A Finished Lightsaber

10/9/2013

Tonight I went to the hardware store and bought some l-brackets to attached the tube to the base of the lightsaber. The tube is made out of a plastic florescent light cover. Then, I stuffed some tissued paper in the far end and put some plastic wrap over the end. After that, I wrapped the tube in tissue paper. I have included pictures of various steps and the finished product. I also put a 9V holder in the bottom to stop it from rattling around.

I'm trying to keep my 5 year old's hands off it until Halloween because the tube is fragile and he wants to use it for his costume. We'll see how long that lasts. Devin doesn't like the look of the tissue paper so we're going to try something else with his. He's going to take some fine sandpaper to the tube to turn in cloudy and put some aluminum foil over the far end to reflect some of the light back. If that works, maybe I'll redo this lightsaber in the same way. I don't really like the wad of tissue I have glowing at the end.

Anyway, this project has been pretty fun and very simple. I'm really happy with out the handles turned out .

4 Comments

Art Carnage

10/9/2013 02:57:43 pm

I made one, back when "A New Hope" was still playing in the theaters. You can buy "golf tubes" at a sporting goods store for real cheap. They're translucent white plastic, and are made to hold the shafts of golf clubs while in a golf bag. Some high-strength epoxy was used to attach it to the lens of a cheap flashlight. That's all it took. Looked great at night. A friend (this was at college) also made one. We wanted a more realistic effect, so we wound thin uninsulated copper wire around each tube, with the turns about a half inch apart. Scotch tape secured it, and wasn't visible when the light was turned on. We connected each copper wire (using insulated wiring) to separate terminals of a 12 volt car battery. We waited for night, and hauled our equipment out onto a campus courtyard, and had a terrific lightsaber fight, with sparks flying every time the copper wires touched. Truly awesome, though it was a one-time event, as the tubes were badly scorched in the battle.

Ben link

10/9/2013 09:30:53 pm

That sounds like fun. It did take me a little bit to figure out how to attach the tubes. I'm working under the assumption that my 5 year old is going to hit things with it when I'm not looking. That's why I went with the metal brackets. That and it's removable.

The golf tubes sound pretty similar to florescent light cover I'm using. The main constraint on this project was that my 9 year old needed to be able to do it with minimal supervision. After Halloween, I think they'll just end up with cool looking led flashlights. I'm assuming they'll break the tubes eventually.

I'm assuming you and your friend made the noises at the lightsabers were swinging through the air.

Will E.

10/9/2013 10:31:44 pm

I am doing the second version of a lightsaber for one of my sons. I bought hollow 1" plexiglass tube, and then poured glow-in-the-dark paint down it. In daylight the tube has a greenish-white color, and once it's charged with light it's awwwesome.

Now to study on adding LEDs to the handle... Thanks for the example!

Ben link

10/9/2013 11:09:20 pm

The glow-in-the-dark paint sounds like a cool idea. Adding LEDs is really simple. It took my 9 year old about 15 minutes to solder everything together.

One thing I like about this design is that I can remove the tube and add something new.

A Finished Lightsaber

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