Well this is mildly embarrassing, but after frequent usage of my saber, the blade has now been chewed up enough by the retention screw that it actually broke finally.
Lasted me about two years before it reached this point. I’ll be in the market for a new blade if there are any recommendations (I’m too lazy to DIY a blade ).
Curious if anyone else has experience with this, or any suggestions to minimize blade damage from screw retention? Quick internet browse mentioned electrical tape at the base as a suggestion, but I speculate that there’s so little room in the hilt that the blade wouldn’t fit if I tried to add any sort of cushion to it
AFAIK, the best defense against retention screw damage is a snug fit. Basically, if there is little or no wiggle room, then the retension screw doesn’t have to be very tight. Also, wiggling the blade tends to scrape the material off the blade, and with no wiggle room, that doesn’t happen. (much)
I used smooth painter’s tape (because it’s what I had around, probably better things). Electrical tape and such were, as you said, too thick.
Put a piece below where the screw goes and one above (so the tape doesn’t just get chewed) and it work(ed) well.
“Worked” only because I haven’t had an assembled saber in at least a year. Took it apart to do some refurbishments and never got back around to it , but that doesn’t have anything to do with the method…
If there’s room, I cut a strip of plastic from a plastic water/ juice bottle (store bought, not reusable) and do a wrap around the spot(s) where the retention screws(s) are. I’ve also used gaffer’s tape, but it can leave a residue over a long period of time.
Sure. I usually use seltzer bottles. You can also use it to line the inside of metal tubes to create an electronics shield. That’s how my main saber, which I’ve used for many years for demos and teaching, has no chassis. I still think of chassis as “something new” .
Transparent 3M or Scotch (the red not the green labeled version) tape like you’d use in the office.
It’s cheap, easy to wrap around the blade, and easy to clean up.
Browsing the Custom Saber Shop, what stands out to me is the thick-walled blade option, which might be a suitable answer to my question. I’m guessing they can probably take more punishment from a retention screw than the thin-walled version I had. Curious if that comes with a trade-off of the visual effect though… any opinions out there of thick-walled vs thin-walled?
Just seems to me that even a modest tightening of the retention screw will leave a slight dent every time in the blade. And you can either focus on that small dent each time, tightening further and further each time, until it punches all the way through the tube. Or move to a fresher point on the blade (like I did) and then the whole thing weakens and breaks at the base. Maybe another possibility (thinking out loud), is filling in a hole in the tubing with some sort of filling/plaster that hardens as a more durable material than the tube plastic, which can then be the focus point for the screw to tighten against(?)
Naturally I’d explore the tape options mentioned above once i actually get a blade to test them out
Not really. They are much heavier, and will change the balance of the saber.
The density of the pixels can change the look of the effects (how many there are per meter). Flexible strips inside a thick walled blade are what I use for any ‘battle’ situation.
A KR V2 inside a thick walled blade is my choice for stressing visuals. But it can still take some hits or drops.
Thin blades are for when I want to spin the saber faster, or for my one ‘thin neck’ saber (Obi Wan ‘Desert Wanderer’)
Hmm that’s good to know. I don’t plan to hit them against anything, but worth noting the weight changing the balance.
Maybe the thick-walled blade is suitable for my Sequel-Era fonts, and thin-walled for Prequel-Era fonts Come to think of it, thick-walled probably suits OT aswell, since they weren’t swinging them too fast either (and conceptually were originally considered to be ‘heavy two-handed’ from the power generated).
Funny to think that if anything the prequels were probably most off-script from the original lightsaber concept, but it’s the sequels that catch flack for being ‘wooden bats’
Didn’t know 7/8” was a thing for accuracy, but suppose I can see it compared to the ‘cone’ in the films. But my saber takes 1” blade so that settles that, and I always preferred it to the notion of 7/8”
I’m kinda wanting to see if the KR v3.5 restocks, but it’s been so long I’m not 100% on the wiring I used and whether it’s sufficient. I’m 90% sure I used 22 awg, but the KR V2 I know worked fine power-wise
If you get installs custom done by yourself or someone else you can try using those Thread-in Neopixel Blades with the matching pin connectors from Saber Forge.
It doesn’t even cost that much more than average, but they do take about 2-4 weeks to get parts to you…
Once you take a look at them you’ll see why.
Can only imagine if everyone else switched over to that system though because they’d probably mark-it up like CRAZY! Saber Forge may look like they have high prices, but it’s actually pretty low for what they sell compared to most of the other market.
Always make sure you have at least 3 places you know you can get good prices & good support from…
Upon reflection (and managing to pry off the pcb holder), I opted to just buy a new blade tube and pcb holder. Hopefully this will be an easy fix, since I still have a perfectly good string of LEDs and PCB, along with the foam and diffusion wrap. Also probably sets a better precedent; if these tubes are destined to break down over time, it’s cheaper to replace those than get a whole new blade every time the retention screw chews up the plastic.
That said… still cost me a pretty penny due to shipping costs. I stuck with KR since I’m familiar with their product, but are all the tubes pretty similar that I’d be better off buying local (US) next time? Maybe there’s another vendor worth getting tubes from?
).
, but that doesn’t have anything to do with the method…
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Come to think of it, thick-walled probably suits OT aswell, since they weren’t swinging them too fast either (and conceptually were originally considered to be ‘heavy two-handed’ from the power generated).
