Lightech's EL blade kit

[kivaanzion]

Has anyone used Lightech Industries' EL kit to make a saber with?

I am considering purchasing it for a custom job.

www.lightechindustries.com/main.html

(It's at the bottom of the "Blades" section).

Thoughts? Reviews?

[petary791]

Here's the link:
www.lightechindustries.com/blades.html

[Jeffrek]

I bought a couple a few years ago Sarge and they are pretty good.

Id say to get the blade adapter too to give proper support to the blades unless you have a lathe or similar capabilities locally and can make your own.

[LoreenShadowchaser]

I bought one of these kits a couple years ago. Be warned that they come with a crummy little switch. I paid $5 extra for the good switch that Mike uses on his sabers.

These days, I am not at all impressed with their blades though. Not that bright, compared to the blades I now make myself with High Brightness EL wire. Mike uses double core wire, which, theoretically should be bright, but it falls short.

I have other opinions of the blades, based on experiences, but I'll refrain, for now.

Also, since he uses a paper diffuser, the wire rattles around a lot inside all that space. I use a tube within a tube, so there is less space for the EL wire to move around in.

His blades also use 1/16" walled polycarbonate, which is more flexible and "whippy". Parks blades use 1/8" polycarb. tubes. I originally used the same tubing as Lightech, since it's more readily available, but now I want to get a hold of some of the 1/8" from a local plastic company and redo all my blades.

The inverters are good, but you will probably want to replace the cheapy battery clip, since the wires are likely to break. I received my kit with a broken wire there. I have replaced many of those battery clips on the kits that my friends have bought.

It's a pretty good kit, but it needs some help, in my opinion. You can always buy another blade that is brighter. I believe that Jedikibbles is selling blades here using my construction methods. Those will be much brighter than a blade you get from Lightech, I have done side-by-side comparisions, so I know. Plus, I have helped to install quite a few of those kits, and have a pretty good knowledge about EL wire by now.

I'm not trying to discourage you, if that's what you want to get. I'm just telling you of my experiences, and what you might expect. I don't know of too many EL kits that are out there.

And definitely get the adapter, if you don't have your own made. It's a little smaller than the ID of a sink tube, so you may have to shim it a bit if you put it in that kind of tube.

These guys have kits, but I have no personal experiences with them:high-techmagic.com/EL_Lightsabers.html

These guys www.knight-saber.com are also working on a kit, but it's not ready yet. I will actually be helping them with evaluating one of their kits.

My friend Zhi-Don Aquintas, who doesn't really post here anymore, called this company and dropped my name, they knew who I was, since they must have read my EL Blade Tutorial over at The Force.net, because they are using my blade construction methods.

So they agreed to send a free kit if we would evaluate it for them and help them iron out the bugs in it. We are still waiting for an adapter though.

I already have a few suggestions. I'm going to talk to them and see if I can get my own free kit, after they improve it, since I will be helping them out. Don plans on using the kit he was sent to make a saber for his wife.

I have just had a quick look at the kit, so far, but I'm already impressed with the inverter, which will power a Parks blade, and most Lightech inverters that I've seen will not, though I've heard that some will. Mine will only power one dimmly.

Ok, now I'm just rambling.....

It's 3:30 am and I worked a 10 hr day and I should be in bed.

I hope this post makes sense when I get up later today!

[kivaanzion]

Many thanks for the responses- especially to Loreen! Don't worry about sleep deprivation; your post made perfect sense! ;D

Knight-Saber's kit sounds very promising. I checked out their site, but I found it odd that they will not ship any of their hilts outside the US. Will this be the same for their kits? I am in Canada, so if that's the case, then Knight-Saber is out for me, which would be a shame.

I hadn't realized that I had to purchase the blade adapter separately from Lightech! Thanks for the heads up! ;D