TOPIC: Forsaken - Sith Relic FINISHED

UPDATE

VERY rough etch before full cleanup - just wiped off the enamel



Needs to be cleaned, some sanding, and then variegated cooper leaf will be inlayed in the raised portions of the etch. The bottom band will mostly be in cooper leaf with a few etches in it and some pock marks/weathering, while the top band will have the leaf on the raised portions along with some minor pocks and weathering as well.

One of the things I love about making these sabers is the fluidity of the design and the artistic approach. In my "day job" when I design technology implementations there are very detailed project plans and the end result typically doesn't see any variation from the plan. That's usually not the case with a custom hilt.

What originally started as some sketches and mock ups of a an ancient Jedi saber using MHS parts has morphed into this forsaken. And it's still fluid. I woke up this morning and thought, "This might look even better..." And now I have a slight change in the design. I love the evolution of these, it's so much fun to make accidental discoveries or see original thought or designs morph into something more.

So with that said, the hilt will be getting a second (maybe even a third) etching bath today for some changes to the bottom band and some accents in some other spots.

Spark2 arrived yesterday, expecting LED and misc internal parts tomorrow. Goth chassis should show up Monday.

UPDATE:

Second etching bath while some friends look on...

UPDATE

BAM -- here's the etching after initial cleanup.



I love how this turned out. It has a very old and beat up look to it. looking forward to aging the rest of the hilt and getting the weathering and copper/gold leaf done.

EDIT: Added second pic

UPDATE

Looks like the rest of the parts will show up over the weekend or on Monday.

Grenade and bottom portion of the hilt ready to go for gilding. Need to add some age and wear to the emitter and strip the neck.

Even at this halfway mark of prep before gilding and enamel it looks pretty nice.

UPDATE

Round one of gilding and aging. Making progress...

Got to let things dry for 12-24 hours.

Pic of the emitter - getting closer to final look.

Looking good so far! You're making want to gild my Consular.

UPDATE

Got all the rest of the parts on Monday, so all the internals are ready for build.
Still need to finish up the weathering and aging on the hilt. Got a couple rounds of various enamels, more copper and gold leaf, and general weathering to do.
Here's where things stand with the hilt:


I was hoping to be able to fit a bass speaker in this but as I suspected it's about 1/8" too big to fit - so I will be adding onto the Goth chassis to house a "premium" style 28mm speaker, and create a "slide" up through the switch area for a smooth action for chassis removal out the pommel to get at the memory card for config changes.

Getting things configured...


I'm planning on taking tons of pictures when I get to doing the internals, specifically around the wiring of the Spark2 board using the Goth chassis. I probably make another topic to showcase some of that as a tutorial and offer up some of my methods around how to wire up one of these guys.

UPDATE

Getting some things done. Finishing up the enamel and weathering on the hilt so I think I'll save the final pics of it till we get closer to completion.

Got the Optic put together and thought I'd share a small little "tutorial" on how I'm working with this one:

1) first things first. You need to get all your parts together. In this case we have a SF heat sink, SF X4 star in Pr/Pr/Pr/W (Deep Red x 3 and 1 white), 8.7 degree Carclo Lens, and out resistors (1ohm 2watt).



You will also need solder, soldering iron, heat shrink of various sizes, flux, and optionally a hot glue gun, thermal paste and "Helping Hands". You will likely want to test your LEDs before you begin soldering.

2) Connecting the wires to the LED. In this case I have an X4 star with 4 individually addressable LEDs on a common positive. Because I need to make use of resistors I need run a wire to each LED and the common positive. If I was using Green LEDs instead of the Red it would be an option to bridge the pads between the Green LEDs.

NOTE: This star from SF had some Flux overrun on it near the pads. Not a big deal, but just thought I'd point it out.

The wires need to be threaded down the holes in the bottom of the heat sink so I have soldered them so each wire will fold down it's own hole.



3) The nest step is mating the LED star to the bottom portion of the heat sink. I first put a VERY small amount (1/4 grain of rice sized) of thermal paste on the heat sink, carefully threaded the wires down their holes, and firmly pressed the LED star onto the heat sink.



4) Putting it all together. Next you will sit the lens over the center of the star so that it sits right over the LEDs, then carefully screw the top of the heat sink on till its tight



5) finishing it. I took the three resistors and first soldered a common end together, and arranged the resistors so they were ready to be mated to each wire for the RED LEDs. In the case of this install I don't have a whole lot of room to work with so I need everything to be connected off to one side. I pull all the wires over to on side of the heat sink and used heat shrink to bind them together and hold them. Then I soldered the resistors to the leads, heat shrink around each connection and soldered a lead to the common join on the resistors for a single lien to run back to the Red channel. I braided the wires and wrapped the whole thing in heavy duty heat shrink to make for a nice secure and sturdy connection to the optic that sits off to the side of the hilt.



This optic fits into the hilt and the optic wiring runs along the side of the AV switch and recharge port.

What did you use for your etchant? Looks like saltwater?

Yes, I do electro etching using saltwater.

I used a mix of pink Himalayan and Dead Sea salts, along with either. 19v 4.5 amp circuit or a 12v 1amp circuit depending on surface area and desired effect.

What's the effect of the different voltages?

I figure learning to etch is the next step in my saber smithing. I have a 12v 2 amp car charger and wondered if it would work.

The higher the current, the "faster" things will etch. A really high current can cause pitting, or uneven etching. 6-20 volts seems to be the "ideal" range.

There are multiple options for how to get the stencil on. you can paint one on using an acrylic based enamel which will work pretty well, but it won't be crisp. There's also the cover the whole thing in enamel and "scratch" in a pattern method. The most common "professional" method is to mock up a design inside some vector drawing application (or scan a drawing as a PDF) and then print out a vinyl decal. A local sign making shop should be able to print that out for you, and some Fed-Ex "offices" can do it too. You apply the decal and mask off everything you don't want etched (spray paint works along with vinyl electrical tape). If you want a negative relief, you would spray enamel around the decal, then peal it off, so it etched that pattern in, rather than around it.

There are numerous how-tos online for etching. I would suggest starting with some scraps or a hilt you don't mind "messing up" a bit.

For this hilt, I used a higher current power source and I used an oil based paint for the stencil. This was done so the etch would come out looking rough and aged. Which works for this hilt but wouldn't look as good on a "pristine" new looking saber.

UPDATE:

Hilt is about 90% done. Finished up the last bit on the neck and emitter last night, just need to weather the 24k gold (yes, you read that correctly...) and hit it with a clear coat. Started on the Spark2 and I'll write up a separate post on wiring one once I'm done.

In the meantime here's a tease on the hilt...

UPDATE

Finished the hilt - Last bit of clear coat is drying

I spent a lot of time and effort on this to get this look. Going as far to use actual 24k gold on the neck and base of the emitter. She's Ugly Pretty.

some pics:













Time to finish up the internals.

Very nice!

Definitely has that "dug out of a Sith tomb" feel.

KelbornX wrote:
Thank you! Exactly what I was going for.

Extraordinary weathering Jas. Am liking it a lot.

KelbornX wrote: It's so deliciously dirty that is resembles more the instrument used for the actual digging rather than the treasure that was unearthed as a result.

Finished the saber. Video and pics to come.