Limited Run Vader stunt sabers kits! Barbican, Severed hand and ANH square shroud version

[thd9791]

You know, facing parts is an under appreciated thing. I once got just a 2cm long disc of aluminum from a shop and they must have just hand thrown it on the bandsaw. That thing was so crooked… a friend on here fixed it for me in his lathe and I got back this part with just a perfect flat surface with the rings and I was soooo thankful

 

[eethan]

The cubes of aluminum have an interesting look to them, lined up like that.

Very durable floor tiles, say.

Ahah yeah my wife wants me to do a table with this, I told her it would be a very expensive table... :-D

 

[eethan]

Hey guys,
small update on progress!
Life has been a bit in the way, taxes especially! and we have thunderstorms every afternoon here, so progress has been slower than I would like! but, still, it's moving forward slowly

from left to right to bottom, ANH emiter plugs, Barbican back plugs, Barbican bronze emiter plugs and open back plugs for all sabers. All in progress!

and the main course! the shrouds! Drilling a 12mm hole in the center so I can put a threaded rod and put it on my lathe chuck, and rought shaping the front with the band saw to remove material quickly and avoid going crazy on the lathe with the square shape. Damn! that doesn't look like much but this was already some work!
Now starting the long and difficult part of turning down the front until it's round so I can turn it around and chuck it without the threaded rod to work on the back:

will take a few days now for the next step described above!
cheers

 

[eethan]

hey there!
damn, the thunderstorms every afternoons are even impacting on my updates! sorry guys!
so, i'm still struggling with all the thunderstorms, it's crazy! but I'm still definitely moving forward nicelly My planning is organized with normal working days to accomodate for all the unplanned and paralel stuff that I have to do, but I'm working every day of the week, so this compensates a bit for all the lost afternoons

all shrouds are now cylindrical in the front, this is not the final size, it's a first approximation, to be able to turn the part around and put it in the lathe chuck, but this was the most time consuming step for the shrouds, so it's a good thing done

after that, the part is turned around and I cleaned the back face of the shrouds, first final surface for those :

and i started turning down the back of the shrouds for the tubes bodies to fit, that's the second time consuming step for the shrouds:

alright, that's it, no worries guys, I'm struggling but this is moving forward

 

[eethan]

Hey there,

I finished emptying the back of the shrouds and started on the last 2 lathe opperations:

as explained in the wip thread and first page here, the inside is volontarily slightly rough for screen-accuracy. As you can see the final outside surfaces are pretty damn clean though
all of the square part is still raw and will be machined on the mill when the lathe opperations are finished on all parts. The final square is a few mm smaller than the base square stock. and this is when I can add the assymetry visible on the real prop as well.

the storms are still happening for now so progress is still slow even though, like I said in the previous post, I'm not really delayed so far as i'm working everyday every moment I get to use the lathe when there is no thunder.
Those last two ops are pretty time consuming, so it will take a small while, however, that will be a good chunk done for the shrouds when this is finished! For info, time wise, the shrouds are currently 35% done

cheers

 

[Slave1]

Shrouds are looking great!

 

[eethan]

Hey guys,
wanted to provide you with a bit of an update as it's been more than a week!
Between the thunderstorms and the fact that I jumped on a (quick) 5 days commission last week, I don't have as much progress as I would like to show! that being said, the storms seem to be over now and i'm back on the project this week, so I hope to show some good progress soon!

I have been quite struggling with those 2 last opperations on the lathe for the shrouds. it is taking longer than I calculated on the prototypes. I had a few parts jump to my face too, so overall, I'm not going as fast as anticipated. For this reason, i have added another drilling opperation, drilling the main hole from 18mm to 24mm, which works nicelly and leaves only 2mm to finish with the lathe tool.

Anyways, that means, all the shrouds in the back have all Lathing opperations finished! in the middle, they have been drilled and waiting for the last two ops, and in the front, still need to be drilled.

so, i'll need a few more days on this as it's proving pretty hard, but once this is done, lathing on the shrouds is finished and this is a very good chunk of the run that is done

I also changed the lighting of the workshop today as it fried with the storms... nice... And installed some old wooden blinds on the window to cut the sun a bit and win a couple degrees for the summer. I have a small AC unit coming on Tuesday as well, so with all of this, I'm hoping this summer is not going to be 36°C inside the workshop again this time A bit of time lost, but hopefully a lot more productivity for the rest of the run now!

cheers guys

 

[eethan]

Hello there,

I finally finished all turning opperations on all the shrouds! those last two ops were a real hell! I didn't forsee when prototyping that doing this 93 times would be much more difficult and it definitelly took more time than planned, but it's all done now! damn! I'm happy this is finished and I can now move on to milling on those

I also cut all body tubes today, so that's something as well

cheers

 

[PoopaPapaPalps]

I'm so jealous with how clean your machining comes out, especially working on the exact kind of mini-lathe and mill that I work on! It took me forever to make something decent.

C'est vrai jolie!

 

[eethan]

I'm so jealous with how clean your machining comes out, especially working on the exact kind of mini-lathe and mill that I work on! It took me forever to make something decent.

C'est vrai jolie!

thank you
yes, I remember when I started that you emited some concerns and wished me good luck on my benchtop lathe. It turns out I had some shortcircuit issues around 6 months after buying it, I gave it a thourough clean and added some aluminium plate at one place and funily enough, put strong grey tape in a lot of places, I didn't have any shorts anymore, so it must have been a problem with aluminium chips getting into the electronics I guess other than that, I have been very happy with that lathe
That being said, i don't know exactly what tools you use, but the lathe i use despite being rather small is still labeled as a "pro" model. I searched for actual years before finaly deciding on which lathe to buy, I was going back and forth on buying one or not already a few years before setuping my workshop in France
I also exclusively use carbide inserts that are specifically made for aluminium turning, they have the proper angle of cut and are polished to help with the aluminium chips extraction. But yes, overall, I have always been happy with this lathe, it's one of my good tools buy
with all my tools buy, there are always the good buys and the less good buys, my Mill is somewhat less good. it's much more expensive than the lathe, I chose a brand in Germany with some good reputation, but it turns out that this is the same rebranded chinese tools you can find from other brands with a huge markup in price. It's good enough and I'm really happy to have a mill as it opened so many possibilities for me, but it could definitely be better
thanks again

 

[eethan]

Hello there,

first part of the list finished! the back plugs for the Barbican version + a few extras if people want those for another version also or to buy individually.
I'm very happy with the result, my fabricated tool for the half round groove worked a charm for the whole run, all perfect!

now, all carefully stored away with paper towels in between so the parts stay pristine until the end of the run I see some guys from shops tossing aluminium parts into bins when they get out of the machine, makes me sick ahah! with all the time spent on my parts, I want them to stay perfect

cheers

 

[Romans Empire]

Hey Guys,

MPP clamps are now available on my site for pre-order. To make sure there are enough for this project the order page is password-protected ATM. Password is: RPF

MPP Archives - Roman Props | Roman's Empire

 

[eethan]

Hey Guys,

MPP clamps are now available on my site for pre-order. To make sure there are enough for this project the order page is password-protected ATM. Password is: RPF

MPP Archives - Roman Props | Roman's Empire

thank you so much Roman, this is a great help for all people on this run!

JetSetWilly (x3) SteuerEule (x1) I have your clamps on order with Roman directly since you are in Europe and asked for it. In case you don't want them anymore, they'll just go towards built kits, no worries.

For the rest of the people,
- If you want kits from me, now is the time to order your clamps from Roman,
- If you want finished sabers from me, as anounced before, there will be 12 Barbican, 10 square shrouds and 5 Severed hand sabers assembled for sale at the same time as the rest of the run. Those will come with their clamps already. However, there is nothing I can do to reserve those or anything, so just plan your clamp purshasse accordingly and if you want one of the assembled sabers, just follow this thread around the end to make sure you are on time for the release.

cheers

 

[eethan]

Regarding the finished hilts and the difficulty to plan with the number of available clamps, I'm always worried that people will miss out but I always do my best to make everyone happy,

I have decided on those numbers for the finished hilts as it was a request from a few people and I wasn't originaly planning to do it. I was very happy with the result of my assembled prototypes, so I decided to offer it in limited numbers for several reasons.
- I don't want to delay the release too much, this is already a time consuming run and the assembled sabers were not planned in the original planning.
- This run is a huge investment for me up front, I'm doing 90 sabers, the aluminium order was huge, and the extra parts from Roman and Wannawanga for the assembled sabers are a lot of money for me so I had to limit it.
- I wanted to leave clamps available for the guys that are buying kits as well!

Now, the finished sabers will obviously be more expensive items, I haven't calculated the price yet, i'll do it with actual time and costs spent when they are finished to be fair with everyone. Keep in mind, those finished sabers include clamp, activation card/bubbles, grips, those add up quickly.

In the event the finished sabers sell out and I have no idea if they will, there will still be time for you to order kit(s) and to figure out with me afterwards how to proceed depending on the availability of clamps. I'm even open to assemble and paint your kit completely and send it with no clamp so you can source one later or if you already have one on hand. Again, in cases like this, just contact me to see what can be done because I'm always there to help


This is definitely a stressful/complex run, but those sabers are really fun and I'm very excited to bring them to you
I hope the updates are enough and you don't find the time too long, I'm working hard to avoid delays on those
cheers all!

 

[Khufu01]

Clamp question: all three would be black sidebar clamps, correct?

 

[eethan]

Clamp question: all three would be black sidebar clamps, correct?

well, the Barbican and severed hand are black sidebars version for sure, for the square shroud, no definitive proof for ANH, but since this is the same saber that was modified to become the Barbican later on, and we can also see black bars on square shroud from ESB, I would say yes as well for the square shroud saber

 

[mgoob]

Not to sound confused, but I am.

I'm in the US and want 2 saber kits.

If I understand correctly,
I'd buy the saber kit from you,
I'd buy the clamps from Roman,
I'd buy the grips from Roy.

Is this correct?

 

[eethan]

Not to sound confused, but I am.

I'm in the US and want 2 saber kits.

If I understand correctly,
I'd buy the saber kit from you,
I'd buy the clamps from Roman,
I'd buy the grips from Roy.

Is this correct?

Yes, sorry, I thought this was clear from the start, especially what was included in my kits.
I'm sorry if this sounds complicated, it's just simpler and less expensive for you guys in the US, importing stuff in Europe to sell them back again is expensive.
I hope this makes sense.
Cheers

 

[mgoob]

Yes, sorry, I thought this was clear from the start, especially what was included in my kits.
I'm sorry if this sounds complicated, it's just simpler and less expensive for you guys in the US, importing stuff in Europe to sell them back again is expensive.
I hope this makes sense.
Cheers

Yes, sorry, thanks it's clear to me now.

 

[teecrooz]

Ordered my clamps! Really looking forward to these kits.