ANH Skywalker Lightsaber Scratchbuild (metal - PIC HEAVY!)

Looking good!
Thanks!

Indeed. Although, may I humbly suggest something? Maybe the top edge of the grips need a little more sanding to remove the wood grain, and coat them with Plasti-dip.Other than that...awesome. I hope mine turns out as well.
Of course. The wood grain wasn’t as visible before I painted the grips, so I think that the paint must have accentuated it and made it stand out more. I will add this to the list of “finishing touches”. [emoji4]
 
For weeks I’ve been searching for the perfect item to use as a base for the red button piece (of course, buying a ready-made one would have saved me a lot of trouble, but I prefer to make as much as I can myself - it makes the end result so much more satisfying.)

No matter where I looked, however, I couldn’t find anything that looked good. In the end I settled on a piece of household junk that happened to be the perfect diameter, trimmed to the correct height and painted silver, with a cup washer and a small acrylic disk glued to the top.
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Let me know what you think. :)
 
Hey The14thDr ! Nice job on the button! For a bunch of found parts, it turned out pretty close. The real Red Button has a different bevel on the surround, that I realize you'll have a hard time duplicating with 100% accuracy this way, but I think if the red plunger sat down a little bit more I think it would look even better.

Any attempts on the Clamp yet?
 
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Hey Ridire Firean! Thanks! If I sand roughly 1-2mm off the top of the red piece it should give the impression that it is sat a little further down.

And funny you should mention the clamp, my dad and I have just spent the past couple of hours trying to recreate it, and it looks great! (if I may say so myself [emoji6] ) We just need to add a bolt so that it can be clamped onto the lightsaber, then I’ll be sure to post some photos.
 
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What brand of tooth paste, man. What brand?!?!

But seriously... That looks awesome. The thought has occasionally crossed my mind, but I never really looked into it. I checked my current tube of toothpaste, but the cap is tapered, so it's a no go.

Actually, another option I've used in the past is a on/off knob for a halogen torchiere lamp. Some places have replacement models, and in silver/chrome.
 
Thanks! [emoji4] I don’t know whether you’ve seen any of my other builds, but I mostly work on a zero-budget (normally just cardboard and other household items) so I guess I have an eye for turning pieces of random junk into okay-ish replicas. [emoji23]

P.S. For anyone who is wondering, I can say for sure that “Colgate Triple Action” toothpaste has the non-tapered cap.
 
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For the clamp, I began by printing out a template and using this to mark out a strip of 50mm wide aluminium.

The devil really is in the detail with this prop, and I decided that the clamp just wouldn't look the same if it was nothing more than a strip of aluminium wrapped around the lightsaber, so I started out using a craft knife to create the two sets of lines on the clamp.

For the five holes I drilled through the metal then used a needle file to carve the aluminium into the correct shape.

(I chose to omit the Graflex logo because I felt it didn’t look right on something that’s meant to come from a galaxy far far away - which kind of lends a TFA look to the clamp)
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The trickiest part was then creating the 90 degree bends for the clamp box. This took me and my dad well over an hour.

Fortunately, once this was done we were then able to gently curve the aluminium into shape without any issues, then we added a bolt to hold the two halves of the clamp together.
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Nice work on the lines! Dude that looks great! Harbor freight sells a small bench top bending brake that has been very useful to me when bending metal. That must've been very tedious making those lines! Fantastic job so far!
 
Strangely enough, the lines were the easiest part of the clamp to make. I just marked them out with a pencil and then used a craft knife and a ruler to “etch” them into the metal.

But yeah, I’ll definitely have to invest in a bending brake for any future lightsaber/metalwork projects; that would make things so much easier. [emoji23]
 
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I'm gonna Fab up a clamp but buy one of Roy's clamp covers. Or......buy a Romans clamp. Cheating a little but it will have the look I want.
 
Oh yeah, buying a clamp is definitely the easiest route to go down and guaranteed to be 100% accurate, but I wanted to keep this on as small a budget as possible (the aluminium sheet only cost me £1.60, and there’s more than enough left over for the bunny ears, beer tab, etc.) - not to mention I find scratch building things much more satisfying and personal; but that’s just me, even if it does make everything 1000x more difficult for myself. ;)
 
I agree on the building of things vs buying. But there are times when my quest for perfection overrides my build ability.
Oh I agree wholeheartedly; the parts I build are in no way 100% accurate, and certainly not to the level that you’d get with someone like Roy’s parts. But then of course my limited bank balance wins out over everything. [emoji6]

Having said that, I’m still very proud of how this has turned out so far, being my first ever metal build. Hopefully I should have an update for the clamp card/bubble strip over the next couple of days or so.
 
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I'm always infinitely more impressed by scratch built props, even when they aren't 100% accurate. I've got two Obi ANH sabers, one that's mostly machined parts, and one that is mostly hand fabricated. Neither is completely accurate, but somehow, I find greater satisfaction in the one that's hand made.

BTW, you've inspired me. Since I've already made the clamps for my two aluminum Graflex WIPs, I may make TFA style covers using your methods and aluminum flashing. At least that way I won't risk ruining the good aluminum sheet!
 
I'm always infinitely more impressed by scratch built props, even when they aren't 100% accurate. I've got two Obi ANH sabers, one that's mostly machined parts, and one that is mostly hand fabricated. Neither is completely accurate, but somehow, I find greater satisfaction in the one that's hand made.
I think that has something to do with being able to look at a prop and think, “yeah, I made that myself” - and having gone through the entire process yourself, you do feel a lot more satisfaction in the finished product, even if it does take a lot more time and effort (which is probably another factor that makes it more satisfying.) I’d never pretend that this build is in any way 100% accurate, but I know that it’s as good as I can possibly make it with the tools I have available - I suppose that just adds more character to the finished piece and makes it completely unique to you.

BTW, you've inspired me. Since I've already made the clamps for my two aluminum Graflex WIPs, I may make TFA style covers using your methods and aluminum flashing. At least that way I won't risk ruining the good aluminum sheet!
That’s great! I’d love to see how this turns out. [emoji4]
 
Unfortunately I didn’t have any clear plastic to use for the base of the bubble strip (and I didn’t want to order some and have to wait even longer for materials to arrive), so instead I settled on a piece of card, cut to 50 x 18 mm and mounted to a strip of hardboard.

For the bubbles themselves I used a hot glue gun with the WannaWanga plans as a guide to get the right diameter. (If you place a sheet of baking paper on top of the paper template it makes it 1000x easier to peel off the glue)

Despite that, it still took a fair few attempts to get seven which were all roughly the same size and shape as each other.

A bit of acrylic glue and the bubbles were firmly attached to their base, which I painted a pale silver colour.
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Finally, I fixed this to the clamp with some acrylic glue. With the limited tools available to us, it would’ve been impossible to bend the rest of the aluminium over the top of the strip.
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So to remedy this, I filed the aluminium until it was level with the clamp card, then glued two thin strips of aluminium into place on top.
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(Cheating, I know, but it still gives the same effect unless you look too closely ;) )
 
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