Creating Crystal Chambers build/Input thread/material ideas/sources

[Thonolan]

Dremeling for anything more than a small job is painful.

recently used a Dremel to cut a window into a slanted emitter, took about 3 hours and a lot of hand pain. Followed by about an hour with a coping file and sandpaper to clean up the cut. :S

Though it turned out alright.

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/daveowned/8295508523/" title="Christmas gift saber by DaveOwned, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8084/8295508523_945932750e.jpg" width="375" height="500" alt="Christmas gift saber">[/url]

[Vex]

This is my first crystal chamber. Is fairly simple but I like the way it turned out. It was created from scrap parts and pieces. I am going to make a display Sentinel hilt so I wanted a yellow crystal. I couldn't find any similar to a SWTOR style crystal. I used a epoxy that mixes clear but turns yellow when cured ,and is fairly translucent , to make the crystal. The ends have a hole as do the crystal supports , so a led attached at one end will illuminate the crystal. Also as it turns out , it will fit into a MHS sized hilt. It is 1 1/8" diameter and about 4" long. In the pics I used the grip from my Dark Arbiter to give an idea of size .

[DarthCooper88]

 Nice work, I like the idea of a home made "synthetic crystal" a point for your Sith talent sir!

[DarthCooper88]

 Here is the start of a starkiller chamber, it will only be 1.05" across as the hilt i'm building this for is very small and about .20 under standard MHS sizes for the hilt
I ended up making a top and bottom mount with 1.125 billet, this ties into a pvc rail to create a one piece "inner saber" The tubes are stainless , hollow and act as both structural supports and wire runs

My friend wanted this well aged and battle dirty . the top mount also serves as the heatsink/led mount for the custom tri-rebel and optics. The bottom mount is made to hold a 5mm RGB led that will change colors with the blade, flash on clash and pulse

[Darth Kitsune]

These chambers have given me some inspiration but I wish I was this handy to be able to add them to my sabers. However that would affect their combat-ready abilities, wouldn't it?

[DarthCooper88]

These chambers have given me some inspiration but I wish I was this handy to be able to add them to my sabers. However that would affect their combat-ready abilities, wouldn't it?

yes, these are more heirloom when finished you really dont want to duel with a chambered saber especially a starkiller as most are pretty fragile.

[DarthCooper88]

Once again if you have the right equipment, and some imagination, common things at the local old-school hardware store can take on a much different life than was intended for. This is a crystal chamber I'm building for and install into a saber i didnt design, I'm also installing the electronics and modifying the hilt for everything to work as it should. This saber has a very short window opening for the crystal chamber that also has a door type mechanism that goes on last. The interior is the typical undersize stuff that people like sending me. This chamber is all of 1" tall x 1.12" wide . I used 3 1" copper washer's for my "cooling fins" they were modified on just my drill press. The rest of the parts I turned on my 50 yr old craftsman lathe in an afternoon. I still have yet to cut a bunch of small brass sleeves for the rod covers, and also plumb the wiring for the main LED and some decorative plumbing. This saber will be another Multi color, 9 fonter, with Dual phase, music tracks and color changing crystal like the other hilts I have been showing of late

[DarthCooper88]

Here is the start of a starkiller chamber, it will only be 1.05" across as the hilt i'm building this for is very small and about .20 under standard MHS sizes for the hilt
I ended up making a top and bottom mount with 1.125 billet, this ties into a pvc rail to create a one piece "inner saber" The tubes are stainless , hollow and act as both structural supports and wire runs

My friend wanted this well aged and battle dirty . the top mount also serves as the heatsink/led mount for the custom tri-rebel and optics. The bottom mount is made to hold a 5mm RGB led that will change colors with the blade, flash on clash and pulse

Annd the finished saber

[DarthCooper88]

On to the finished chamber, now all thats left is wiring up the board, battery and blinkies. This chamber is just shy of 3" in length, the heatsink, led holder, and top mount all became incorporated in one piece (saved me a ton of space to cut down on Cram-fu

This set up is using an X4 Cree Red, green, royal blue, royal blue. this is a great led in that it requires lower voltage than an Ledengin and is superior to most others on the market for lumen out-put, there is also a small 5 mm blue led chip hidden in the top of the chamber for an active on for when the kill key is pulled.

[davidvorves]

Yea, lately I've been tempted to put one of these in a pvc saber that I've been working on as a gift for a friend.  I think it would really look cool if you illuminated it with a laser beam instead of an LED.  the only problem is that its hard to make space for the chamber in the hilt, but I definitely want to try it.

[DarthCooper88]

yep, the laser diode is a neat way to go(dont stare at the crystal toolong!!!) I have been playing around with the idea of a seperate red green and blue laser diode tapped into the 3 main blade pins to mimic the blade. I have built a saber last year with a red 5 Mw for crystal illumination (is was as easy and near as cheap as a 5mm led)



This is the finished modified US Prophecy called the Protosaber running an Igniter R3 with a RRW tri-rebel with the 2 red leds ran in series, with the 5mw red laser mimicking the blade

[davidvorves]

that is awesome.  I would want to use a 5 mW green laser, since they're so bright.  it would hurt to look at the crystal haha.

[Thonolan]

a while ago I posted about designing a chassis that is removeable and capable of being housed inside a Vented coupler.

Well, I have finally had the time to sit down and work on the pieces and here are the first 2 photos of the prototype.

This is a shot of the end pieces fresh out of the vice. it has been sanded and such since. then.




This is a shot of the test fitting of the pieces.





I am getting new discs milled to more exact specs so that I can make the final product more professional.

I needed to get pieces cut, because the ID of the coupler is different than the standard pieces. You can easily do this with a couple of washers and these flare nuts for a really low price.

I think all in all the parts for this would cost under 5 bucks (the brass tube I picked up at a hobby shop, it cost me a buck) if you were using washers. You could attach the pieces using some JB Weld Epoxy and it would look good.

I should hopefully have the prototype completed in a couple of weeks.

[Ninja-Jedi]

one of the coolest chambers i seen was recently 3D printed in plastic and painted gold.
So I had some plastic grommets for wiring that fit V2 perfectly and had a slightly larger
size for the flush coupler which is what i made my mandolorian katana crystal chamber  with.
Anyhow think I am gonna try painting them gold and making chamber for my V2 i am currently
modding

[DarthCooper88]

one of the coolest chambers i seen was recently 3D printed in plastic and painted gold.
So I had some plastic grommets for wiring that fit V2 perfectly and had a slightly larger
size for the flush coupler which is what i made my mandolorian katana crystal chamber  with.
Anyhow think I am gonna try painting them gold and making chamber for my V2 i am currently
modding

Yes, I have been having the same thoughts and just ordered up a neat 3d printed chamber, that I will drill into and inset a crystal in the center, I ordered it in frosted ultra detail, which I will paint and some metal rods and wire to it ( I think it would look cool with a blade matching RGB 5mm)

And I'm thinking that one of these would be neat, and should fit about any standard MHS ID