My first build - custom light saber WIP (body complete bar final grip) - pic heavy

SuperFLY

Well-Known Member
Hi all,

I originally joined up to get some tips and ideas on building a custom lightsaber.

I've never built anything like this before, and have very limited tools (just a dremel, files, vice and a drill) but I thought 'why not' (famous last words) :D

Popped down the hardware store and bought a few random bits and pieces that looked good (and ended up not using most of it!! grr)

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i bought a really cheap plastic lightsaber and ripped the sound board out of it, upgraded the speaker (you can see the original speaker in the pic - the green one) and upgraded a couple of other bits to improve the sound and power. works great :)

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i then made my initial cuts and ended up with this

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i was originally going to keep it mostly metal but looking at it i decided i didn't like that and started making some grips

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at this point i realised the saber was longer than i wanted. due to the internals the measurements got pushed out 3cm more than i wanted so i cut that down, reduced the grip size and trimmed the emitter a little. i also decided to actually do a design for it. it's not to scale and i did change things as i went but it did give me a good point to work from.

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after that came the building. covered the pipes in masking tape and made a couple of templates to work from. the mesh in the emitter is part of an old sieve

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and started cutting! (gulp!)
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little test view of the crystal with the leds on. i hot glued a little plug onto the bottom of it and the leds go into that. once lit up it floods the crystal and gives a superb all around light. this'll sit inside the emitter.
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and this is how it is currently looking..

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and a slightly shopped version removing a bit of the tape i've got on holding the grip on (not attached yet) and adding the power led so you get a better idea of the finished article

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some of the cuts were a little rough.. i did try to take my time over it but i have no experience doing any of this so i was bound to make the odd error. i annoyingly did cut a little too far on the main grip, filled the groove with solder to fill it in and its not really noticeable which is good.

unfortunately, as much as i'd love to show you a picture of the lighting fully on (and a vid of the sound) it did look good :)

i had a real nightmare with the wiring yesterday and have decided to take it all apart and start again. the short version is the wiring i was using was too thick and not very pliable, plus i didnt think out how much space i'd have well enough and the additional wiring basically meant i ran out of room inside the saber. i'm going to change tac with all that, cut the wiring down, put the sound board in from the other end and modify the internal pipe to suit a more compact battery pack. i was using a flat 2x2 AAA pack (was actually 2 packs i joined together) but its too long really. a 4 pack was a couple of mm too big to fit but a couple of grooves cut into the internal pipe will solve that issue. (i hope)

once i've sorted the wiring and got it all back in, i'll be done.. quite happy with how its turned out; with the sound/lighting in it'll be the icing on the cake.

oh and already planning another one (dear god what have i awoken in me?!)

so, what do you think? (be gentle)

thanks
 
Re: My first build - custom light saber WIP (body complete bar final grip) - pic heav

Hi there,

and welcome to the wonderful world of lightsabers working and static props. That's an excellent beginning young padawan, you certainly may start your jedi-training soon enough . . .

I'll be looking forward to your work in progress ... but this seems very promissing indeed ... and you just wait until you get your hands on a real vintage graflex and Texas Instruments Exactra 20 activation bubbles etcetera ...



or the vintage graflex ESB version . . .



. . . not to mention a nice replica of Obi-Wan's lightsaber from STAR WARS Episode IV.

-Chaim
 
Re: My first build - custom light saber WIP (body complete bar final grip) - pic heav

Trust me, once you find your first graflex being held in your hands for the first time... Well yeah, it all goes down hill from there. :lol
 
Re: My first build - custom light saber WIP (body complete bar final grip) - pic heav

I'll be looking forward to your work in progress ... but this seems very promissing indeed ... and you just wait until you get your hands on a real vintage graflex and Texas Instruments Exactra 20 activation bubbles etcetera ...

thank you :)

yes i am actually in the group buy for a grenade and emitter from rb so yeh.. i'll be making an obi or anh luke saber soon enough if i can source the parts, very rare over here.
 
Re: My first build - custom light saber WIP (body complete bar final grip) - pic heav

Hey Dave :)

Nice job there mate, looks pretty damn good! Like you said the only thing i noticed was the rough cut - but everyone needs 2 of everything for their first "trial run" dont they!! And if you dont have one... well... that happens :D

i particularly like the way you have created the grip :)
you should be coming to Wales Comicon next week, they have a Jedi Lightsaber training academy on :)
 
Re: My first build - custom light saber WIP (body complete bar final grip) - pic heav

finally got the electronics sorted. cut out a hell of a lot of wire, resoldered everything and its finally now working :)

still need to cut the speaker wire down to length, but can't do that until i've got my battery pack sorted. (ones i bought 'just' don't fit.. like 1 or 2 mm too big, was thinking of cutting a groove in the internal pipe to slot it in, but i've ordered a different battery now and hopefully that'll fit better.)

little taster vid of me firing it up

Lightsaber test - YouTube

hopefull my new battery pack will arrive in the next day or 2 and once that's in it'll be complete :)
 
Re: My first build - custom light saber WIP (body complete bar final grip) - pic heav

Very nice! :thumbsup

That tubing looks like the pommel end of Mara Jade's lightsaber... where did you pick that up?
 
Re: My first build - custom light saber WIP (body complete bar final grip) - pic heav

Hey there! That's actually quite a nice custom design you got going there, especially for a first try! I might suggest you also try looking at other saber forums like tcss and fx-sabers for some other ideas too. If you made that out of MHS and practiced the dremel-fu a bit more you could end up with a really nice saber that you could also duel with..

-C
 
Re: My first build - custom light saber WIP (body complete bar final grip) - pic heav

The main body is actually just part of a cheap torch/flashlight i picked up when i was wandering round the hardware store.. one of the few things i actually ended up on using out of all the random bits i bought there. the only annoying thing is the inner diameter is a little thinner than i would have liked (the metals quite thick) so i had no end of trouble getting anything inbetween that and the inner tube (i've seen some other custom sabers where people have put matting or tubing around the inner tube and the outer just pushes on.. not a chance with mine. meant i had to rethink my grip parts a bit but it turned out ok.

Thank you :) yes, my dremel skills are a little lacking.. partly lack of experience and partly lack of patience. just need to take more time over it and measure 7 times, cut once :D

Bit annoying but I had hoped to have this finished now and the battery pack, speaker etc.. is in fact all done but I must have snagged a wire pushing the battery pack in as the end LED and activation LED aren't working any more ;( I unscrewed the end and tested them and they are both working so it must be the sound board connection which is a pig as I've now mounted everything inside just the way I wanted it and pulling it all out again will be a pain. job for the weekend me thinks.

Additional to that I need to add a couple of rivets to the emitter to hold it in place as its only the mesh behind it thats keeping it from falling off at the moment so a little more work to be done.
 
Re: My first build - custom light saber WIP (body complete bar final grip) - pic heav

Oh man did I have issues.. pulling wires out accidentally, leds not working, fixing them only for other leds to fail.. but.. after completely re-wiring everything it is finally done :D

It's a bit rough, but it is a first go.. quite happy with the way its turned out :)

Latest changes are that I've glued the grips in, adjusted the emitter housing and added some rivets to keep it in place and unseen I've completely re-done all the electrics to better suit the room I had inside.

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and a little vid of the activation, the leds flicker when struck as well but I didn't include that in the vid (needs a decent whack though I've noticed)

Finished Saber - YouTube


and err I may have gone and bought myself a very nicely made graflex replica to mess with.. I needed a ANH saber for a costume anyway so thought I'd bite the bullet and get one.

lets see what I can come up with for this baby (will be doing some practice and doing a bit more research before I do anything 'un-reversable' with this one though heh)

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Re: My first build - custom light saber WIP (body complete bar final grip) - pic heav

This looks great! What did you use on the top above your Crystal chamber?
 
Re: My first build - custom light saber WIP (body complete bar final grip) - pic heav

this is freaking great! for a first build too! Sleek, unique design and the electronics to boot, I love what you've done! How did you work out the electronics with such limited tools?

Also, the hard drive/floppy drive copper magnet/thing makes a killer emitter. I have a few of my own and was hoping to do just this! You've inspired me!
 
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