70th Explorers Garrison: Forums

Menu for this Friday June 8th will be sandwiches (tuna salad or ham).

I will probably be starting a Garindan (long snoot) mask (I am looking for something different). We will also be doing tusken robe weathering. Please bring your current project and work on it.

Menu for this Friday June 15th is spaghetti.


I might actually start on my Garindan costume this week Lets hope.

Reminder June 22nd is Luxeon light saber class.

I have been asked (by some members) to put some purchase info for luxeon sabers like the kind I am building on the 22nd. Even if you are not building a saber on the 22nd please feel free to come there is lots to learn.

There are a number of sites that sell these kinds of parts. I have personally dealt with this site http://thecustomsabershop.com his parts are reasonable and he turns his product around in a timely fashion. He has tutorials and forums strictly devoted to saber building. Tim has answered lots of questions of mine and is always very helpful toward me.

Here would be a sample saber parts list from his site.

Complete LED "Corbin style" blade
Price: $34.99

LED basic electronics kit - 3wRed
Price: $18.19

Screw on LED blade holder style 1
Price: $18.00

Double threaded hilt style 1
Price: $23.00

Screw on pommel style 3
Price: $7.99

Total cost (without tax and shipping) $102.17


This is a basic luxeon saber with no frills. No sounds....no mounting clips ...no fancy fins or O-rings. He has all the parts on his site to do that too but of course the price goes up. For those of you who don't enjoy building (shame on you) he will even assemble your saber for a small fee.

This price will get you a fully duelable saber that can take loads of abuse with only slight scratches. If you have seen my EL stunt sabers in action you have seen the level of abuse they can take. Many of the same materials go into these luxeon blades.

I composed this for another site but I don't feel bad about posting it here because I wrote it.


Lets start with the 3 main saber types and how they are built

Your basic MR saber is a series of super bright LED's that go up inside the blade itself and are lit using a circuit board in sequence. These are the most fragile one strong hit will knock a dark spot in the blade.

Advantages:
bright
retracts and extends
fancy sound effects

Disadvantages:
easily broken
blade cannot be removed


Next in line was the EL saber. EL stands for electro luminescent. EL wire is basically a phosphorous coated wire that glows when current is applied. EL saber normally have 3-4 passes of a colored wire up the surface of the blade. A diffuser of polyethylene is used to disperse the light and hide the wire. The down side of EL is they are not as bright as there LED counterparts. The outer shell of the blade is made from polycarbonate (the same material used to make safety lenses) you can literally beat on a well constructed saber at full force and only scratch the polycarbonate.

Advantages:
extremely durable
blade can be removed

Disadvantages:
dim
no retract and extend
no fancy sound effects




The newest generation in the home built saber line is the luxeon LED sabers. Instead of having a series of LED's down the blade a luxeon blade has only a single extremely bright focused LED in the hilt. The light is diffused up the blade using a film type diffuser (very similar to the MR saber). This makes for a best of both worlds compromise.


Advantages:
Brighter than EL (comparable to MR depending on the LED)
removable blade
durable (not as durable as EL but can take a hit)


Disadvantages:
extend and retract cost extra (can be done with a special driver board)
fancy sound effects cost extra (can be done with a special driver/sound board)

We'll most likely be there for a little while at least b/c we have the padawan this weekend but G needs to talk to Z about his holster.

Cmndr Falken wrote:If you have seen my EL stunt sabers in action you have seen the level of abuse they can take.

They however cannot take the abuse of a butt trooper in action

Actually you just knocked it loose. I am happy to say that the saber you thought you broke is perfectly functional and brightly green with new batteries.


The other nice thing about a custom saber if you break a part its easy to repair.

Menu for this week is pizza so bring pizza money. The parts for saber night have been ordered and are scheduled to arrive in time. Hopefully we dont have any shipping issues.

The parts are in Lenexa! I expect the saber demo to take about 20-30 minutes to complete then we can do our normal Friday routine so bring your other projects too.


Yay! the parts are here in hand

The fruits of light saber night

http://piercefamily.dyndns.org/picture/ ... M0843.html

Due to the fact of Jeanette being out of town (and nobody to watch the kids) I think I am just going to cancel this week.

Since its after labor day I am starting prop night back up. Due to the fact that I am poor we will be doing pizza so please bring pizza money. So bring what you want to work on and come on up to my place. If you need directions just pm me.