There's a little bit of significance to this one: back when I was a teenager, I had a roleplay Jedi character that I was never able to design a satisfactory lightsaber for. I'd always had this idea that his weapons and tools should be more "junkyard," with leather wraps and scraps of metal and such, but the idea never went anywhere. Once I finished this build, I said "Eureka!" and recognized it as the design I never managed to develop back when it would have done me some good.
Anyway.
The core of this build came together surprisingly fast. I was messing around with a string of random parts one night and realized they fit and-to-end in a pleasing way. The body, top to bottom, is a Graflex slave minus the ears, two screen door slider wheels, the knurled end from a Canon Model X endcap, an inverted Canon Model Y, a stainless steel champagne stopper, and a faucet handwheel from TrueValue Hardware.
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The handwheel's diameter was an exact match for that of the original core of the champagne stopper, so I drilled out the rivets holding the flanges on the core, then drilled holes in the handwheel and attached the flanges to it with pop rivets. The space inside the stopper was filled with the front end of an aluminum flashlight, and the whole assembly was riveted to the Canon flash.
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The top end of the saber is held together with an 8-32 threaded rod. The spare Canon endcap was cut down to just below the bayonet lock and it was sandwiched between the two screen door wheels, then threaded into the bottom of the slave and the endcap of the Canon Y.
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The emitter is the bulb holder and reflector collar off the Y. The knob and backplate on the slave were parts off a Canon Model X's accessories. The whole thing is held together with a series of screws and a little bit of glue.
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I cut down a Novus 820-style bubble strip to fit the Canon clamp, covered the clamp writing with embossed lure tape, and finally the handle was wrapped in leather cord from Jo-Anns Fabrics.
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I'm really happy with how this one came out. The basic assembly came together fast and I didn't have to do much second-guessing about the overall design. That's usually a sign of a good idea.
And a little preview of the next build....
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i generally don't love the leather wrap style, but this thing is phenomenal.. There's a bit of Obi-Wan magic hero in the perfect storm of found parts.