Help me decide which Luxeon builder is for me!

[Ultra]

Joclad, to our eyes, green blades appear to be the brightest due to how we perceive that spectrum.  So yea, green is brightest even though technically it doesn't produce the most lumens.

Sifo, stock MR blades will have the lightbulb effect unless you mirror the tip.  Mirroring the tip greatly improves blade uniformity and eliminates tip flare.  Most of my sabers come with mirrors in the tip.  BTW, your TCSS conversion was thick-wall ready, so you could have gotten a TCSS blade which comes with a mirrored tip as well.

[Darthirishman]

At the time the converison was done, he didnt offer the blade replacement, after I got the saber back I thought it as ok, but nothing special, so I think that is why I sold mine, I got bored of it, nothing against people who make them or like them, I appreciate the craftsmanship.  But I more interested in upgraded the sabers I have with more movie accurate sounds and maybe a brighter blade with a thicker composite in the blade and still keeping the power up and down effect.

[Shadowlynx]

Hey Ultra since your here now, you haven't answered my questions

I don't mean to be rude since I know how valuable your time and how busy you are with so many conversions and so on. But I was wondering about your Darth Maul UltraSabers. Does your Darth Mauls come with your Blades or the original MR Blades? Also is it possible to fit a Corbin Driver inside both battle damaged sabers? Also if I do decide to buy a original saber once I send it over to you to get it converted will it have the life time warranty like your other Ultra Sabers? Thanks and I hope you'll be able to answer my questions in deciding if I should get one of your sabers or go with a original.

[todd4566]

You don't need to cut off the tip of the MR blade.  Instead, you can place a 3/4" mirror face down on a dowel rod (preferably one that fits the inside diameter of the diffuser).  Put some silicon on the back of the mirror, then carefully slide the dowel inside the blade and press the mirror into the tip (be careful not to let the mirror slide off the end of the dowel or bad things will happen).  You will then eliminate the "light bulb" effect and create a more evenly lit blade.  The side effect is that the tip doesn't light up as brightly as before, but not many people care about that.

Anyway, to your original dilema...  If the most important thing to you in a saber is pure unbridled strength, then I would suggest you just wait until the TCSS Anakin blade holder is released.  As soon as it is, I will offer them in my sabers.

Now are you dead set on the Anakin?  TCSS makes machined blade holders for the Vader ESB, Ultra Sabers makes aluminum blade holders for the Luke ROTJ, and the Mauls can take thick walled blades in stock form.

Your presence in this thread is greatly appreciated, and you'll most likely be receiving my order as a result.  So a mirror in the tip nearly cures the dull middle portion of the illuminated blade?  That appears to be the case with the Slackfarm saber - the tip is barely lit in their pics, and that's okay with me as long as the blade looks good.  As for the hilt itself, yeah,for some reason I am heavily drawn to the Anakin hilt.  I prefer blue over all other colors in a saber, and I just can't imagine any other characters hilt looking good with blue except an Obiwan.  I as like that the Anakin hilt is nearly movie perfect. 
As for strength, I doubt I'll really duel hard, but I just want to feel confident that the Anakin can take some hefty shots.  The MR Anakin I have now has taken some HARD whacks and still performs well, so maybe I will order sooner rather than later since I lack patience.  ;D  Question though: will the blade still wobble in the hilt with a Luxeon conversion?  That's the one thing that I dislike about my MR build.

[Yoda]

As long as you tighten the set screw properly you'll eliminate that wobble.

Yes you can put a mirrors in the tips block out any light passing through the tip
The Film allows about half the light through and still reflects back ;)

It's up to you how you want it :)

I just got my Darth Maul from Ultra Today and it's a great Job as usual  8)
And Like He said it has a more robust blade support as is stock.

[Ultra]

Hey Ultra since your here now, you haven't answered my questions

I don't mean to be rude since I know how valuable your time and how busy you are with so many conversions and so on. But I was wondering about your Darth Maul UltraSabers. Does your Darth Mauls come with your Blades or the original MR Blades? Also is it possible to fit a Corbin Driver inside both battle damaged sabers? Also if I do decide to buy a original saber once I send it over to you to get it converted will it have the life time warranty like your other Ultra Sabers? Thanks and I hope you'll be able to answer my questions in deciding if I should get one of your sabers or go with a original.

Sorry I didn't answer these sooner; here goes.

The Maul comes with the stock blades converted to Luxeon, keep in mind that the walls of the stock blades on a Maul are twice as thick as on any other FX.  The inside of the Maul hilt leaves no room for a corbin board in stock form.  They run on AAAs, so they are thinner and shorter than other FX's.  I suspect quite a bit of modification would be required, but I'm sure Corbin could do it (he's good at that stuff) if you buy the board from him.  And if you send in a saber for conversion, it will have the same lifetime warranty as if you bought a brand new one from me.

If anyone is in the Phoenix-metro/east valley area, you can swing by and visit my shop to see these sabers first hand.  Retail hours are 9-5pm M-F

[Shadowlynx]

Thanks Ultra that really cleared alot of things up for me and I'm sure for everyone else. I wish I could just take a trip up there too see your sabers in action that would be killer. But anyways I think I may have come to a decision here soon so thanks again for your help it really sucks when your debating on what kind of saber to get it's like debating on a new car it really bites lol.

[todd4566]

I was just looking on the Custom Saber Shops page at parts for completing a Luxeon conversion.. I'm wondering if the Vader aluminum blade holder would work in the Anakin, even if it isn't cosmetically correct - anyone know? 

[Shadowlynx]

I wouldn't know, but I bet someone in there might like Xwing, or Tim himself, if not then try it out on your own. I personally haven't seen his conversion kit but the sabers are different sizes since the Anakin is smaller than the vader. Maybe resizing the heatsink smoothing out the pipe might do it.

[todd4566]

Hmm.. I thought the Anakin and Vader 05' models had the same diameter, but your probably right.  I've been thinking of doing my own conversion to save some money, so long as I can find a way to make the blade bright.  I really like the MR blade brightness.. it would pain me to yank it out.   :'(

[Shadowlynx]

Yeah doing a darth maul conversion isn't that hard at all well at least one the guy who converted my sabers told me so. I don't know but for now what I did was converted my Anakin and Vader myself using the MR Blade holders instead. There still holding on really good so it really doesn't matter I would just go and convert the saber and not worry about tims blade holder but I will in the future buy one anyways and convert it to my anakin anyways just too see what it can hold up too. So far I've done some very serious dueling with my anakin rots and it's still holding up to it's name big time. I can even put tim's blade on my anakin ( well with some sanding on the blade ) and she's even a bit stronger because the blade fits so tight on the MR Blade holder. Oh yeah and I decided I'm going to get a orginial darth maul instead and convert it myself or take it to someone and have them do it for me. I would love to go for ultra's but also I could use that extra 100 bucks for mothers day. I hope you'll conversions go well. thanks a bunch bro  :)

[todd4566]

So the Anakin does seem to be pretty strong even with the plastic holder eh?   My MR Anakin has taken a beating, but I was worried that the durability might go down a bit once the blade becomes removable.  After looking at the exploded view of the Anakin hilt, I feel confident I can take it apart without issue but are there any "how-to's" on wiring in the Luxeon LED? 

[Shadowlynx]

Just too to www.thecustomsabershop.com and look up Information and below is Forms and Tutorials. Then scroll down to tutorials and look up 05 MR to luxeon 3w conversions. It has both 05 Anakin Conversion and 05 Darth Vader. It gives you step by step instructions on how to take apart your Anakin that's what I did and got lucky enough for it to be my brightest Cyan LED yet. Good luck bro
 

[todd4566]

Nice.  I've been reading in the Customsabershop's forums for about an hour now.   :D  What are you using in your blade for a diffuser?   Who has the best diffuser out there?.. I've read about people using various films and such in the blade, but I would like to avoid all of that hassle is possible. 

[Shadowlynx]

I use the MR FX Blade and same diffuser it's nothing really all that different. I've heard that corbin has one of the best diffuser's out there if you want to convert your blade that way and not really see that dim area on your saber. Tim's blades are made for dueling I think there ok if you don't want to see that dim area but not every blade diffuser is perfect. Oh yeah if you look at my signature and look at my sabers my Luke ROTJ has a TCSS blade instead of the MR Blade that's the difference from my other sabers since they use the MR FX Blade and diffuser.