"Real Lightsabers"

Being the dweeb fan that I am, I was always blown away by the idea and thoughts of an "actual" lightsaber and how one might work. Many folks have had the same thoughts about how one might work and a lot has been written about the potential...

What are YOUR thoughts on the best possible "reality" of what a "real" lightsaber might actually be?

To start it off, I offer two things, first, I highly doubt that anything remotely like an energy sword could really be possible - as most scientific thinkers have said, but they do not really offer another option...

The custom sabers here and other places offer "lightsabers" that have a removable blade. My initial thought - once I got back to it is that this would be an acceptable, slow, but acceptable option. Put the blade on and use it... difficult to be fast though, no doubt.

Then I recalled two things. First, when I started doing video fro a living in 1992, it was a tad slow, so I worked part time in the evening selling security devices and the like. One of the things they sold a lot of had been stun guns, but one type of stun gun in particular recently popped into my head, it was a baton that had a electric coil around it. The thing gave quite a zap too.

The other item was that when i worked security years before, we carried a night stick when we worked non armed positions. At some point, they made telescopic batons with a spring coil in them - which can be had in various lengths now...

So, what if the "real" lightsaber was really just a very advanced telescopic baton like device with an extreme kick to it?

Interesting. I don't know if they ever made a telescopic stun baton, I would think the coils might break at some point, but that baton carried a heck of a zap to it...

RayH

I think building a real lightsaber is possible. In france they have built a meter long plasma torch, if you contain the plasma in a magnetic field to shape the plasma into a rod like shape building a lightsaber could be done. the only problem is some how building a power source that could fit in the hilt. seeing as how you would need about 100,000 volts of power that part would be hard to do.
Not entirely impossible, just really hard to do.

Those who live by the sword, will die by the sword

There lots of ways to create air plasma. A few years ago I made a device that used high pressure Argon with a spark gap driver. I know for a fact that if you were to build a small X-RAY light module with a bestform optic focused into a tight beam. That beam will be fully ionised.The ionized beam will be able to guide plasma from high voltage spark in mid air. It is amazing how simple it is to make an xray light module. All you need is a piece of tungsten metal rotating in a vacuum sealed glass tube with a high voltage cathode, like from a fluorescent light bulb. This technology was discovered in the late 1800's.You need a lead tube to cover the module so that no xray light will leak out of the sides from the xr module. once the module is completed, you need the 1" glass optic to focus it into the invisible saber beam. I think you could probably use the same electrodes from the high voltage driver to place in front of the xr mod to ignite the plasma within the beam. Other than that as long as you somehow have a powerful ion beam, you can ignite it with high voltage spark. The other thing that im working on right now is a saber handle that fires massive amounts of super bright sparks almost 3 feet. I was able to create a funnel to shape the long sparks into a narrow path of spark light. I shot it over an open flame and discovered that spark path ignited even brighter than the post sparks. This technique works awesome!!!!!!! if you are trying to create saber visual, this is a funny but effective way to do it. I discover this when I took a piece of flint and made contact with my bench grinder. It looked so dam cool. So I though what if I were do downsize this concept with a funnel that will shape the spark path into a more narrow visual. I also discovered that If I placed my hand infront of the sparks, it does not burn or hurt. As silly as this concept may seem, it actually looks fascinating.The device that IM building uses a high powered 540 size rc motor with the small grinding wheel inside the hilt. Its powered by a 7.2v 6 amp rc battery. The only downfall is that motor sticks out of the side of the saber handle. So I'M trying to design a rectangle handle lol with a small compartment on the side so that it doesn't look so funny. Instead of calling it a lightsaber. I might called it a sparksaber LOL!!!!!!I also noticed that there are other metals that fire up even greater sparks.My needle nose shot out an extremely piercing bright spark path.As primitive as this concept is, I think it can be taken several steps further. Perhaps you could place the narrow spark path infront of high voltage electrodes. Or use a neodymium magnet to control the shape of the sparks or something like that. As crazy as this is, I do see a lot of potential with this direction.

from the sound of it photon you are talking of real looks .I am talking about a saber that will actually cut something .

Is that your lightsaber or are you happy to see me?

Man photon, you certainly bring a new and interesting angle to the saber business. Some of your ideas sound weird but you seem to pull them off great. Very refreshing!!

Less talk, more action........

You sure do have some crazy ideas photon- I'm surprised I understood all that. It sounds exciting, can't wait to see what you can do with it.

Sounds like if would certainly catch somones house on fire if not wired up
safely or grounded correctly[:D]

Your best bet on actually cutting would be some sort of laser, it is about the only thing capable of high energy in a remotely compact package, at least as far as i have read

The Exploration network posted an article on the subject. Seems possible, but it'd be awfully heavy with current technology. Article is here: http://www.exn.ca/starwars/plasmasaber.cfm

Ok, here's something that came to mind. Not a "real" saber, but certainly gooooood looking. Neon. Duh! Well, let me explain. Not just neon, but neon entrapped inside a polyC tube. Is this kind of plastic too porous for neon? Or would the gas just escape like helium from a rubber baloon? Anyone knows?

Born of Sith, seduced by the light.
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Probably would.[:(]

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well, then would there be any way to "seal" flexibly(is this a word?) the inside of a polyC tube without compromising it's strength?

Born of Sith, seduced by the light.
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I think I have mentioned before on another thread that I made a double-bladed Cold Cathode lightsaber - A red one. It was so bright that it hurt the eyes if you stared too long.

It was much easier to make than a neon lightsaber. I contained the cold cathode tube inside a 3/4 inch polyc tube. The longest CC tube I found though is only 24 inches long which is why I opted to make a double-bladed lightsaber. Overall length of the lightsaber was about 5 ft 9 inches. The blade had a little bit of flex and could be tapped against objects. Too fragile for dueling though.

I sold it on ebay.

As for GeluKhanGharr idea of putting neon gas in a PolyC tube...
The problem is not that the neon gas will escape Out of the tube. Rather that normal air will seep Into the tube. Neon light works by coverting Neon gas into Plasma. To make this work with low heat and energy, the air pressure inside the Neon tube has to be very Low - i.e. a vacuum. that is why Neon is made of glass, because the glass tube is a sealed Vacuum with a few atoms of neon pumped in. As far as I now, polyC is not very good for making Neon tubes.

Lightsaber Warning Label: "CAUTION: Do NOT attempt to sharpen blade."

Bummer!

Born of Sith, seduced by the light.
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Double bummer! I've been wondering for a while if that'd be possible. Guess not [:(]

"Chaka, call off Dawson, will ya?!"

Hows about this for a twist...holographic projector configured to project a 3-d "blade"-mounted in a lightsaber hilt. Would be a killer "dress" saber for conventions or simply shocking the socks off passersby. Waddya think?

My friend, that would be one sweet saber. Now for a double twist; maybe you could have lighted PolyC blade with a holographic projector projecting the colored "haze". then you could duel with it [:D]


Speak softly and carry a big lightsaber.

I am afraid that type of Holoprojectors need more than one projection point. I think. Hmmm

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Idle thoughts... glass filled PolyC. I know it's a material. Made in tubes we could use or doesn't allow the gas to escape... beats me.[?]

But if it did work, that as a neon tube would make an AMAZING saber.

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wouldnt the glass break tho if you hit it?

You dont know the POWER, of the dark side...

I have read up a bit on holography, and I've thought about a holographic saber blade before... The problem is you would need a laser coherent long enough to project a meter-long blade... I know neodimium lasers can be coherent up to several kilometers, but they are extremely expensive and require a cooling system... I'm not sure about the coherency length of blue/green argon ion lasers. It would be neat if somone could get it to work!

Sure no problem just back up a truck load of money and I will get started right away. [:D] The problem with the holographic blade is that it would look good but when you struck something the blade would just pass right over it.

Do-Clo

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Don't make me destroy you...

ya know, i bet do-clo COULD make it happen, lol

You dont know the POWER, of the dark side...

I have thought, since reading "I, Jedi" as he builds his saber, the idea of electricity in like a jacobs ladder type thing might work. You would just have to make sure you had something that would force the electric arc back into the hilt, you could have like a telescopic antenna that would extend when powered on and the elecrical current would flow to the tip as it extends, of course if you hit something grounded then my Idea is moot. [:D] but all ideas have to start somewhere.

Really high powered lasers. then a set of mirrors, one on the emiotter one on the end of a telescorping rod thinger. the one on the emitter has small holes for the lasers to pass throught then they get reflected back and forth between the 2 mirrors. now only if i had a powefull enough laser. and precise enough mirrors.

hmmm hmmmm whooosh hmmmm whooosh crackel

Only problem with a laser is that to get one strong enough to cut things, the power supply would be huge. The theory that a lightsaber could be made is solid but technology will have to advance to make it possible to build.

Do-Clo
Brotherhood of the Sith

Don't make me destroy you...

I once saw an idear that had a plama saber, unfortunly it needed a Quazar and a singuarity, and to my knowlage we cant cantain black holes yet.

shame, so many good ideras are put to rest simply because they won't work

An interesting idea.

http://www.aist.go.jp/aist_e/latest_.../20060210.html

I Don't think the laser is powerful enough to cut through anything though. Come to think of it, maybe it would be better if it couldn't...
Increase the diameter of those dots, line a bunch of them up, and a polyC blade lit with a white luxeon in the center[:D] Ok so power and space might be a problem, but maybe sometime in the future

Speak softly and carry a big lightsaber.
Old Jedi never die; they just fade away.

tazrob - I read somwhere on the net about a guy claiming to have made somthing like a lightsaber out of three tazers hooked together and an electromagnet. Supposedly the three tazers together created about a trillion volts, and he claimed to have made two and fought with them.[:D] I don't exactly believe him... if I find the page again I could post his E-mail adress and we could ask him to post pics... he'll probably have somthing "conveniently" happen to it before he could take any pictures...

You know, I was thinking that repulsorlifts would bring in a lot more market and money than lightsabers because there would be so much more use for them.

I was also curious as to whether epoxy is porus or not...


You'll find I'm full of suprises. -Luke, ESB, Anakin, AOTC

how about having a holo projector or whatever its called and form plastic to any shape you want, then put an LED in there, here lemme show you later.

EDIT- HERE IT IS!!! the object being projected will be removablehttp://f5.putfile.com/6/16423253516.jpg

I DONT KNOW WHAT WE'RE YELLING ABOUT!!....LOUD NOISES!!!
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This guy....
http://www.exn.ca/starwars/SWreadtal...r&F=superlaser

You'll find I'm full of suprises. -Luke, ESB, Anakin, AOTC

This is as real as a lightsaber is going to get
http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...ocidfeed&hl=en

Yep until the Technology Advances that will probably be it.