It turned our really well. He decided to sand the plastic tube at the end and we put some plastic wrap at the far end to catch and diffuse some of the light there. It turned out better than the one I covered in tissue paper. Perhaps I'll redo that one when the 5 year old breaks the tube off. It's only a matter of time. Here are some pictures of the finished lightsabers.
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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 . As I said before, my 9 year old is working on making a lightsaber for his monthly science project. Or course, whatever the 9 year old has, the 5 year old wants. I decided to assemble a light saber for the little guy tonight so I know how much work the older guy is going to have to do. In this post, I am only showing the base of the lightsaber. It's quite straightforward. I am using four super bright LEDs from Sparkfun, two 220 ohm resistors, a 9V battery, and a switch. For the housing, I cut down some PVC pipe and bought some fittings for the end. The most expensive piece of equipment is the switch at about $4. The entire lightsaber comes in under $10. As an exercise, I had Devin (the 9 year old) use this website, which generates a circuit and the necessary resistors for a given number of LEDs. It's a good tool and perfect for a child with very little knowledge of Algebra. I'll include a schematic of the LED circuit below. I have also included pictures from throughout the project. After I finished James' (the 5 year old's) light saber, Devin decided to solder his up tonight too. They both turned out rather well. All that is left is attaching the tube.  |
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