Great Lakes Garrison & Base

good day all, so as i start to finish up the soft good for my star killer costume i cant do anything with the hard goods until i get my dremmel back so i thought i might start looking around for my sabers. since i have no idea what im doing with them at this point id thought id ask. here's what i got.
-i have accesses to a grinder and a metal lathe.
-i have basic electronic soldering and wiring experience but beyond soldering im clueless.
-i need two of the exact same sabers
- im hoping to keep it around $150 a saber (guaranteed to be more)
-the sabers are very specific and cant be modified FX sabers
-i really want these to be the brightness possible (last time i looked seoul P4's/luxeon 3's were still at the top)and relatively strong sabers tubes so they'll survive transportation.
-id also like it to have sound id it fits in the budget but ill pay the extra if needed.

i've mainly only looked at http://www.thecustomsabershop.com because of the parts are close to what i need but im not sure if they have sounds boards.

so knowing that where and what should i be looking at?

cheers

Sabers are not my specialty but they seem to be Jay-gon Jinn's. Check out some of his build threads in this section and try sending him a pm(username = "Jay-gon Jinn")with your questions. He might be able to help you out.

Jay-Gonn is indeed the master. He built mine earlier this year, for my Kai Justiss costume.

I researched saber building from the various forums, like at TCSS. But this is -- like with armor -- another area where experience counts. I could have built my own first saber that lit up, but chances are that it would have ended up like a standard Ultrasabers piece (lights up, but no sound). And with Kai being a face-character, my saber had to be accurate, which involved a custom-machined piece that TCSS had to make for us.

I probably spent almost as much as an obscure-model Parks saber, but the bonus was that I knew it was being made by a fellow Base member who's good at it and cares for it AND it was a one-of-a-kind custom piece, and that made it all worthwhile!

Here are two of his build threads, mine included. This way, you can see what's involved and how an experienced saber maker does it.

http://www.greatlakesgarrison.com/forum ... 85&t=10695
http://www.greatlakesgarrison.com/forum ... 85&t=11343

I second Jay-Gonn. While I've made a couple sabers of my own using stuff from TCSS, Jay is a zillion times better at it than I am (in the last year and a half since I joined the RL, I think I've had my own saber working when going to a troop for about six months, put it that way), and he has a great rapport with Tim, the guy who owns TCSS, and so Jay knows exactly what to think of when ordering a custom part for a saber.