TOPIC: ASP reborn hilt - claws seriously misaligned

Hello folks.
I ordered the parts for an ASP Reborn hilt recently after tiring of waiting for an Initiate hilt. When it arrived today, I was appalled to see that the claws did not align correctly, no matter what I did.

I cannot understand why the hilt would be manufactured in such a manner.
How should this be fixed?

The ASP parts are mass-produced (possibly across multiple shops) so rarely align properly. This is why there are alignment shims available on the ASP website, so that the rotations can be custom tailored and corrected by the user (Kickstarter and Indiegogo backers got these automatically, but now they're an optional accessory).

If you're looking to fix this without buying them from Portland ($15.00+$20 shipping min.) and waiting 2 weeks, or by sending an RMA and waiting even longer, you can try to find some washers or something similar at a hardware store that work for you. Someone else can probably provide more assistance in that regard.

You can sand down the Female side of the connection in order to adjust the piece clockwise. Use a piece of 220 or 240 grit sand paper on a FLAT surface. Rub the female side evenly in a circular motion on the sand paper. 30 seconds of that can give you a 10-15 degree shift.

You can add plumbers tape ($1 at your local hardware store) to the threads to back off the alignment counter clockwise. Apply the tape in the direction with the threads.

you might have to sand down the female portion? ouch I'd be worried I'd mess up the finish myself.

Washers or o-rings might work out better for you if you don't want to sand it down and risk damaging the part. Not sure if it'll look the same with those in place though.

Snakeeyz99 wrote:
I think the alignment shims must be free for all buyers, since it's not the final customer fault to have such a disaligned parts as Starmute shows...
And of course you don't know if your parts are going to need that before the package arrives.

Neesh Kedoo wrote:
I don't know that they should be free. SF has no way of knowing what you intend to do with your saber parts. I would however argue that an "Alignment" service might not be a bad idea. They have rolled out the pro install, so this could just be a subset of that. Make it a $15-$25 service and I think there are folks who would jump on that.

Jas-Ot wrote:
I'd love free shims too (or at least some type of standardized alignment in the components), but I'm going to play devil's advocate for a bit. Speculation runs in the family blood, as some people here may have noticed by this point.

SF is first and foremost a business; people depend on it to make a livelihood. The main benefit for the ShopSaberParts system is that, rather than saving up and then spending a huge amount of money, people can buy their sabers one piece at a time as they get money (for example, I purchase a new LED and ASP part every other week when my paycheck comes in). It's easier to tell yourself "I spent 60 bucks every week last month," rather than, "I spent 240 dollars today." This allows existing hobbyists to provide a more steady income by making frequent, smaller payments and makes the system more approachable to newcomers.

If you provided a set of shims with each order containing at least one of each component you may push the customers to wait until they can buy a full hilt. The same would be true if you offered an add-on service, since that would really only be possible with full hilt orders. If this were to happen the profits would become much more unpredictable and there may be another barrier to entry for new customers who aren't as willing to drop large sums of money in one go.

You could theoretically provide free shims with all orders, but that would be at a loss; the cost of the shims as an item is $15. Providing them for free is nearly equivalent to free shipping in the continental US. An alignment service would be nice, but I think the effort involved in getting it right might cause the service be more expensive than you'd think. If SF allowed you to specify through order notes how you wanted the saber aligned, they would shoulder the burden of trying to interpret what you want and potentially getting it wrong, which might warrant unnecessary RMAs. The other option would be to align everything to a standard setting, but that might be troublesome if the customer wants an atypical alignment. Why go through the hassle if you can charge $15 for the pieces so the customer can align it themselves? You remove the communication hurdle and provide more customization opportunities for the buyer.

It would be nice if each piece was aligned during the manufacturing process where every switch lined up at some default orientation with every emitter and body and shims were sold to people who wanted other alignments. But I don't know enough about how the ASP parts are being produced to say with certainty if that is possible.

The reality though is, it's not that hard to align the parts. Whether they are ASP, MHS, US, or any one else for that matter, there are multiple methods to align the parts and none of them are overly difficult.

Sanding for clockwise alignment and plumbers tape for counter clockwise alignment are my go to methods, both are extremely easy to do.

If you want a fully aligned, fully assembled hilt then you may be better served just buying an empty. I think it is an unwritten but still understood rule that if you are buying parts, then you are "doing it yourself". While the ASP offerings (pre built internals) are a bit easier to put together to create a full saber than say an MHS saber, there's still a DIY element involved.

I've used some thread tape to fix the problem.
But I am very much doing a DIY build. I'll post some more about it later, but essentially, I'm creating the closest thing to a real lightsaber, using an extremely powerful laser diode. It's powered by two 26650 batteries. At this point I'm just waiting on the module.

Starmute wrote:
Damn. Can't wait to see how this turns out. Glad you got that alignment issue resolved-it was pretty drastic IMO.

Indeed! At this point I foresee only two major issues:
(1) the inside of the host appears to be powdercoated, so I will have to remove the coat in order to use it as a terminal,
and (2) the set screws on the claws stretch too far into the host, and when fully screwed in, make it impossible to remove the batteries.
Thus, I will probably have to add a recharge port. I wish I could use a 'normal' battery setup but the power consumption of the laser diode is too high for most batteries smaller than 26650.

Does anyone know where one might obtain a recharge port faster than shopsaberparts.com? If not, it's fine, I probably won't get the laser module until Tuesday or Wednesday anyways.

Eh, I don't know about *needing* 26650 batteries. It's not hard to find protected 18650 cells with 10A cutoffs and unprotected cells that support 30A. Most of the 26650s I've seen offer better capacity, maybe, but not necessarily better discharge rates.

How much current does your module need?

You're right in that such 18650s exist, but with a build as large-scale as this I wanted to go all-out. Remember, capacity and drain capability are inversely proportional. The module draws 5A, but that is 5A from two batteries in series. A single-battery setup would lead to pathetic runtime (and boost drivers with that power don't exist at hobbyist prices.) Even 2 high-drain 18650s wouldn't give acceptable capacity for someone like me. With my 2x26650 setup I have about an hour of light. While not ideal, it's closer to the movie lightsabers.

Starmute wrote:

You might say that "many of the truths we cling to depend greatly on our point of view..."
I suppose I can only consider it a 'real' lightsaber when it can light things on fire and melt things like they do in the movies. A plastic blade is cool enough, but having 7W of laser light is another thing entirely.

Starmute wrote: But if you squirt some lighter fluid along the blade and get all up close and personal with a lit cigarette, passive fire-starter! a crying shame that in that scenario it's the polycarb blade that's on fire and also the polycarb blade that's melting.

Hey - as a side effect you will get some nice weathering!

Starmute wrote: Kinda gives new definition to achieving an unstable blade effect.