TOPIC: Sentinel's Rebirth (ASP Customization - Complete!)

Funny enough, this design started after I lost my very first saber hilt.




IndieGoGo campaign was running, and I figured I'd design an evolution of the previous design.




After several months, hilt arrived:




Finish was darker than I'd like (except for the grips, which weren't black like the render), and the mid-section's a bluish anodized finish as opposed to the warmer black of the rest of the hilt. Things I'll remedy.

First step was lighting up that weathering. I took 100-grit sandpaper to knock the bulk of it down, then went up to 200-grit to semi-polish the hilt (I don't want it *too* smooth now).

While the textured finish of the casting process has been a headache for those ordering Silver ASP parts and expecting polished metal, it actually helped me out a lot on the faux-Graflex emitter, since all the little divots held onto a bit of black, making for a more natural-looking weathering after the majority of the rings were sanded off.




Waiting on my missing clocking washers to arrive. One by the emitter with a bit of sanding will that that lined up proper. For the grip, I'll probably just drill and tap a new hole for the covertec wheel that's holding the shroud in place, since I'm thinking of doing a crystal reveal for this hilt. Knurled section of the body will likely be re-painted to an almost-black in line with the original render.

More to come as things progress~

This looks really nice, especially after you toned down the weathering to something more natural looking. The weathered knurled section of the grip offers nice contrast to the body, and makes the other black sections standout more.

Great job on the weathering so far! Looking forward to the final hilt.

That weathering looks so much more "real" after you sanded it down. Great job! That must have taken a long time to do.

I'm just echoing everyone else. The custom weathering job looks great. Definitely looks better and more realistic after you touched it up.

Can you share more about your sanding process, specifically technique?

Thanks! I'm aiming for a very similar look on mine, and it's nice to know that this is one effective way to do it.

I've heard complaints about the weathering not matching on different parts, so I went with standard finish instead... and plan to darken (anodize) then lighten the silver areas. Now I wonder if I should have just gone for pre-weathered and sanded off the high spots, hoping that the recessed areas wouldn't already be lightened too much.

The thing which nudged me toward doing it myself was SF's picture of a weathered Venom saber. Too many recessed areas were weathered nearly back to bare metal, while I'm wanting those areas dark. I guess I'll have more work to do this way, but hopefully it'll turn out nice.

Wound up needing the Faux-Flex emitter for another build, so ordered a replacement from the ASP shop:



And promptly toned down the weathering:



Still need to re-paint the knurled grip. Latching Radio Shack switch is sticking up because I don't want to push it in all the way yet - it's not wired.

Plan is to experiment with a Force FX board and 3W RGB LED for a Yellow Blade with White FoC. Getting creative with the wiring.

h2soy wrote:
Not a whole lot to it. I follow the grain (viewing the hilt sideways as photographed, I sand up-and-down), but I don't really worry about making rings around the hilt. Just using what sandpaper I have at the shop, so using 80-grit to knock most of the anodizing off, smooth it with 100, then polish with 220.

ToyKeeper wrote:
Can go either way.

1) Order Black and only sand off what you want. Prevents recessed areas from being worn away, but you've no idea if you got a black or blue part.

2) Order Weathered and sand off what you want. You risk scratches in the recessed areas, but if your hilt doesn't match, you might be able to RMA the mis-colored part for a matching variant.

That looks excellent, Kouri!

Made a simple chassis out of some thinwall 1" bladestock.



Slips into the switch secton and held in place by the switchguard screw (I had to replace it with a longer screw). Bored out a hole in the 1" tube to make way for the recharge port.

Only enough room for a 14500, but the 2A limit shouldn't be an issue for the ~1200mA driver on the MR board.

Still sorting out where I'll secure the transistor to get FoC working through the on-board clash sensor.

Also considering making room for three switches so I can swap the Red Blue and Green diodes between Main Blade and FoC.

That's a really cool idea for a chassis material. And after seeing your after sanding photo, I'm really tempted to try the same thing with my saber.

Simplifying this build do to space constraints (The MR board w/ FoC will likely be moved to another hilt - these 12mm AV switches eat up too much length as-is).

Keeping the 14500, but using a one-up PC Amber for the LED with a modified BladeBuilder board. Initial testing shows an 8ohm 2W bass speaker working fine, but I'll do more testing before recommending the setup to anyone.

Expect a new thread in Electronics DIY to cover soundboard modifications. The Tip42C transistor used should allow any Single-Cree, Tri-Cree, 6W, or 12W LED to work, so long as they're properly resisted.

Only other update on this hilt is removing the covertec wheel and (perhaps temporarily) using a set screw to time the body shroud without sanding or shims. Photo up later.

IT LIVES



(Proper photos and explanation coming soonish)

Speaker's kind of quiet. Did some testing - turns out that's just the normal BladeBuilder volume.

Quick shots on chassis loaded up with electronics. I'll be starting a new thread with my findings on the BladeBuilder boards.



Silver cylinder inside the bladestock is a wired and re-wrapped 18650 battery. Moving to a smaller board gave me room for a larger battery.

Tried replacing the swing sensor with a dual SW-200D like on the Master Replica boards, but that actually wound up less sensitive than the stock sensor, so I wound up putting the original swing sensor back in its place.



Bit of electric tape to keep the battery from moving too much (it's sandwiched in between the recharge port and board, so just have to keep it snug against the wall of the blade stock).

Stock swing sensor re-installed and clash sensor flipped around (de-soldered and re-soldered, rather than just bent - didn't want to break anything). Clash is a little less sensitive, but I'll take that tradeoff to get all the components fitting within the 1" x 1" board. Not pictured, but a wrap of electric tape keeps it down on the chassis. Electronics are solidly secured, so no worries about the tape messing anything up.

Speaker just glued in place and not properly sealed - it's a damaged test speaker in my personal fiddle-hilt, so I'm not too concerned. With the hilt closed, body acts as a decent-enough resonance chamber.

Also managed to compare the sound to another bladebuilder running the stock 16ohm speaker. Both are about the same level of quiet, while my BB Kylo is lots louder. I'm thinking the standard BB boards need more than 3.7v for full volume (the Kylo might use a different amp since it was meant to run on 3v originally). No problems yet after a few hours with the 8ohm 2W bass speaker.

Finally got around to painting the grip. Light weathering and clear-coat.

Swapped the previous momentary for a Radioshack 1/2" AV switch. Raised button makes it a bit easier to press with the switch guard while still being near-impossible to press by rolling the hilt on a desk.

I installed SF quick-connects on this hilt, so swapped in a 6W+ Medium Blue and a Photon Green blade and plug.

Great stuff Kouri. Questions: What type of paint did you use on the grip and with light weathering and did you need to spray a primer layer first for better adhesion? With the cut-Photon down front, what did you plug the end with (not the dust cap end)?

For the grip, it's sanded down for some bite, hit with some Krylon paint/primer enamel combo, then baked for one hour at 250°F.
Lightly sanded with some 400 grit, then one light coat of gloss to match the semi-gloss finish of the anodized parts and offer some protection from handling.

Plug is a 7/8" piece of my own creation for all the Graflex hilts I was working on earlier in the year. Machined PVC with a painted "pin" in the center. I usually opt for a brass/gold color, but figured silver would suit this hilt better.

Kouri wrote: Yeah.. somehow I don't think baking on high heat is gonna help the installed electronics cos I don't work with empties. Thought it looked like the Graflex plugs (but from angle of image, wasn't confidently sure). Then I thought you retrofitted from a fashioned pre-existing part. Thank you.

If baking isn't an option, there's self-etching primer specifically made for aluminum. At the local shops, there's only the Rustoleum stuff that comes in an olive green, but I've seen other colors online. I've thought about picking up a few cans of the black since I use the color so often, but I haven't gotten around to it.

Kouri wrote: Is there a specific brand/type used or can be referenced so I can source the local equivalent compared to US branding? Yeah, paint purchases Online don't return much success here in Australia (well in my experience anyway). I'm actually eager to start (maybe this weekend, hopefully, time permitting) experimenting with automotive paints and removal methods in applied practice rather than theory. Have some Hilts I'd like to further customise by changing the recessed accent line colours.