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Author Topic: Disassembly/Reassembly of Vader Force FX  (Read 13583 times)

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Offline Blee

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Re: Disassembly/Reassembly of Vader Force FX
« Reply #15 on: July 03, 2005, 08:53:26 AM »
When is the guide on how to take the blade apart coming? I have just successfully dissassembled and reassembled my ESB Vader saber and now I need to know how to get the blade apart. There is a small pin in the blade and I have tried to get it out, but was unable to. After many attempts the pin is now deep inside and I can now turn the inside a little bit but it seems that the end cap at the tip of the blade is keeping me from getting the darn thing apart. Any advice is really appreciated.
Spread the virus! Opie and Anthony on XM202.
MR Collection
2-Vader ESB force FX
1-Anakin ROTS force FX
1-Luke ROTJ(2005)force FX
1-Mace AOTC(rerelease)force FX
1-Obi-Wan ROTS .45 scale
1-Count Dooku ROTS .45 scale

Offline Blee

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Re: Disassembly/Reassembly of Vader Force FX
« Reply #16 on: July 03, 2005, 08:57:09 AM »
Btw the reason I am taking the blade apart is because my stupid cousins broke it. It has a huge crease in the blade and now about 3 inches on the bottom and on the top light up. I am pretty good at fixing things so I am preety confident on this project.
Spread the virus! Opie and Anthony on XM202.
MR Collection
2-Vader ESB force FX
1-Anakin ROTS force FX
1-Luke ROTJ(2005)force FX
1-Mace AOTC(rerelease)force FX
1-Obi-Wan ROTS .45 scale
1-Count Dooku ROTS .45 scale

Offline Blee

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Re: Disassembly/Reassembly of Vader Force FX
« Reply #17 on: July 05, 2005, 08:55:59 AM »
Nevermind, I finally got the pin out and pulled out the LED board. I had my friend solder the broken areas(had to add some wires to reconnect some of the areas). Now my saber is back together and fully functional again. My next mission is to find replacement plastic for the blade so then I won't have the ugly crease.

Spread the virus! Opie and Anthony on XM202.
MR Collection
2-Vader ESB force FX
1-Anakin ROTS force FX
1-Luke ROTJ(2005)force FX
1-Mace AOTC(rerelease)force FX
1-Obi-Wan ROTS .45 scale
1-Count Dooku ROTS .45 scale

Offline Bigdog01

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Re: Disassembly/Reassembly of Vader Force FX
« Reply #18 on: July 05, 2005, 09:06:00 AM »
Glad to hear/see that you got it working again!

I recently read an article about "builing your own lightsaber blades." Int he article, the author mentioned where to get the poly-carb tube.

Gotta go find it...

Master Replicas Collection
2004 Luke ESB Force FX (2x)
2005 Vader ESB Force FX (3x)
2005 Anakin ROTS Force FX (x3)
2005 Luke ROTJ Force FX  (2x)
2005 Mace ROTS Force FX
2006 Darth Maul FX (x2)
(= ;=__((===============

Offline Bigdog01

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Re: Disassembly/Reassembly of Vader Force FX
« Reply #19 on: July 05, 2005, 09:08:46 AM »
Ok, here ya go:

http://fx-sabers.com/forum/index.php?topic=130.0

The article is located there, but the author says that he got his tube from www.usplastic.com.

Good luck, and be sure to let us know how it works out for you!

Master Replicas Collection
2004 Luke ESB Force FX (2x)
2005 Vader ESB Force FX (3x)
2005 Anakin ROTS Force FX (x3)
2005 Luke ROTJ Force FX  (2x)
2005 Mace ROTS Force FX
2006 Darth Maul FX (x2)
(= ;=__((===============

Offline Blee

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Re: Disassembly/Reassembly of Vader Force FX
« Reply #20 on: July 05, 2005, 12:14:59 PM »
Thanks for your help Bigdog.  I can get the tube from my local hardware store that a relative owns for dirt cheap. The article that you gave the link for has the wrong size tube for the Fx lightsaber it is 1"od and 35 and 3/8 inches long. Now I just need to get this darn tip off of my old blade. I cannot tell if it is glue together to the inner tubing or just really tightly pushed on.  Oh well,  xxx am I happy that the whole blade lights up again!  ;D :D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
Spread the virus! Opie and Anthony on XM202.
MR Collection
2-Vader ESB force FX
1-Anakin ROTS force FX
1-Luke ROTJ(2005)force FX
1-Mace AOTC(rerelease)force FX
1-Obi-Wan ROTS .45 scale
1-Count Dooku ROTS .45 scale

Offline Blee

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Re: Disassembly/Reassembly of Vader Force FX
« Reply #21 on: July 06, 2005, 04:42:18 AM »
The tip looks like one of those toys they had out a while ago that was rubber and you pushed it inside out and then set it down and it would right itself with a pop and jump into the air. That is the only thing I can think of that looks like it. I have been unsuccessful getting the tip and the white inner tube out from the outer tube. It seems that the the crease in the outer is keeping the inner one in. I have not been able to get the crease out enough to get the inner one out. I almost started cutting it, but decided to wait until Saturday to do it. By then I will have my polycarbonate tube.  I will try to get you guys a picture of the inside of the blade and the tip. It won't be untill probably tomorrow( have to work late).

   BTW.. Nice review on the Mace Saber Bigdog. It literally sent shivers down my spine!  I can't wait till mine comes!

   
Spread the virus! Opie and Anthony on XM202.
MR Collection
2-Vader ESB force FX
1-Anakin ROTS force FX
1-Luke ROTJ(2005)force FX
1-Mace AOTC(rerelease)force FX
1-Obi-Wan ROTS .45 scale
1-Count Dooku ROTS .45 scale

Adrena1in

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Re: Disassembly/Reassembly of Vader Force FX
« Reply #22 on: July 07, 2005, 01:26:25 PM »
Certainly a brilliant tutorial, and came in handy when I took my Vader ESB apart today.  I didn't go so far as to remove the blade itself...the 2-foot aluminium tubing I have is pretty much exactly the right diameter to simply slide in the Vader internals.  I'm about a tenth of the way towards having a working Force FX double-saber!  :)

Offline Bandit-Jedi

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Re: Disassembly/Reassembly of Vader Force FX
« Reply #23 on: July 10, 2005, 09:26:01 AM »
This has been some very informative reading.  Thanks to all posters.

May The Force FX Be With You!


Adrena1in

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Re: Disassembly/Reassembly of Vader Force FX
« Reply #24 on: July 11, 2005, 12:15:45 PM »
Don't know if I should post this here, or start a new thread, but has anyone disassembled a Vader ANH please?  I was going to get two Vader ESBs to make a Darth Maul.  However, my supplier accidentally sent me an ANH Vader, so I now have one of each.

I'm assuming that the internals are going to be a bit more bulky than the ESB, so might not fit into my Darth Maul hilt.  (Obviously I don't want to give it a try if it's not going to fit!)

Can anyone who's disassembled both answer this question for me please?

Thanks,
Tim.

Offline Hunter

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Re: Disassembly/Reassembly of Vader Force FX
« Reply #25 on: November 14, 2005, 08:07:51 AM »
sorry to bring back this old thread,but i was just wondering,when you remove the polycarbonate blade from the black sleeve in the vader esb, there is obviously two holes in the blade,right? and assuming there is,how big are they? they must be really small judging on the size of the two pins that go through them.do the metal pins fit tightly in the holes in the blade or do they just slide through them?

Offline Darth Solder

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Re: Disassembly/Reassembly of Vader Force FX
« Reply #26 on: November 22, 2005, 12:34:15 PM »
I have finished my repair and reconstruction of my Vader ESB, minus the overly ambitious FM transmitter.  Ironically, I decided to skip embedding an FM transmitter when I realized that every single FM transmitter ever made by the company I work for is utterly inappropriate to such a project, and I couldn't really get away with using a competitor's product in the company light sabers!

The important part was the total restoration of the blade.  All 64 LEDs now light up.

The only problem I ran into was a screw that may have been slightly cross-threaded, and the head snapped off.  It is annoying, but doesn't really affect the saber.

So, a big middle finger to Master Replicas.  I would have been happy to pay half the purchase price to have it repaired ($60), but they flatly (and rather snottily) told me they would not do it, period.  Thanks for forcing me to learn one more semi-useless life skill.

Sadly, the documentation for the restoration may have been lost to a hard drive crash.  If I can get the info off the HD, I will make the repair tutorial.  If not, I am not redocumenting it, sorry.

Now that I have these mad, l33t repair skills, I have a general question for everyone.  Should I offer a repair service?  Here is my thoughts:

-I would have to do so as an unconditionally UNGUARANTEED repair that COULD result in making things even worse, as I will not pay to replace anyone's saber for any reason, including my mistakes, negligence, accidents, or whatever.

-In the event I could not repair it, or broke it and made it worse, or whatever, I would charge only an "examination" fee (maybe $10 or something).

-Shipping costs would be prepaid, i.e. shipping both ways would be at the expense of the customer.

-I should be able to offer "tweaks", like increasing the brightness of the LEDs slightly, or changing the LED colors (all purple, rainbow mix, red and green LEDs for a Christmas model, adding an audio output jack, adding an FM transmitter, other things), but these would be at additional cost.

Assuming anyone found that acceptable, what would be a fair price to charge for the repair?  I wouldn't consider it for less than $40, and even that seems low considering the fairly large amount of time it takes, and the somewhat specialized electronics knowledge and equipment needed to do it.  Anything over $60 seems like you'd have to ask yourself if a repair is worth it, or if just buying a new one would be smarter, but that may be my modestly well-padded wallet talking and I can sure remember days in my youth where the difference between $60 and $120 was massive, so perhaps some people WOULD find value in the repair fee.

Thoughts?  Anyone?  Anyone?  Bueller?  Anyone?

Offline fr33d0m

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Re: Disassembly/Reassembly of Vader Force FX
« Reply #27 on: June 12, 2021, 10:56:49 PM »
Good day. I am new to this forum. Can i ask whoever is an expert regarding my problem. The chorme part on the bottom of the hilt of my darth vader force fx lightsaber faded and showed the yellow plastic underneath. Is there a way to remove this part so i could repaint it? Thank you so much for any intelligent input and insights.

 

retrousse