Hello everyone, Im new at this forum and prop building. I was wondering if anyone could give me tips or tutorials on hardware building lightsabers. I really dont want to purchase any graflex flashguns, I think it'd be awesome to build some from scratch, specifically Luke's ESB, Vader's ANH, Obi Wan's ANH, and Luke's ROTJ. If anyone knows how to or can refer me to someone where I can get the knowledge on how to build them please let me know. Thanks guys.
Hardware Build lightsabers
- Thread starter Jay0220
- Start date
veektohr
Sr Member
Check out our swanky Custom Lightsaber Thread. You will find gobs of information & inspiration.
It's hard to beat hardware parts when it comes to prive-- but there are lots of vintage flashguns that go for cheap that are great for custom sabers. If you go all hardware, I'd just say to avoid the sink drain tube route as it has become pretty easy to spot unless you're super creative.
most sabers, even flashes, ARE aluminum tubes, so that's totally cool! I'm just talking about the very obvious sink trap type tubes. I also don't like seeing threads, as it screams hardware-- but that's just me.
But yeah-- def check out the custom saber thread-- it's long but full of gold!
But yeah-- def check out the custom saber thread-- it's long but full of gold!
I built these sabers back in 2004- 2010. I've since moved on to machined parts and aluminum tubing pieces that I can modify for my needs. But I just wanted to show people that with some ingenuity you can build some really cool hardware sabers from plumbing tube, PVC, and Styrene. The process was a bit labor intensive but so worth it.
Very cool! Love the Obi Wan
JaxAndTheMoon
Sr Member
That Anakin AOTC was spot on! Very impressive
Thank you much! The process was mostly just using epoxy to adhere pvc plumbing tube over chromed sink tube in layers and then grinding away sections to create rings, for the Obi-Wan and Luke sabers, though the Luke saber had thin chrome sink tube rings epoxied in place too. The internals were either MR soundboards and the Luke had a hyperdyne labs early sound board. The LED's were Luxeon III driven off the boards or constant current drivers. I basically used a Dremel to cut angled shrouds, or grind rings into the pvc, so n it was a bunch of techniques really. I don't have a tutorial for any of it, but I just like to show people these to illustrate that you don't need all kinds of fancy machinery to build some decent looking sabers out of hardware store parts.
I used to cruz the plumbing asile in my local hardware stores looking for things to inspire me. Now cruz the local thrift shops looking for a graflex. One day....... Lol
