Boba Fettish
New Member
Recently my oldest son ordered a mid range (in cost) light saber for a gender reveal announcement for their second child. He has been a Star Wars geek for years.
This got me thinking about light sabers as he has been after me for some time to build him a working stormtrooper blaster – I’m an FFL and we're both gun guys to boot. That build will be another topic.
As I dove down the rabbit hole of light sabers I was learning its not as simple as one might think and depending on your thoughts there are the fantasy sabers and then all the different variations of ones seen on the moves, “stunt” versions, resin, those CGI enhanced etc. place like this have been an invaluable source of information as well a worm hole to get lost in chasing down all the variations.
Since my son had gotten the one saber with electronics, I thought as a surprise birthday gift it would be cool to build him a hand built replica of one of the movie versions. After looking around I settled on Luke’s ROTJ model. Not content with that I decided I would build myself an Obi Wan EP4 saber to boot.
First I need to find pics, then drawings. And I watched Adam Savages build video on youtube.
Armed with what I could find its off to the metal shop for some 2” aluminum bar stock. They didn’t have 2 1/8 or 2 ½ on hand. Bar stock acquired to the workshop I go and the lathe.
The plan was to turn a saber out of a solid piece of bar stock, as these designs lend them selves to this type of build. Emitter end is fine and relatively easy. On the Luke saber. Turn down other parts of the body and rough out the pommel. Now for laying out the ribs below the emitter. This proved to be a bit more challenging and in the middle of it my math went wrong and I made a mistake. I had a grove in the wrong spot that gave me a rib that was not to the correct size.
Add in I had mis calculated when turning down the portion of the bar and was thinking about giving myself more room to work and I turned this area down for to long a distance. Great two dimensions blown. So much for this being an accurate rendition of a movie saber.
Trying to get my head right, I decided to tackle the Obi Wan saber and began dimensioning that and diving into research. The copper, brass and contrast draw me to this. Then there is the whole story of the different parts the prop guys used to assemble it. Don’t even get me started on the guys sourcing parts to make actual authentic replicas.
So as I work on this I realize that to be true to some of the drawings I have found I really need 2 1/8” or 2 ¼” bar stock. The emitter end is larger than 2” not wanting to wait I go with the 2”. This one I am going to build in pieces as to account for the brass and copper so the layout begins.
Midway through the layout and roughing out some parts I realize that due to small print I misread and converted the OD of the grip/grenade portion – great redo the drawing and dimensions etc etc.
In the middle of all this looking at the inside of the emitter I have a thought what if I use a torch tip for the copper portion and mount it inside the emitter? This is going to be a static kind of display that I may put electronics in later so I come up with some options.
And at this time I make a decision. These are for me and while there are those who would want a perfect recreation of an onscreen saber, most of the people who come over and see them will never know the blueprints or that I missed a little bit here or a smidge there.
And while using the torch tip – inverted isn’t “cannon” or true to spec its going to look close enough. Looking at the torch tips has led me to several different ones that I think will make very interesting details in these style emitter heads so I plan on making a few different test models. Because after all its for me and while not “cannon” or movie perfect few people will take the time to say they scratch built their own light saber trying to replicate something from their childhood. And I’m ok with that.
And that was the point that I got to, that I was ok with my imperfections as I begin this venture into this hobby. Now maybe years later I will look back and say yea it was off by a bit and I get better with time.
As a few other whoops have happened on the lathe and left a few knicks, dings and mars on them, I’ve also decided that these will the battle scars of a dropped and hard used saber. Not new in the box as if just picked up from the intergalactic arms shop
Todd
This got me thinking about light sabers as he has been after me for some time to build him a working stormtrooper blaster – I’m an FFL and we're both gun guys to boot. That build will be another topic.
As I dove down the rabbit hole of light sabers I was learning its not as simple as one might think and depending on your thoughts there are the fantasy sabers and then all the different variations of ones seen on the moves, “stunt” versions, resin, those CGI enhanced etc. place like this have been an invaluable source of information as well a worm hole to get lost in chasing down all the variations.
Since my son had gotten the one saber with electronics, I thought as a surprise birthday gift it would be cool to build him a hand built replica of one of the movie versions. After looking around I settled on Luke’s ROTJ model. Not content with that I decided I would build myself an Obi Wan EP4 saber to boot.
First I need to find pics, then drawings. And I watched Adam Savages build video on youtube.
Armed with what I could find its off to the metal shop for some 2” aluminum bar stock. They didn’t have 2 1/8 or 2 ½ on hand. Bar stock acquired to the workshop I go and the lathe.
The plan was to turn a saber out of a solid piece of bar stock, as these designs lend them selves to this type of build. Emitter end is fine and relatively easy. On the Luke saber. Turn down other parts of the body and rough out the pommel. Now for laying out the ribs below the emitter. This proved to be a bit more challenging and in the middle of it my math went wrong and I made a mistake. I had a grove in the wrong spot that gave me a rib that was not to the correct size.
Add in I had mis calculated when turning down the portion of the bar and was thinking about giving myself more room to work and I turned this area down for to long a distance. Great two dimensions blown. So much for this being an accurate rendition of a movie saber.
Trying to get my head right, I decided to tackle the Obi Wan saber and began dimensioning that and diving into research. The copper, brass and contrast draw me to this. Then there is the whole story of the different parts the prop guys used to assemble it. Don’t even get me started on the guys sourcing parts to make actual authentic replicas.
So as I work on this I realize that to be true to some of the drawings I have found I really need 2 1/8” or 2 ¼” bar stock. The emitter end is larger than 2” not wanting to wait I go with the 2”. This one I am going to build in pieces as to account for the brass and copper so the layout begins.
Midway through the layout and roughing out some parts I realize that due to small print I misread and converted the OD of the grip/grenade portion – great redo the drawing and dimensions etc etc.
In the middle of all this looking at the inside of the emitter I have a thought what if I use a torch tip for the copper portion and mount it inside the emitter? This is going to be a static kind of display that I may put electronics in later so I come up with some options.
And at this time I make a decision. These are for me and while there are those who would want a perfect recreation of an onscreen saber, most of the people who come over and see them will never know the blueprints or that I missed a little bit here or a smidge there.
And while using the torch tip – inverted isn’t “cannon” or true to spec its going to look close enough. Looking at the torch tips has led me to several different ones that I think will make very interesting details in these style emitter heads so I plan on making a few different test models. Because after all its for me and while not “cannon” or movie perfect few people will take the time to say they scratch built their own light saber trying to replicate something from their childhood. And I’m ok with that.
And that was the point that I got to, that I was ok with my imperfections as I begin this venture into this hobby. Now maybe years later I will look back and say yea it was off by a bit and I get better with time.
As a few other whoops have happened on the lathe and left a few knicks, dings and mars on them, I’ve also decided that these will the battle scars of a dropped and hard used saber. Not new in the box as if just picked up from the intergalactic arms shop
Todd
