I find that without a lot of fiddling you end up with very pale saber blades in the AS. I prefer my RGB if I'm going for more standard colors. It never occurred to me to get a set of color filter swatches to make disks out of, (I ordered some yesterday, not Lee but Roscolux. According to their website if you have an official dealer nearby the dealers will give the swatch books for free. I live in the middle of nowhere so it was cheaper to order them, ~$5 shipped, than drive to where I can get a set for free) but I have gotten some very good colors out of things you wouldn't think would do well. For example, one of the pharmacies in town uses dark green pill bottles. The bottom of that makes it match the standard Green blade almost perfectly, compared to the washed out green of the standard filters. Similarly you get a good strong yellow from the orange pill bottles (doesn't look orange at all). Basically any color you want, look for a darker filter than you would think.
I've never found a way to make a good sithy red. I have one filter I cut from a piece of acrylic I had in a junk box but it's too thick (1/4") and the blade is too dim in my opinion, and still a 'pinker' red than my RGB with just the red channel on. (note that the RGB red channel on my
One thing I do recommend, if you are willing to possibly risk burning out your led (never happened to me) is run it hotter. Instead of the 4 AAA pack (5 ish volts nominal with NiMh's) I use a pair of Li-Ion's to drop 7+ volts across it. Before that I used to use 3x CR14250 1/2 AA batteries (I had a steady supply of slightly used ones for free) that put roughly 9V across it. (don't try using a square 9v battery btw, I thought I had blown my LED after having the sword on for 20-25 minutes in a skit, and it turns out the 9v had burst. They can't handle the current draw at all.)
Edit: Two other things I've done;
- I've got a thumbscrew I found at a hole in the wall hardware store (I had to drill out and retap the retention hole as it was a bit larger) that with a bit of dremel work snaps right into a covertec clip for stowage and looks just like it belongs on the saber.
- I've also got a small plastic container from somewhere (I think it's a round pill box) that is perfect to fit in the base of my saber to hold the disks I'm not using (I don't have sound though)