Adam Savage Builds Luke's ROTJ Lightsaber

Did you actually watch the video?

He tries to build it, but... :lol:

The one habit of Adam's that has always driven me crazy is his tendency to rush things. I understand that yes, you want to get things done, and yes, you may often have time constraints, but this demonstrates - once again - what the result can be. I'm likely on the opposite end of that spectrum, in that I probably overthink things a lot and end up wasting time as a result. But then again I'm not having to spend time correcting mistakes later on. So I guess maybe things even out in the end. :unsure:

I also found myself saying to the screen "Dude, it's six, not eight!" :lol:

And I'm old school like Adam - I use the same scaling and tiling techniques all the time at work.
 
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Great lessons learned though despite him failing using 90's Adam knowledge vs current Adam's knowledge. I think that was also part of his frustrations lol
 
I loved watching this. I've been there... a lot... and was also shouting 6 not 8!!! the entire time.

Also, the reference... of all the replicas and real pics out there... he used the fake that people keep trying to pass off as a real one

I was also trying to tell him that through the screen as well :lol:

Soon as I saw him pull up the image...

 
I watch Adam, not necessarily for the things he makes, but more due to the sheer joy and enthusiasm he has as he builds them. Even if it’s something I’m not personally interested in, I find myself pulled right in with a smile on my face the whole time. He is the only maker that is infectious in that way for me. I don’t particularly care about the accuracy or lack there of so that doesn’t bother me. Maybe I’m reading into it a bit too much but it seemed like he genuinely struggled a good bit due to the arbitrary restrictions he applied to himself. I appreciate that this is how 90s Adam did it, but I feel like I would have vastly enjoyed seeing 2020’s Adam make this saber. Just my thoughts on it.

I’m glad he’ll be doing his own saber, I imagine that video will be a total blast.
 
I loved watching this. I've been there... a lot... and was also shouting 6 not 8!!! the entire time.

Also, the reference... of all the replicas and real pics out there... he used the fake that people keep trying to pass off as a real one
As soon as I saw the photo...NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!
 
Meh, the thing is you know he could do it perfect if he wanted to but that’s not what he set out to do. Sure you could watch a robot make a lightsaber with absolute perfection but would that really be entertaining?

The struggle and self imposed limitations created problem solving and good content.
 
I really appreciated Adam’s raw and honest build video. So often, we see professional builders who never make a mistake, which I think we all know is fantasy.

Glad to see someone who isn’t afraid to share their mistakes for us all to learn from.

I was also relieved to learn I’m not the only one who takes to himself constantly and makes funny voices when making stuff :lol:

Sean
 
I'm watching this now... I was wondering about the saber length of 11.75 inches. Is that right? Sounds too long. My MR is 11 inches. Not sure which is right.
 
Hey there,
I just watched adams video. I´m a machinist and a lifelong starwars fan and got another in the family. Adam gave me the idea to machine one for christmas for him. Can you point me to actual, by the community accepted, plans for Lukes ANH ,ESB or ROTJ lightsaber? Theres so much stuff out but nothing I would trust to be accurate.

Thanks
 
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Yeah. I was thinking the same things. A fake for reference, too long, and too many pommel cube spaces. Personally I prefer multiple references, just to be sure.

But the video was still entertaining and informative.
 
Hey there,
I just watched adams video. I´m a machinist and a lifelong starwars fan and got another in the family. Adam gave me the idea to machine one for christmas for him. Can you point me to actual, by the community accepted, plans for Lukes ANH ,ESB or ROJ lightsaber? Theres so much stuff out but nothing I would trust to be accurate.

Thanks
I'd start with this one. But, adjust the length to be around 11.25 overall.
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Just uniformly scale it? This would end up in a whole lot of inconvenient measurements, everything that is 3mm long would end up as 3.06...
If anything I´d lengthen some of the long featureless sections by a mm or so. What do you think?
 
The long and short of it is that there are not publicly available blueprints that are 100% accurate. Those of us that have gone down the rabbit hole to produce dead on balls accurate reproductions have spent countless hours working out all the details and haven't released them in a handy how to instruction set yet. (In part because the lightsaber market is so flooded right now and many, many people are copying this type of original work and reproducing our labor with no attribution or thanks)

The blueprints I posted are the best publicly available right now. But, when they were made, many people in the fan community thought the saber was a good deal smaller then it actually is because of the MR replica and because they had worked off of undersized castings. I think the best short cut for you to start machining and end up with a reasonably accurate replica is to take those blueprints. Scale the overall saber up until the length is 287mm and the diameter of grip under the control box and behind the pommel is 38mm. (So, that means multiply the length by 1.032374 and the width by 1.0555)

Will this give you a 100% accurate replica? No. Not 100%
But, it is a pretty darn good start if you want to jump into the shop directly. It will lead to a replica that is a good deal more accurate then most. And it will get you a replica that most fans couldn't tell apart from a 100% accurate replica. The other option would be to pull out as many original photos of the original as you can and start scaling from scratch like Adam did. If you go that route this video might help

At some point, more accurate blueprints might be made publicly available. I know Brian from the MOM crew originally was interested in releasing his drawings--although that might have changed since he has put two years worth of work into them. I might publish my drawings at some point. But, I'm not ready to do that yet.

Hope this helps
 
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