail.  The crystal also has a deep hole drilled in it's center were a wide angle blue LED sits.  Though it is quite simple, I think it fits the slot very nicely.










And it also looks right when looking through the slot at an angle.  I made sure to make the brass long enough to have depth and not be able to see the chassis when looking in the slot sideways.









And it will be powered by none other then a CF5 (my first CF) :D










This is going to be a permanent staff (as in won't separate into two individual sabers), so I have lots of room inside to play with.  It's going to have an anti-vandal switch mounted on an MHS piece that will thread into the middle of the staff, which is preventing my from using an 18650 pack, but I can still mount two individually on either side of the switch and then solder them into the board in series.  The sound is going to vent through the crystal chamber slots (which I already tested and works great).  There will be a total of 10 LEDs, 2 main P4 blues, 5 3mm blues for the bargraph, 2 wide angle 5mm blues in the crystal chambers, and the anti-vandal blue ring right in the middle, so it's going to be drawing alot of power.  I'm also using two speakers (one before each crystal chamber).


I should be getting the shrouds by Friday (have a friend machining them for me cause it's a bit above me and I don't own a milling machine), so I'll have an update sometime this weekend with those on.  I also need to get the black sections repainted, cause I need to sand them down cause the slots are just a tad sharp at the moment.  Anyone know where I could send them for powder coating?  The inside portion of the staff will be wrapped probably with nylon, for better grip and aesthetics.

Link to bigger pictures:
http://s271.photobucket.com/albums/jj129/icetyrant22/#!cpZZ1QQtppZZ20

Thanks for reading/viewing.  Thoughts?
« Last Edit: August 08, 2012, 08:54:07 PM by ice »
\\\\\\\"The most formidable weapon is the one you build yourself\\\\\\\"

Offline Link

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Re: Phantom X, my personal saberstaff - WIP
« Reply #1 on: July 18, 2012, 12:44:07 PM »
Cool build !  I like the custom crystal chambers :)

Offline SithStalker

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Re: Phantom X, my personal saberstaff - WIP
« Reply #2 on: July 18, 2012, 01:08:35 PM »
I like the blade holders and of course the crystal chamber.  :o

Haha... Well, it's a fool's errand, boy. The Emperor's army is infinite. You'll eventually be killed... or worse... and nothing will have changed.

Offline Professor Huyang

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Re: Phantom X, my personal saberstaff - WIP
« Reply #3 on: July 18, 2012, 01:51:56 PM »
Very cool saber. It will be awesome to see it with the shroud. And there are lots of cool fonts that would work awesome for a staff. This is a vey cool project.
"Many years I have been on this ship teaching many a Jedi before you, and I will continue teaching many a Jedi after you. Call me what you want, but inside my memory banks I contain a record of every lightsaber ever made, and the Jedi who fashioned it."
―Huyang


Offline jedi_federer

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Re: Phantom X, my personal saberstaff - WIP
« Reply #4 on: July 22, 2012, 04:19:07 PM »
It is looking really good. I think that you did an excellent job sanding all of that anodizing. it looks much better without it. The crystal chamber also looks really awesome.

Offline ice

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Re: Phantom X, my personal saberstaff - WIP
« Reply #5 on: July 25, 2012, 08:23:59 PM »
Haven't had much time to update the thread, but I got a few things done in the past week, so here's how it looks now.



Cleaned up the slots to make them more grip friendly (as they were a tad sharp)


(Top: old.  Bottom: new)



Suits the crystal quite well I think








Also got one of the shrouds finished (came to me with only milled out edges, which I then sanded down by hand for ~4 hours to give more shape and depth to the front, and to take out all the nicks that had been received from the initial milling).  I also weathered the black a bit by sanding down the edges so just a bit of bare aluminum shows through.













Staff as a whole

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Offline ice

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Re: Phantom X, my personal saberstaff - WIP
« Reply #6 on: July 28, 2012, 10:20:55 PM »
HUGE UPDATE

This saber is near completion, I received the AW 18650's today as well as the recharge port, which means I have almost everything for the build, so I started wiring it up.  But first, a look at the shrouds:


Here's how they came to me




Then I used a sanding drum on the end of my dremel to widen the slots right at the end.




Then, hand sanding all 8 sides at different angles using 220, then 320 grit sandpaper.  I'll be doing a 400 grit sanding when I get more sand paper this week.  This step took about 4 hours, but it's completely worth it (to me at least :) )










One of the cool things about this saber is the way I'm doing the chassis.  The middle connecting piece hosts a blue Anti-vandal and switch 22, inside 1 1/8" polycarb.  That polycarb then pushes into 1 1/4" at each end.  This means the entire saber is lined with effectively a single chassis, as all the tubes lock together and prevents things from shifting.









As you can see, this is how I'm keeping the crystal chambers in place and lined up correctly with the slots cut in the body of the saber.  The silver unit at the end is the LED assembly, and behind the crystal chamber is the speaker, which is a normal Regal speaker, held in place by friction and epoxy putty (which I've used a bunch on this build)













Lets jump to some wiring.  Here's the soldering on an 18650, which I think I did pretty well.



Then covered with epoxy putty to insure no contact with other wires




So I installed the chassis in the side of the body hosting the bargraph and encounter a rather annoying problem.  The bargraph is quite spaced out, not like a convention graph, and would be really quite difficult to secure each LED individually in such a small space, but I also couldn't think of a way to line them up correctly and then install them all at once, cause the holes aren't equi-distant from eachother (by design).  So I tried doing them one at a time, took forever, and I gave up on the second one.  I then realized I could line them up on the outside of the hilt, solder all the negatives together (cause the CF5 only wants 1 negative lead from the LED's anyway), and that would hold them in place correctly.  Worked like a charm.










I cut a slot for them to fit into chassis and with a little jiggling, got them into place, then pressed epoxy putty in overtop of them, to keep them securely in place.





I also needed to fit the recharge port in on that side, which I installed near the base of the hilt, and then slid in an 18650,  which fit quite snugly.  I doubt you could fit anything else into this side of the hilt, it's quite full.








The recharge port and bargraph keep the chassis from spinning cause they're connected to the saber body through slots in the chassis (obviously), so I have no worry of parts sliding around or the crystal chambers facing the wrong way.


Also, the e-tape on the hilt is just a base for a wrapping that will come later (as soon as I get it).  Not leather, as it's not my style, but a thin, tanish-brown color wrapping.  I should have another update soon.  Let me know what you guys think :)
« Last Edit: July 28, 2012, 10:30:18 PM by ice »
\\\\\\\"The most formidable weapon is the one you build yourself\\\\\\\"

Offline ice

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Re: Phantom X, my personal saberstaff - HUGE UPDATE 7/29
« Reply #7 on: July 30, 2012, 03:06:57 PM »
http://s271.photobucket.com/albums/jj129/icetyrant22/?action=view&current=IMG_2217.mp4

Thats a video link, still not all fit into the chassis, but it's getting there.

\\\\\\\"The most formidable weapon is the one you build yourself\\\\\\\"

Offline ice

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Re: Phantom X, my personal saberstaff - HUGE UPDATE 7/29
« Reply #8 on: August 01, 2012, 08:55:41 PM »
ALL DONE!!!!!!!!!!!


http://s271.photobucket.com/albums/jj129/icetyrant22/  (link to bigger pictures)


















But what happened to the bargraph????  It's hidden.....








The LEDs I used to make the bargraph where WAY to bright to be looked at normally, but they shine through the wrapping just enough for them to be plainly visible but not hurt to look at.  I purchased more then 5 kinds of wrapping (of different materials) to get the right texture and grip and see-though-ness, and I finally found it.  I'm really not a fan of leather, so I didn't want to use that, but I still wanted a brown wrapping, and I think it looks really nice, and certainly feels great.











^That picture does a great job of highlighting the way the shroud meets the hilt creating a folding effect.  You may think it would be uncomfortable to grip, but the inside and outside of the shroud was sanded down to be edgless and smooth, so it's actually rather comfortable.





^Aux switch




^Main switch (always on when key is pulled)










Thanks to the chassis system, one side of the hilt is completely removable!












^Super easy SD card access







To be honest, the saber is more on the simple side cosmetically then some of the sabers I've seen on the boards, but I really like it, and anywhere you put your hand is comfortable (or at least not uncomfortable).  This was designed to be a full contact dueling saber, and will be used as such on a weekly basis, so I expect it to receive dings and scratches that I will then enjoy sanding and polishing out :)

As previously stated, this saber is powered by a CF5.11
Currently, the fonts I have loaded are

Yoda- Unsure of maker
Hoth- GCS
Brawler- SekRouge
Ancient saber -Novastar
Shoto - GCS
Thrasher- VV  (I think all CF's should have thrasher, it's amazing)

I'll be playing with the settings on the board for another year, but I'll try to get a vid up of the saber in the next few days when I get most of the light patterns and main LED pulse sorted out.  Hope you guys like it :)

« Last Edit: August 01, 2012, 09:04:28 PM by ice »
\\\\\\\"The most formidable weapon is the one you build yourself\\\\\\\"

Offline nartules

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Re: Phantom X, my personal saberstaff - FINISHED!!!!
« Reply #9 on: August 01, 2012, 10:41:47 PM »
Well, nice job on the staff.  I've been waiting to see someone do a saber staff on the forums (with sound that is) for a long time, but everytime the plans just .... poof's.... So glad to see someone do it.

Its not too overtop and seems like its going to be a good spinner.  Make sure you share the vid once its done, thats what I'm looking forward to the most.


Time will bring the real end of our trial.  One day they'll be no remnants

Offline Caine

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Re: Phantom X, my personal saberstaff - FINISHED!!!!
« Reply #10 on: August 01, 2012, 10:52:29 PM »
Nice work, dude.

Novastar made the Yoda font  ;)

Offline ice

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Re: Phantom X, my personal saberstaff - FINISHED!!!!
« Reply #11 on: August 08, 2012, 08:53:22 PM »
\\\\\\\"The most formidable weapon is the one you build yourself\\\\\\\"

Offline Xanatos1986

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Re: Phantom X, my personal saberstaff - FINISHED!!!! Video up 7/9
« Reply #12 on: August 08, 2012, 09:05:51 PM »
wow i wish the pics were clicky I really want to study that chassis!!!!!!!





Offline LUMINARA UNDULI

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Re: Phantom X, my personal saberstaff - FINISHED!!!! Video up 7/9
« Reply #13 on: August 08, 2012, 09:26:34 PM »
Nice job on this :).



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Offline Nick Knight

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Re: Phantom X, my personal saberstaff - FINISHED!!!! Video up 7/9
« Reply #14 on: August 08, 2012, 11:49:23 PM »
Great staff.  You say its a simpler design but you really put a lot of work into a functioning dueling saber.  It looks solid as ever and your hidden bar graph is a cool idea.  It looks like a functional fighting tool that's used for its purpose. Great job!
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