ROTJ Luke Lightsaber Plans - Which are Most Accurate?

Jamesbeat

New Member
I just bought a lathe, and have been learning how to use it.
As an avid Star Wars fan,, the first thing I want to make is a lightsaber :)

The obvious choice is Luke's saber from ROTJ, as one of the sabers used in that film was made on a lathe, as opposed to 'found' components.

The aluminum is on order, so all I need now is the plans.

I have found a couple of sets of drawings to work from, but while they both appear to be excellent, there are some differences.
I'd like some opinions from more experienced saber people as to which set of plans is more accurate.

I found these:

http://www.geocities.ws/mhtaylor67/images/cad/lukerotj.gif

and these:

http://lightsaber.s17.xrea.com/lightsaber/column/20030226/luke_ep6_hero1.jpg

The second set has some critical dimensions missing, but if it is to scale, I could print them and measure from the drawings.

Which one is more accurate, and are there any plans I've missed?

Edit: if it makes any difference, I intend to make an 'idealized' version with evenly spaced/shaped rings in the grenade section.
I also realize that I won't be able to make the handwheel block things at the pommel without a milling machine.
 
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The first diagram you showed is not quite accurate to use. The second is better and here's another Luke ROTJ with adjusted more screen accurate numbers* :



* added by me in red on the left and black on the additional 'grenade' section on the far right.

Chaim
 
That's great, thanks!

Now I just have to wait for the aluminum to arrive.
I'm actually making four in total, one for me, one for my wife, one for my son, and a half-size one for my four year old daughter :)
 
That's great, thanks!

Now I just have to wait for the aluminum to arrive.
I'm actually making four in total, one for me, one for my wife, one for my son, and a half-size one for my four year old daughter :)

Don't forget one for me! That was your plan right?:lol
 
The above plans are a bit off also.
The saber should be 11.25" long.
These plans are more accurate, but are based on a resin copy of the saber, so they're shrunk down a bit. http://lightsaber.s17.xrea.com/lightsaber/column/20030226/luke_ep6_hero1.jpg

I would use these plans, but the scale the numbers up a bit to add the extra 1/4 inch to the prop.

Also, one thing to note is the recesses in the grips were not a perfect "V" instead, the tool was slightly cockeyed, making the V slop a bit towards the emitter. Making it look a bit more like I/
Also, the pommel cubes one the original are not even either but slope a bit forward towards the emitter
 
Those drawings are the same ones as in my second link in my original post.
I think I'll print them out at 11.25" and then use my calipers to take measurements from the printout.
Unfortunately, I have no way of making the pommel cubes, as I only have a lathe.
I'm going to omit them for now and have a think about how to do them, perhaps cut them out of bar stock and attach them separately.
 
I might have a pommel that will work for you. I need to go through my parts. When will you start machining?

I'm going to start machining as soon as the aluminum gets here (hopefully Friday) but I'm afraid my current budget for extra parts is $0, because I just cleaned myself out buying my lathe :)
 
Anakin Starkiller is the man when it comes to accuracy and lightsaber skills ... take him up on his offer and you won't regret it ... I'll bet if he still has the pommel he will work something out with ya :)

Here's the one he did many moons ago and I just added the finishing wacky, as per original, touches to it :



Chaim
 
I'm going to start machining as soon as the aluminum gets here (hopefully Friday) but I'm afraid my current budget for extra parts is $0, because I just cleaned myself out buying my lathe :)


Who said anything about $$$$??? :)

I have one or maybe two second quality pommels that my shop accidentaly drilled the holes in the wrong place a while back. I filled the mistake holes with silver solder and sanded them smooth. So, they're not perfect, but they would do for you until you got a mill and could machine something better. Like I said, I have to track them down. But when I find them, I could send them to you if you covered the cost of shipping.
 
I want to make a Luke RotJ saber for myself someday but I am never one to be too concerned with screen accuracy. However an "idealized" "hero" version would be cool. That said. out of all the blueprints that have been posted here, which version would all of you say is the closest to the Master Replicas Elite Edition version. Here's an excellent photo archive of that version that may help make such a determination... http://www.rebelscum.com/mrlukerotjsaberEE.asp . Thanks in advance.
 
I'd say the one that Anakin Starkiller posted again + some added material so you get the 11.25 inch lenght in total :)

Chaim
 
I'd say the one that Anakin Starkiller posted again + some added material so you get the 11.25 inch lenght in total :)

Chaim

Thanks.

Question... where do you add the extra 1/4" though to get it to 11.25" long? if spread out, how much and to which areas? Also, I want even rings, not the screen accurate ones in the blueprints that Anakin Starkiller posted. Of course, that's easy enough to change.
 
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Who said anything about $$$$??? :)

I have one or maybe two second quality pommels that my shop accidentaly drilled the holes in the wrong place a while back. I filled the mistake holes with silver solder and sanded them smooth. So, they're not perfect, but they would do for you until you got a mill and could machine something better. Like I said, I have to track them down. But when I find them, I could send them to you if you covered the cost of shipping.

Well that's very kind of you!
If you don't want money for them, maybe you will accept something in trade...
By all means send me a PM if/when you find them, and we'll work something out :)
 
Thanks.

Question... where do you add the extra 1/4" though to get it to 11.25" long? if spread out, how much and to which areas? Also, I want even rings, not the screen accurate ones in the blueprints that Anakin Starkiller posted. Of course, that's easy enough to change.

I took it to mean that the whole saber should be upsized enough to make it 11.25".
I'm going to do it by resizing the drawings up to 11.5" and then taking my measurements off them with calipers.
This is of course under the assumption that the drawings are to scale.

The do seem to be correct, because although the metal for my full-size sabers has not yet arrived, the smaller stock for my daughter's half-size saber did, and I have started machining it.
Nothing exciting enough to warrant photos yet, but it's going ok so far.

It actually seems more difficult to make a small one than a full-size one, because I'm having trouble fitting the tool bits into some of the tighter spots without accidentally touching (and damaging) a different part of the workpiece.
 
Also, one thing to note is the recesses in the grips were not a perfect "V" instead, the tool was slightly cockeyed, making the V slop a bit towards the emitter. Making it look a bit more like I/

Sorry to Thread Necro chaps, but I thought this might be helpful for other people who end up here making Sabers. Anakin, is the photo below (the cut on the lefr) more what you were talking about?

Cuts.jpg

This is a test piece I did before starting on my own RotJ Hero prop (Still not finished) on the lathe. I cut the vanes with a 60 degree threading tool. I put the compound slide at 30 degrees to the workpiece and then rotated the toolpost so that it paralleled the work.I fed the tool in using the compound rather than the cross slide, much as I would if I was thread-cutting but without engaging the power feed. The second cut, on the right, is more what I was going for and for that I adjusted the compound slide to 60 degrees while keeping the tool-post parallel to the work.

I still need to cut the larger emitter disk and the pommel (I used 41.3mm stock to minimise wastage) and then figure out how to do a nice control unit.

Y'know the hardest part of making a lightsaber? Maintaining the drive when you see the beautiful work other people have done. It must be like a kid drawing chibis and then looking at something by DaVinci and trying not to give up on the spot.
 
Don´t feel so hard.

From what i noticed many are not turning the stuff they offer, i assume many couldn´t operate a lathe.

They are more or less just making drafts/cad, and then hand them to a shop where proffessionals are operating the machines.
 
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