Saber Forum

I have a dark sentinel LE, definitely stripped the set screw hole, the screw is fine but the hole in the saber itself is now stripped. So guess my question is what size to go to from here since I’m probably gonna have to drill the hole out completely to remove the old threads then it’s gonna be larger when I tap new threads. If anybody has had this issue and could help I’d appreciate it.

If you recently bought it or it's within a year of purchase, contact Marlena at marlena@ultrasabers.com. She'll take care of you

I'm not familiar with the Sentinel's set screw size, but I do have a wealth of experience drilling and tapping new set screws on my sabers. My first saber, and thus the one I abused the most, was the Bellicose. It was educational because it has two different size set screws. One is larger and goes in from the outside of the emitter, but inside the emitter (or maybe inside IS the emitter) the blade sits into a small cylindrical piece of metal, which itself sits inside the hilt. Ergo, one screw for the outside to the cylinder, two smaller set screws securing the blade to the cylinder/emitter.

All this to say that I had to replace both eventually. The larger screw-and I can't tell you what it was originally, I replaced with a 5/16" set screw. The inside screws were smaller, and I replaced them with I think #8-32 at first. That number doesn't make much sense, but that's what they are called.

Fortunately, you can basically use whatever you want as long as you do it right. If you are familiar with tap and die work, you can put in a variety of sizes. For my bellicose, I was tired of having to use two different allen wrenches, so I redrilled both set screws at 5/16" and have not had a problem since. It is a bit big if you're replacing those tiny set screws, so feel free to go with something smaller. Fortunately, Home Depot carries all this stuff, and it's super cheap. 2 screws (located in the drawers in the specialty fasteners section) are like $1, and the individual size tap and die sets are like $6. Fun, cheap little project.

Light-side point for the DIY tips.

The sentinel set screws start as 8-32. Going to the next size up of 10-32 is the usual fix. Going much more than that can lead to the threads being weaker because of being tapped into a round body. In general, if it need to go above 10-32 it is recommended to pick a new location. The old locations can be hidden or filled using different screws or some sort of greeblie.