The Main Grip Section
For This saber, I thought I would give it a prequel feel with the grips. I envisioned a merging of something like Qui Qon's and Obi's grips from Episode I.
So, without a lathe to turn this out I would need to cut pipe that would fit over the the tube I will use as the base handle section. So, here's the start.
When you get your tubing, the ends are usually a little ragged, so I always use my pipe cutter to get a nice, straight edge to work with.
Now I'll start cutting the rings for my grip. Each are 3/8" wide. That is about as narrow a ring as my pipe cutter will cut cleanly. I will need 9 to do the inside. As you can see the edges are still a little jagged, so I'm gonna clean each one as I go.
There are a variety of methods you could use to clean these, sanders and whatnot, but I use a manual method that insures I keep my edges straight and don't get my rings out of round or narrower on one side than the other. I have a very rough sandpaper disc that I use first to get them roughed out. To start, I begin by placing the ring flat against the paper, and moving up and down (the red lines) on the paper while moving slowly left to right (the yellow lines), keeping constant pressure on the total surface of the ring against the paper. As a rule of thumb, I do this for about 10 seconds, then rotate the piece about 90 degrees and repeat.
I continue this procedure until it looks like the edge has been sanded completely flat. These pictures are kind of blurry, but maybe you'll get the point.
Once I get the piece to this point, I swap over to a finer grit disk and repeat the process. Continue sanding the piece with the same motion as before, and remember to rotate the piece in 10 second intervals. Keep sanding until the surface appears smooth and relatively blemish free.
I continue the process through the different grades of paper. Once you get into the fine grades of paper, discontinue the side to side motion, and only move up and down. The finer grades of paper aren't removing that much material, so its less likely you will sand your piece to an angle on one side.
Depending on the look you are going for with your saber, this process can continue until you remove all the blemishes and tool marks. Since mine is going to be "worn" looking, I'll stop here, but you can make the pieces really shine by use wet/dry sandpaper and wet sanding it.
The outside edes of the ring will need to be cleaned up as well. Since it will be easier to do before I attach them to the hilt, I will sand out each one as I go. I don't want to clamp it in the vice, because it will leave marks in the aluminum, so I create a simple "jig" to hold them. This "jig" is simply a wooden dowel and a cardboard tube from a roll of paper towels. I telescope the cardboard on the dowel so it is smaller on one side, which makes it easy to slip my ring on it, and wider in the back so I can push the ring on it and hold it in place.
With the ring held into place, I cut some strips off of my sheets of sandpaper, some coarse and some fine. Taking these strips, I loop them over the piece, and with a "sawing" motion (the red lines), pull the paper over the side of the tube evenly moving up and down the tube slowly (the yellow lines). Using a pipe cutter on the tubes will sometimes cause the material around the cut to rise up, creating a slight ridge at the ends of the tubing. I'm going to sand this ridge off, so I have a nice, straight clean edge.
As with the sanding of the edge, you can move through the different grades of paper, sanding it to a high shine. To finish each one off, I use 0000 grade steel wool. One ring to rule them all... Now I have 8 more to do...
Here is a shot with all of them cut and some of them polished.
Like QuiGon's saber, I wanted to make a cover over the grip area. To begin, I cut another tube to the length I needed.
Using the same method I used on the ring, I cleaned the edges and then polished the side.
Just to emphasize how nice you can make aluminum look, I took this tube and used some MAAS polish on it. Check out that shine!
I sketched out the design I wanted to create and used my scanner and computer to clean and straighten up the design, and print it out as a usable template. Most times, I use double-sided tape to stick my templates to the tubes. The double-sided taped prevents the template from coming off when you start cutting through it.
Unfortunately, I didn't take any photos of the next few steps, but I used my Dremel to cut out the pattern. Afterwards, I used files and the minature files to clean up all the edges. The minature files really come in handy when you are are working with small pieces or working in tight corners. Once that was done, lightly sanded and re-polished the piece, being careful to remove any tool marks or scratches I had created inadvertantly. Another benefit of keeping your templates on the entire way through the cutting process is less marks cauesd by clamping or light nicks from cutting. I didn't clean this piece a perfectly as I could have, because the finish I was going for. I wanted to make it look worn and beat up. Here is a shot of it as I did a dry fit of all the pieces.
I JB Welded the grips onto the main tube, but first, I laid them all out and marked where they would be on the tube. To make sure the glue would hold, I roughed up the area under each one, being careful to stay between my marks.
After the JB Weld had dried, I taped off the area and painted the inner grip. I use the EL Cheapo Wal-Mart standard Flat Black. It weathers nicely and acts as a primer as well. I used steel wool to rub off the black paint and weather the finish. I then slipped the outer grip over the inner one and glued it into place.
Next up - the pommel and activator box...
