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Version 1.0 - 8/7/97
Disclaimer!!! I make no guarantee on the availability, nor the accurate description of these components, nor on the overall success of the finished product. Unfortunately, I did not have the foresight to take note of exactly whhat size or specification any of the items I bought were, so all measurements were made by hand off of the finished saber, so they may be slightly off. I STRONGLY recommend doing as I did, and gathering up the components together, and checking that they fit together properly relative to one another, before buying them! (To help with this, I've tried to include not only measured sizes, but sizes relative to other parts as well)
Bottom line: I am not responsible for any bills, injury, or other costs that may be incurred by following these directions. I'm providing this recipe as a useful guide, and as a free service to the general public. The only thing I ask is that if anyone does create a saber using this recipe, they give credit where appropriate. This design, while based on designs used in the Star Wars (tm) movies, is original.
Lightsaber (or "lightsabre") is a trademark of Lucasfilm, Ltd.
GENERAL DIRECTIONS:
Read through the entire directions carefully before starting. This can
be a fun adventure, as it was for me, but I make no guarantees on how
easy to follow these directions are, and I'd hate for someone to start on
it, then get confused or frustrated and not be able to finish. If you
have any questions, or need any clarifications, feel free to email me (my
address is at the bottom of the page) and I'll do what I can to help out.
Just about everything on this list should be available at your local
hardware store. If you can't find something, be creative and try to
find a suitable replacement. I made this recipe completely off the top
of my head by looking at what was available at hardware stores, and
using my imagination to figure out what pieces would work for which
components of the saber, and piecing it together from there.
Good luck, and May the Force Be With You.........
INGREDIENTS:
1 brass tube (12" x 9/16")
14 "small" washers (1 3/8" diamter) (inner diameter should fit almost
perfectly around the brass tube)
22 "medium" washers (1 3/4" diameter) (inner diameter will be slightly larger
than the brass tube, 3/4")
1 "large" washer (2" diameter)
1 copper pipe fitting (narrow end should be just slightly larger than the
diameter of the brass tube, (3/4"), with the wide end about
1 1/4" across). Total, it's 1 1/2" long.
3 rubber grommets (1" diameter)
1 chrome plated (zinc?) plumbing tube, 1 1/2" in diameter. (slightly
smaller in diameter than the "medium" washers.) The one I used was
about 6-8" long, and the last 2" on one end were about .25" wider than
the rest. I cut that end off so I had a piece about 4 1/2" long, of
uniform width.
1 sink hole cap. (these are the things used to cover holes at the
back of sinks made for those pullout hoses and such) It should be
just the right size to fit into the end of the chrome plate plumbing
tube. (~1 1/2")
6 woodruff keys. (these are small, steel semi-circles that can be found
in the same section of the hardware store as most of the washers
and grommets in the little pull-out drawers.) 1" in length.
2 square keys. (similar to woodruff, only instead of being semi-circle, they
are rectangular, 1 1/2" long by 5/16" by 5/16")
1 D-Ring, 1 1/2" across the base
1 latch set. (I don't know what else to call this.. It was a small
package that came with two small brass hooks, and two bracket things
which could be attached to a surface and hold the hooks. The
hooks were discarded but the bracket things were used to hold the D-Ring
in place, so take a close look at that to see what I'm talking about
4 Ball bearings, 3/16" (just bigger than the screw-holes in the brackets)
4 rubber O-rings (all should be just big enough to fit comfortably, but
securely over the chrome tube. One should be roughly .25" thick,
the other three should be about 1/16" or so)
1 package of thin sheet alumninum
1 thin strip of brass, 1/2" wide (just barely narrower than the two square
keys placed side by side)
1 finish washer, 1/2" (just small enough to fit inside the brass tube)
2 finish washers, 7/16"
assorted plastic jewel beads of colors of your choice
1 mousepad. (at least .25" thick. The thinner ones won't work for this.)
STOCK SUPPLIES:
LOTS of 2-part, quickset Epoxy. I think I went through about 2 or three of
the double syringe tubes making mine. You can buy larger bottles
at hobby shops, though, and I might recommend that.
Flat Black spray paint
Great Stuff (tm) or some other spray-foam filler.
Small amounts of red and green (or colors of your choice) enamel paints
masking tape
RECOMMENDED TOOLS:
hacksaw
clamp
X-acto knife
ruler
pliers
Dremel moto-tool
We're going to build this saber in several key components, then put all
the components together, then finally add the detailing.
FOREGRIP:
First off, take 20 of the medium washers, and glue them together in pairs.
When these are dry, slide one of the small washers onto the brass tube.
Now slide 9 of the double-medium washers over the tube, spacing them out
with one small washer between each set of double washers. Finish with
one of the remaining single medium washers. (You should have 1
double-medium washer left.. set this aside for the next step)
The order of washers on the grip should be (S = small, M = medium)
S MM S MM S MM S MM S MM S MM S MM S MM S MM S M
The small washers should fit comfortably, but snuggly around the brass
tube, but the medium ones will be loose. You'll want to glue this entire
stack of washers together, but you have to be careful that the medium
washers are centered around the brass tube. What I suggest is placing
the tube vertically on the table, and start with a small washer, then add
the washers one at a time in the proper order, being careful to keep them
lined up properly, but also being careful not to let them get glued to
the tube. When you're done with this step, you want to have one solid
foregrip assembly that can freely slide onto and off of the brass tube.
From the side, it should look roughtly like:
___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ __
_|||_|||_|||_|||_|||_|||_|||_|||_|||_||
| ||| ||| ||| ||| ||| ||| ||| ||| ||| ||
---------| ||| ||| ||| ||| ||| ||| ||| ||| ||| ||-------------
| ||| ||| ||| ||| ||| ||| ||| ||| ||| || brass tube
---------| ||| ||| ||| ||| ||| ||| ||| ||| ||| ||-------------
|_|||_|||_|||_|||_|||_|||_|||_|||_|||_||
||| ||| ||| ||| ||| ||| ||| ||| ||| ||
^- small washers ^- double medium washers
EMMITER NOZZLE:
Take one of the rubber grommits. From the side, it should look something
like this:
____________ ____________
/____________\ Cut off the bottom half with an /____________\
_|__________|_ X-acto, so it looks like: |__________|
\____________/
(NOTE: none of these diagrams are to scale with each other, reality, or
even necessarily themselves... They are to give a rough idea of how
things should look.)
It should now fit easily into the middle hole of the large washer. When
slid onto the brass tube, the grommit should fit nicely over it, and
will act as a spacer to keep the large washer centered around the brass
tube. Make sure to trim the underside of the grommet so that it is
flush with the underside of the large washer if it isn't already.
Glue the halved grommit in place in the large washer, then glue the
remaining double-medium washer to the underside of the large washer.
Then glue the wide end of the copper fitting to the underside of the
double medium washers. (Once again, you may want to slide all these
items onto the brass tube to make sure you get them lined up right before
gluing them together, but still make sure not to glue anything to the
brass tube itself!)
When completed, it should look like (from the side):
| | <-- brass tube
| |
__________
____/__________\____ <-- Rubber grommit top half
|____________________| <-- large washer
|______________| <-- double medium washer
|______________|
| |
| |
\ /
\ / <-- Copper pipe fitting
| |
|____|
| |
| |
LENS ASSEMBLY:
This is one of the simplest components. It is simply the two remaining
rubber grommets and the last remaining medium washer, all stacked on top
of each other. They should look roughly like:
| |
| | <-- omnipresent brass tube
_________
/_________\ <-- rubber grommet
\_________/
/_________\ <-- rubber grommet (these aren't really thinner
\_________/ than the one used above, I just drew it differently)
======================= <--- medium washer
| |
| |
INTERMISSION:
Once these three components are complete, you should be able to slide
them all onto the brass tube and place them in the correct position.
About 3/8" of the brass tube should be extending from the top of the
EMITTER NOZZLE. The top grommet of the LENS ASSEMBLY should touch the
bottom of the copper pipe fitting of the EMITTER NOZZLE. The top of
the UPPER HANDGRIP should be approximately .75" below the bottom of the
LENS ASSEMBLY. So, when put together, it should look roughly like:
_
___|_|___ <-- end of brass tube _
======= <-- washers \
| | ^ > EMITTER NOZZLE
\ / | - pipe fitting |
_|_|_ v _/
_>___<_ <-- grommets __> LENS ASSEMBLY
| | <-- brass tube
| | _
======= <-- single small washer \
======= at top |
======= ^ |
======= | alternating washers |
======= | > UPPER HANDGRIP
======= | |
======= v |
======= |
======= <-- single medium washer _/
| | at bottom \
| | |
| | |
| | |
| | |
| | > remaining length of brass
| | | tube (roughly 4.5")
| | |
| | |
| | |
|_| /
PUT IT TOGETHER:
Once you've got these components placed, and you're satisfied that they
fit together properly, go ahead and glue them all into place, and let
this all dry thoroughly.
NOW IT GETS INTERESTING.... :)
Measure and cut the chrome tube with a hacksaw, so that it is *just*
longer than the amount of remaining brass tube from the upper handgrip
down. (Should be pretty close to 4 3/8") Making this cut perfectly
straight is difficult, but as long as it's close, that'll do, because
the larger O-ring will eventually cover this seam. (But it'll be easier
to lineup if the cut is straight)
Turn the saber over so it's resting on it's tip. For clarity's sake,
I'm going to keep referring to the "bottom of..." certain components.
Understand that this is the "bottom" as it will be in the finished saber,
but in fact the "top" as it's resting on it's tip.
Slide one of the remaining small washers over the brass tube, and glue
it to the bottom of the upper handgrip. Slide the chrome tube
over the rear end of the brass tube until it (the hand-cut end) rests on
the upper handgrip, held centered by the small washer you just attached.
(the chrome tube should be larger in diameter than the small washer, but
smaller than the medium washer, so it should sit nicely on the bottom of
the handgrip)
Using the Great Stuff fomo-fill with the long skinny tip, fill the
circular gap between the brass and chrome tubes to about 1" up from the
handgrip. The foam fill will expand upwards as it dries, so use it
sparingly, and give it some time, then drop one of the remaining small
washers in on top of the fomo-fill, then add another layer of foam
fill. Repeat this process until all of the remaining small washers have
been used and there's only about .75-1" left of non-filled chrome tube.
Roughly like this:
_. .
.75-1"/ | | | |<--- chrome tube
gap < | | <--------- brass tube
NOT \_| | | |
FILLED |====|==|====|<--- small washer
|XXXX| |XXXX|
|XXXX| |XX<------ Great stuff
|XXXX| |XXXX|
|====|==|====|<--- small washer
|XXXX| |XXXX|
|XXXX| |XX<------ Great stuff
|XXXX| |XXXX|
|====|==|====|<--- small washer
|XXXX| |XXXX|
|XXXX| |XX<------ Great Stuff
|XXXX| |XXXX|
_|====|==|====|_<-- small washer
|______________| <-\
_|__________|_ > UPPER HANDGRIP (upside down)
| | |
v
Again, be VERY careful with the great stuff... IT expands A LOT, so if
you want to get about 1" of the stuff, only spray down about .25-.5" and
let it expand upwards. It's very important that you have a sizeable gap
at the top, otherwise, you will not be able to attach the endcap!
ENDCAP:
(NOTE: The sink hole cap that I got was coated in some type of greenish
plastic/rubber film. This was easily stripped away (start with your
fingernails, then just peel it off), to reveal the cap to be chrome
underneath. You may or may not have to do this with yours.)
Make sure all of the foam fill is done expanding, because if you attach
the endcap while it's still going, the cap likely won't stay on too
long! Once it's all settled, take the sink hole cap, and check to make
sure that it'll fit in the end of the chrome tube. The sink hole cap I
had, had a smooth chrome surface on top, and the underside had a bunch of
angled "claws" that snap inside the hole it's supposed to cover. Well, it
should be a tight fit, but you should be able to get the claws to fit
snuggly inside the end of the chrome pipe. Once you've verified that it
will, take it back out, and fill the remaining gap in the chrome pipe
*almost* up to the top with epoxy, then push the endcap back down into
the epoxy, and keep some good pressure on it to make sure it stays down
while the epoxy cures. (You will likely feel a great deal of heat, as
the epoxy gets warm when mixed, and putting it under pressure probably
adds to that, but it shouldn't be too hot to handle, so keep that
pressure on.)
Now, before we go on to detaling the rest of the saber, roll the larger
of the O-rings up to cover the seam between the chrome tube and the upper
handgrip. Add a little bit of epoxy to hold it in place. Roll two of the
three smaller ones up close to it, but don't glue them down yet. This is
just to keep them out of the way.
POWER UNIT FINS:
Glue the 6 woodruff keys onto the chrome tube, starting right at the very
bottom. Space them evenly around the circle. In a case like this, it's
better to use a little extra epoxy and be a little sloppy, than to have
the keys falling off (I've had to reglue several of mine already). Best
approach is probably to do them 2 at a time, attaching them in opposite
pairs. The good thing about the quick-set epoxy is it gives you enough
time to make adjustments as it dries, but you don't have to hold them in
place for too terribly long.
Roll the final remaining small O-Ring onto the end of the chrome
tube. There should be a small lip caused by the endcap, and you should be
able to put this O-ring in place to where it's held between this lip, and
the bottom edges of the woodruff keys, covering what may be an ugly seam
between the chrome tube and the sink hole cap. Add a little epoxy to
keep this O-ring in place.
Roll the lowest of the two other small O-rings down to the top edge of
the woodruff keys, but don't glue it.
LOWER HANDGRIP:
And you thought I was kidding when I said "1 mousepad"... :-)
This next part takes a great deal of time and patience, and a steady
hand. You might have to repeat it two or three times to get it right,
but that's okay, because you should have plenty of extra mouspad left
after the first try! :)
Cut a strip of mousepad that is roughly 1 5/8" thick and long enough to
*almost* wrap around the outside of the chrome tube with the surface of
the pad against the chrome. (If you make it long enought to wrap all the
way around, it'll be too long once you get it sliced, so make it about .25"
shorter than it should be)
Place the strip face down on a safe cutting surface. With an X-acto and
a ruler, make cuts that run the width of the strip, every .25" for the
entire length. If you do this carefully with a sharp enough X-acto, you
should be able to cut all the way through the foam rubber, without
cutting through the cloth on the face of the pad.
If you've done this right, you should be able to wrap the strip around
the chrome tube, facedown, and it will appear to have a bunch of black,
foam rubber strips, all set in place next to each other around the hilt.
(See photos on my page for reference)
Carefully cut the ends of each strip on a 45-degree angle, to give it a
bevelled look. This can be tricky since it requires cutting sideways
across the strips, but take your time and it should work out okay.
Now, you can wrap the LOWER HANDGRIP around the chrome tube, sliding the
lower edge under the small O-ring at the top of the woodruff keyes, so that
the small O-ring covers the seam between the top of the woodruff keys and
the handgrip. Glue the O-ring and handgrip in place. Now roll the
final small O-ring down to cover the upper edge of the handgrip, and
glue it in place. If this was done correctly, the distance between the
topmost small O-ring, and the big O-ring, should be just larger than the
length of the square keys (~1 1/2"), and should look roughly like:
____
/ \ ______
||------|/------\|--------()||_
||/____\|--------| ||||
|| ____ |--------| ||||
||\ /|--------| ||||_
||------|\______/|--------()||
\____/
^^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^
|| | | | \ | \------- base of upper handgrip.
|| | | handgrip \ large O-ring
|| | \ small O-ring
|| \ small O-Ring
|\ woodruff keys
\ small O-ring
Sink hole cap
(See the closeup of this end of the saber as a reference)
LOGIC UNIT:
Glue the two square keys together side by side, so you have one block
that is 1 1/2" by 5/16" by 5/8". Cut a piece of the brass strip to be
1 3/8" long. Glue it on top of the two square keys. Cut a strip from the
sheet aluminum that is 1/2" wide by 4 1/4" (long enough to wrap around
the two keys). Wrap it around the keys, and when that's done, glue it in
place so that there's approximately 1/16" of sheet aluminum above the top
edge of the keys, and 1/8" below the bottom of the keys. (The top of the
keys at this point is the side with the brass glued to it.)
Bend the top 1/16" lip of aluminum in over the edge of the keys, all the
way around. You will probably have to make snips at the corner to make
it fold in smoothly, and may have to pound it with a hammer, or use some
other tool for leverage. I don't recommend trying to bend that small
amount of sharp aluminum edge with your finger! After it's bent down,
it's a good idea to go over any sharp edges, particularly in the corners,
with a high-grit dremel sanding wheel.
Now, you've got the main workings of your logic box, but the ends are
rectangluar and need to be curved at the bottom to fit the curve of the
saber. A dremel sanding wheel will succeed in cutting aluminum casing
to shape.
END VIEW (highly enlarged):
/-- brass strip.
_ v _
/=========================\ <--- curled top edge
|| | ||
|| square key | square key ||
|| | || <--- aluminum sheet
|| | ||
|| | ||
|| | ||
||____________|____________||
| ------------ |
| ----- ------ |
^
\---- bottom edge ground w/ Dremel to fit curve
\_____________v_____________/
5/8"
Now, this can be glued onto the chrome tube between the lower handgrip
and the upper handgrip. It should fit almost perfectly between the
O-rings marking the handgrip seams.
DIODES:
The triangular diodes on the side of the logic box are purely epoxy. Mix
*small* amounts of enamel with epoxy. (I used red and green, but do
whatever you want.) Thickly spread small amounts of this colored epoxy onto
the side of the logic unit. After about 2-3 minutes, when the epoxy is
about 80% cured, you should be able to easily cut the blobs into
triangles, or whatever shape you want the diodes to be. Just make the
cut, and trim away the excess. Easy as that.
BELT RING:
This will require LOTS of epoxy, and may get sloppy, especially if you
actually plan to wear it around on your belt. (C'mon, you KNOW you want
to! It's just not the same if you don't... :)
Take the brackets from the latch set, and bend them *slightly* inward, so
that they'll fit the slight curvature of the sink hole cap. Then glue
them in place so that they'll hold the D-ring on the end of the saber.
While the epoxy is still wet, place the ball bearings in the holes on the
brackets, so that they look like bolts. Just be careful to keep the
D-ring out of the epoxy so that it'll still move back and forth freely in
the brackets. (If you can figure some way to actually securely bolt the
brackets to the endcaps rather than just gluing them, more power to
you! I suppose simple screws might work, but I don't know...)
This should be fairly easy to figure out, but see the picture of on the
page if you have any questions.
DIAGNOSTIC SOCKETS:
Glue the two 7/16" finish washers to the chrome pipe, opposite the logic
unit.
EMITTER TIP:
With some of the remaining fomo-fill, fill the tip of the brass tube so
that there's about 1/4" from the foam to the end of the tube. Lay the
1/2" finish washer on top of the foam, upside down, so that it acts as a
tray to hold your "jewels". Arrange the jewels however you like. I had
one larger one that I placed in the center, then 6 smaller ones arranges
around it. (Be creative! Presumably, whatever color the jewels are
would indicate what color the blade would be... though that's
debateable. I decided to go with the simple solution, and since I'd be
sure to have a blue blade, I used blue jewels. But... it's all up to
you.) Once the jewels are in place, fill the tube to the top with epoxy.
From the cutaway side view:
_______
|_^_^_^_| <--- assorted jewels, epoxy filler.
|\_____/| <--- inverted finish washer
|XXXXXXX|
|XXXXX<---- more fomo-fill
|XXXXXXX|
PAINTING DETAILS:
For the activation plate on top of the logic unit (which should be
currently the plain brass strip), mask off stripes every 1/8" for the
length of the plate.
Wrap the upper handgrip in masking tape, but with an exacto, carefully
cut away the strips from the "grooves" in the grip. (In otherwords, the
outer edges of the medium washers should be masked, but everything in
between should be open.
Mask off the rest of the saber (You should probably use newspaper for
most of it, with tape at the edges, so you don't use a whole roll of
masking tape)
Once you're sure that the only exposed areas of the saber are the strips
on the activation plate and the inner rings of the upper handgrip, give
it a coat of flat black spray paint. I used Testor's Model Masters, but
more general purpose paints, such as Krylon, might take to the metal better.
THAT'S IT!! You're own lightsaber!!
If you've actually followed through with this, and succeeded in making a
saber, I'd love to hear about it! Email me at: tpruss@engin.umich.edu. Feel free to
send .gifs (or gifts! ;) or .jpgs of your finished work as well... I may
even post them on my page!
Thanks again, and I hope you've enjoyed this recipe!