Something out of Nothing - Budget Builds lets see them!

My zero cost Jawa blaster built solely from stuff I already had in the shed. Turned up some old firewood, and bandsawed the stock from an old board. Finished it with a series of washes dabbed on with a sponge, over matt black Rustoleum. Final touch was a thick dusting of powdered bentonite clay to give it that Tatooine dry gulch feel.

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Okay. The epitome of budget - an arc reactor where the lights were from poundland and everything else was small scraps of stuff I already had: the rim of a paint cup, blue paper tissue, strips of vinyl, glue, some cardboard with a shiny backing.

It looked awesome through a shirt.
 
I want to start stepping away from doing the Predator20170905_141825.jpg replica sculpts, so I gave the Destiny Hunter Knife a go. Everyone and their dog seems to have done this one, so why not. ;p And the face I carved from a nut called Tagua. It is about 2 inches long. 20170921_144258.jpg
 
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First two pics are from a reveal saber I did about a year ago, not a true budget build as I had to buy the empty hilt from a run here. The crystal chamber was made out of parts from a long dead computer. Mostly posting because I think it's funny how I used some of the exact same parts as pfillery, without ever seeing his post until tonight. Made the stand for it as well from leftover pieces of hardboard and 2x4. I robbed a flickering LED from a tea candle and used a 3 way toggle to have the option of a constant "on" or flickering/pulsing.

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This is the real budget build though, built them out of old insulation foam I would lay down to protect my bench when using the plunge router, hardboard pieces that I would put in the vise to keep from marring parts, scrap PVC pipe pieces, a couple of mdf chunks, and pockets clips from Bic pens (for the small detail pieces that go around the ring on the yellow part). LEDs and wire weren't scrap, but extras that I already had, even had the paint that I used. Only thing I bought was the headgear for a welding helmet. So, had to invest $12 total into them. Was inspired by davidJurassic's recent build thread and with the measurements he provided, they were pretty simple to build, just had to take my time working the foam and body filler (used for the green headband parts), to get it into the final shape. I would like to redo the "camo" paint job and white lines on the lenses, but they work for now.

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My Stormtrooper Lightsaber. Built from PVC pipe and a sink drain tube. The aluminum emitter is 2 pieces of scrap sheet aluminum JB Welded together and the grip is 3D printed for $12. I did buy a DIYino board, but the rest is pretty cheap.

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I'm posting this here because this tubebag was essentially made from scraps.

When I made my first bag, I vacuum formed the parts using the traditional method. This meant heaps of waste and parts that were pulled thin due to the stretching of the plastic due to the vacuum forming process.

The bag is essentially 5 parts. But to make each part, required a sheet of plastic 800mm x 800mm or 32" x 32".

To get the 5 sheets required me to buy 2 full sized sheets of 2400mm x 1200mm or 8' X 4' and have those cut down. This meant that I now had 1/3rd of each sheet (2400mm X 400mm) as scrap as well as a peice of 800mm x 800mm left over. At almost $200 per sheet, it was more plastic than I was prepared to throw away.

Rather than throw it, I stored it until I found the vacuum blanket (high temp silicone sheet) for my former and then used the smaller parts to make this tube bag.

The material used was 4.5mm ABS and after tradional vac forming, the plastic is averaging 3mm.

With the blanket, the plastic goes in at 4.5mm and comes out at 4.5mm. The seal is made by the blanket and it stretches (up-to 250%) as it shapes the heated plastic.

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