ESB Bladed Stunt Graflex Lightsaber "The Core!"

[thd9791]

This is freak’n awesome! I love how you can remove the blade

Me too, in my head that would have been the best option for the folks on set, replacing blades all the time. unfortunately, the only two bladed ones out there have the rods hacksawed off.

I take that back, the mystery (maybe ANH Era) Tube Graflex from that video with Roger C does have the core with bolts that comes out. That's an old core in there too, the loose core/blade they picked up had to be newer.

 

[Halliwax]

Tom question for ya. Your 3 visible Allen screws in your build. I can see the one near the beer table and the one on the Control Box side of the graflex in the dagobah pic, but the one on the opposite side, I can’t see any pics with that Allen bolt

Was that taken at your own liberty or do you have a photo of that Allen bolt location?

 

[thd9791]

I actually don't. I used the Core in the Roger C video as a guide, because it had the same diagonal pattern of bolts, and I think they were on both sides.

I just transferred the logic over, that theyd probably mirror the pattern . Even though, as we found out, one bolt does the trick!

 

[Halliwax]

I actually don't. I used the Core in the Roger C video as a guide, because it had the same diagonal pattern of bolts, and I think they were on both sides.

I just transferred the logic over, that theyd probably mirror the pattern . Even though, as we found out, one bolt does the trick!

Dude Tom!! That’s genius thinking!!!

 

[thd9791]

Thank you!

If we ever get more documentation about how they secured the blades in the core, I may make a second one or make a tube stunt as a practice one

 

[Halliwax]

Because of you, you’ve made me a stunt nut... never been interested in the stunts until I started hanging with you

 

[thd9791]

I've had to explain this to people at work. Even though it's not the shiny version you see in toys and magazines.. the stunts are what you're looking at for most of the action. It's what your brain registers, and they're decorated to trick you into believing it's the Hero prop. It's the bread and butter of movie magic and being able to hold the correctly weighted stunt, swing it around and disassemble it, makes me feel like I'm part of creating that magic. A peek behind the curtain.

 

[thd9791]

I wanted to post these to my thread too.
James Kenobi 1138 made great scans of the "making of" book and these are what I'm basing my blade research off of.

 

[Mouse Vader]

I'm basing my measures on these pic's & I mean measurements & not guestimates (remember I'm on ANH).

As we know actual dim's for a graflex tube (or whatever fits in a graflex clamp) as well as the length of same clamp we can use this to calculate the blade dim's. Works like this: measure the tube width (aka diam) in mm with a ruler on the picture, we know the real diam is 38mm so if you divide the picture measurement by 38 this gives a scale factor. Next measure the width of the blade (base) in mm on the pic same way as you did before. If you now divide this new measure by the scale factor you find out what the actual blade width ( diam ) is. Simple... using this method I get blade dims of; 15.7mm for the 1st pic; 16.5mm for the 2nd & 15.7 for the 3rd. The 2nd pic also yields length of 936mm (36.8") & tip diam of 8.8mm (oh yes & is clearly tapered all the way). Given that the reflective material is adding to diam (by app 1mm?) gives cores in the region of 14.7 - 15.5mm. (5/8" is 15.6mm) Remarkably close to the size of my (modern) golf stick...

 

[thd9791]

I'm basing my measures on these pic's & I mean measurements & not guestimates (remember I'm on ANH).

View attachment 988963 View attachment 988964 View attachment 988965
As we know actual dim's for a graflex tube (or whatever fits in a graflex clamp) as well as the length of same clamp we can use this to calculate the blade dim's. Works like this: measure the tube width (aka diam) in mm with a ruler on the picture, we know the real diam is 38mm so if you divide the picture measurement by 38 this gives a scale factor. Next measure the width of the blade (base) in mm on the pic same way as you did before. If you now divide this new measure by the scale factor you find out what the actual blade width ( diam ) is. Simple... using this method I get blade dims of; 15.7mm for the 1st pic; 16.5mm for the 2nd & 15.7 for the 3rd. The 2nd pic also yields length of 936mm (36.8") & tip diam of 8.8mm (oh yes & is clearly tapered all the way). Given that the reflective material is adding to diam (by app 1mm?) gives cores in the region of 14.7 - 15.5mm. (5/8" is 15.6mm) Remarkably close to the size of my (modern) golf stick...

That seems to work for the square dowels from ANH..

I'll do that here for the ESB Blades, rounding for now

14mm tube in a blown up picture with Luke facing the camera, saber pointed up

38mm real life tube.

.368 scale factor

7.3 mm blade base in same picture, at same % zoom

divided by the scale factor comes out to 19.83 mm

Pretty close.

I'll agree, my ski pole still looks a bit too thin at 18.3 mm. Seems we're closer to understanding the blades.

 

[Mouse Vader]

Just done my own measures and agree with you - I'm getting 18.5 - 20mm for your 1st two ref pics, blade length 32" from 1st pic but that's being held at an angle. I disagree 100% on available ref's ANH having square, triangular or anything other than round section. I'm not saying they were never made just there is no pictorial evidence of them. The light/shade on my 1st ref pic in particular shows it is round. I also have to disagree with your ESB blades having ski pole straight to taper profile. Holding a straight edge/rule very close to luke's blade in your 1st ref, if a ski pole type, there should be a distinct 'kink' where the taper starts but all I see is a constant gap full length, which says to me, constant taper. I can see in the colour pic that luke's blade does look very ski polely particularly as there is a highlight from mid blade to tip on the underside but the straight edge test, particularly on the upper side, shows constant taper. Of course these blades may be in motion & or in contact & flexing...
just straight edge checked again on all your ref pic's & getting full length taper on luke & DV's blades in all of them. :/

 

[vader45]

This is a very unique build thread. I never seen any one else build any stunt sabers from ESB.

 

[Halliwax]

This is a very unique build thread. I never seen any one else build any stunt sabers from ESB.

Tom’s the stunt guy, he’s done many stunts. I love all his stunt builds

He’s totally right when he mentions that the the stunts are what real lightsabers are..

 

[Mouse Vader]

I agree, the 1" polycab blades with LED's just weren't cutting it for me. I also have an idea for possibly using a laser for an internally illuminated blade but I want to get the golf cub one finished first so that may be a long time coming.

 

[thd9791]

I remember fawning over "plasma" blade lightsaber in the 90s. They had a glass tube and were very fragile

 

[Mouse Vader]

Here's another possible for you. Fishing poles - not rods. I don't know if they're a thing in the US but have been getting more popular in the UK since the 80's (from continental Europe). They can get to 8m+ & come in sections & you can buy replacement sections. I inquired of a UK fleabay seller a couple of days ago who had two Shimano (brand) No 2 sections for sale. They're carbon fiber (not graphite). No 2 section is the next one down from the tip. The dims he sent me are ;
The PWEVKIT2 is 19 mm at the outside thick end and approx 124.3cm in length.
The PEVKIT2 is also 19mm and approx 138cm in length.
I would have bought them but he put the price up directly after my inquiry which irked me & they have since sold.
Given our calculated measures are around 19mm I'm thinking the original is likely to be commercially made 3/4" stock of some sort (3/4" is 19.05mm). More choice & thicker than ski poles.

 

[jorged123]

I just looked up 3/4" 316 (marine grade) stainless tubing on amazon and it was like 50USD for a single 72" length. You'd need a cap or plug welded, if you wanted a top. I think it'd take some abuse, but would probably dent and possibly bend with strong contact. *edit* It might be cheaper to go with the 304 grade, but it might corrode easier. *end edit*

 

[thd9791]

now, thats interesting! You're right, that would broaden the options immensely. another rabbit hole to go down

 

[Halliwax]

Here we go again! Lol

 

[thd9791]

I'm definitely putting Reflexite on this ski pole. Once we get more accurate blades, I can set another threaded rod inside and use scotchlite fabric

I'm trying to re-orient the tape. the tip of the ski pole is so skinny the tape peels off