SuperFLY
Well-Known Member
Hi all,
I originally joined up to get some tips and ideas on building a custom lightsaber.
I've never built anything like this before, and have very limited tools (just a dremel, files, vice and a drill) but I thought 'why not' (famous last words)
Popped down the hardware store and bought a few random bits and pieces that looked good (and ended up not using most of it!! grr)
i bought a really cheap plastic lightsaber and ripped the sound board out of it, upgraded the speaker (you can see the original speaker in the pic - the green one) and upgraded a couple of other bits to improve the sound and power. works great
i then made my initial cuts and ended up with this
i was originally going to keep it mostly metal but looking at it i decided i didn't like that and started making some grips
at this point i realised the saber was longer than i wanted. due to the internals the measurements got pushed out 3cm more than i wanted so i cut that down, reduced the grip size and trimmed the emitter a little. i also decided to actually do a design for it. it's not to scale and i did change things as i went but it did give me a good point to work from.
after that came the building. covered the pipes in masking tape and made a couple of templates to work from. the mesh in the emitter is part of an old sieve
and started cutting! (gulp!)
little test view of the crystal with the leds on. i hot glued a little plug onto the bottom of it and the leds go into that. once lit up it floods the crystal and gives a superb all around light. this'll sit inside the emitter.
and this is how it is currently looking..
and a slightly shopped version removing a bit of the tape i've got on holding the grip on (not attached yet) and adding the power led so you get a better idea of the finished article
some of the cuts were a little rough.. i did try to take my time over it but i have no experience doing any of this so i was bound to make the odd error. i annoyingly did cut a little too far on the main grip, filled the groove with solder to fill it in and its not really noticeable which is good.
unfortunately, as much as i'd love to show you a picture of the lighting fully on (and a vid of the sound) it did look good
i had a real nightmare with the wiring yesterday and have decided to take it all apart and start again. the short version is the wiring i was using was too thick and not very pliable, plus i didnt think out how much space i'd have well enough and the additional wiring basically meant i ran out of room inside the saber. i'm going to change tac with all that, cut the wiring down, put the sound board in from the other end and modify the internal pipe to suit a more compact battery pack. i was using a flat 2x2 AAA pack (was actually 2 packs i joined together) but its too long really. a 4 pack was a couple of mm too big to fit but a couple of grooves cut into the internal pipe will solve that issue. (i hope)
once i've sorted the wiring and got it all back in, i'll be done.. quite happy with how its turned out; with the sound/lighting in it'll be the icing on the cake.
oh and already planning another one (dear god what have i awoken in me?!)
so, what do you think? (be gentle)
thanks
I originally joined up to get some tips and ideas on building a custom lightsaber.
I've never built anything like this before, and have very limited tools (just a dremel, files, vice and a drill) but I thought 'why not' (famous last words)
Popped down the hardware store and bought a few random bits and pieces that looked good (and ended up not using most of it!! grr)
i bought a really cheap plastic lightsaber and ripped the sound board out of it, upgraded the speaker (you can see the original speaker in the pic - the green one) and upgraded a couple of other bits to improve the sound and power. works great
i then made my initial cuts and ended up with this
i was originally going to keep it mostly metal but looking at it i decided i didn't like that and started making some grips
at this point i realised the saber was longer than i wanted. due to the internals the measurements got pushed out 3cm more than i wanted so i cut that down, reduced the grip size and trimmed the emitter a little. i also decided to actually do a design for it. it's not to scale and i did change things as i went but it did give me a good point to work from.
after that came the building. covered the pipes in masking tape and made a couple of templates to work from. the mesh in the emitter is part of an old sieve
and started cutting! (gulp!)
little test view of the crystal with the leds on. i hot glued a little plug onto the bottom of it and the leds go into that. once lit up it floods the crystal and gives a superb all around light. this'll sit inside the emitter.
and this is how it is currently looking..
and a slightly shopped version removing a bit of the tape i've got on holding the grip on (not attached yet) and adding the power led so you get a better idea of the finished article
some of the cuts were a little rough.. i did try to take my time over it but i have no experience doing any of this so i was bound to make the odd error. i annoyingly did cut a little too far on the main grip, filled the groove with solder to fill it in and its not really noticeable which is good.
unfortunately, as much as i'd love to show you a picture of the lighting fully on (and a vid of the sound) it did look good
i had a real nightmare with the wiring yesterday and have decided to take it all apart and start again. the short version is the wiring i was using was too thick and not very pliable, plus i didnt think out how much space i'd have well enough and the additional wiring basically meant i ran out of room inside the saber. i'm going to change tac with all that, cut the wiring down, put the sound board in from the other end and modify the internal pipe to suit a more compact battery pack. i was using a flat 2x2 AAA pack (was actually 2 packs i joined together) but its too long really. a 4 pack was a couple of mm too big to fit but a couple of grooves cut into the internal pipe will solve that issue. (i hope)
once i've sorted the wiring and got it all back in, i'll be done.. quite happy with how its turned out; with the sound/lighting in it'll be the icing on the cake.
oh and already planning another one (dear god what have i awoken in me?!)
so, what do you think? (be gentle)
thanks