lightsaber question.

[IAmJPru]

Hey, I am new to this whole replica prop making thing.
I am currently slowly piecing together a lightsaber and i had a crazy idea of using laser diodes rather then LED's.

I have 3 red laser diodes that i wanted to implement in to the saber, but my question is, if i had a diffused blade, would it actually show? cuz im not sure if the light would only be diffused at the tip.

I do plan on mirroring the 3 lasers back down as to not have an overly bright tip and have the light shining through, but i feel as if the rest of the blade might not light up... any feedback/advice?
should i give up on the diode idea all together?

 

[Robiwon]

This is something that has been asked since the day we started building lightsabers. Yes it would be cool to say that it's a real laser lightsaber. But it wont work. The reason is that a laser is a very very narrow beam of light. The typical lightsaber blade is an inch in diameter. Even if you stuffed the blade with something to diffuse the light for the entire length, it still would not be as bright as a blade powered by a Luxeon, Rebel, or LEDengin LED. These LEDs put out a tremendous of light in a cone shape, not a thin line. A lense is then used to narrow that light to fill the blade. That's something a laser can't do.

But, give it a shot if you want. You may come up with a solution that others have not thought of.

 

[J Scorn]

Hey, I am new to this whole replica prop making thing.
I am currently slowly piecing together a lightsaber and i had a crazy idea of using laser diodes rather then LED's.

I have 3 red laser diodes that i wanted to implement in to the saber, but my question is, if i had a diffused blade, would it actually show? cuz im not sure if the light would only be diffused at the tip.

I do plan on mirroring the 3 lasers back down as to not have an overly bright tip and have the light shining through, but i feel as if the rest of the blade might not light up... any feedback/advice?
should i give up on the diode idea all together?

hello, ive never tried it that way, however a way ive always done it that is a pretty quick, easy and not too expensive (also able to knock it about abit) is to use EL wiring running up and down a tube to your own length inside a whitish foam tube to displace the light. insert this into a poly' plastic tube for strength.

job done

 

[ARKM]

J Scorn, custom saber electronics moved away from EL technology several years ago. There are much brighter solutions out there now that are very dual worthy.

IAmJPru... what Robiwon said.

 

[IAmJPru]

Ok thank you guys so much for the input

 

[Saber Concepts]

I normally use 5 or 10 Watt LEDs (dependant on the color I am going for) and use a 8.5 degree optic lens to focus them up the blade with a mirror tip reflecting the light back down. The laser diodes are way to narrow and don't work too well.