Shortest hilt question

I would like to build a dedicated 1h hilt, and quite literally have it as short as possible. Is it possible to build a saber with a ~6-7 inch body? I'm okay with doing the flashlight thing of putting the switch into the pommel, or having it right down at that end and holding just above it. I'm new to the world of custom building, and don't know where to begin. I know I still have to be able to work around the battery pack and will figure that out. Might have to do an inset switch just behind the LED emitter now that I think about it...

I would appreciate any thoughts someone has on the subject. The end goal is a super short hilt with a 16-24 inch blade, minus whatever is inset into the hilt. Still want to manage enough to get a good bite on the blade, so I gotta figure that out too. Like I said, I'm not really familiar with the logistics, but I gotta start somewhere.

It's possible, but very tight. Your speaker will likely be very close to the bottom, so you will probably need to use a tactile button rather than an AV that requires a lot of room. You might also have trouble fitting a recharge. It's possible to fit both, it depends how clever and dexterous you are. The more you try to fit, the less room you'll have for extra wiring.

Agree with JB. Tactile pushbuttons make it easier, especially ones that you can mount on a switch plate or box. The speaker placement doesn't take up too much real-estate, but you kind of want it to take up as much room as it does, because that's what makes it sound good, i.e. space. If you forgo sound, you probably just bought yourself and extra 1.5" lengthwise and 7/8" of inner diameter.

With such a short blade, you really only need an inch of blade holder for a nice firm hold; inch and a half for warm-fuzzy. You might even be able to do less if use a thinner, 7/8" blade, since they're lighter.

You should also have all the parts on hand to work out the internal mock-up. You can coax a few extra millimeters here and there, say, by trimming the slack off the LED optics module, using thinner gauge wires, smaller battery or speaker, and nix'ing a chassis. You can use the battery and the sound board as a chassis and pad them with wires, that will fee up a whole bunch of space. Width is more of a limiting factor than length, and wires will shrink your usable space very fast.

I've done a few shorties, and it's not hard, you just have to know what you have to work with and what parts you can omit. So I'd say start with buying parts and components and checking what fits where. You might be surprised at how small they really are.

The video below was a lightsaber cutlass, and it's about 5.5 inches total with all the components in 4" x 1.125" internal space (prizm, 18650, RGB tri-cree, 3x resistors, 2x tactile pushbuttons, 2w high bass speaker, recharge port and 3mm accent LED).



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VNekkHYmuE

That's impressive. I have a old saber forge progenitor. I am trying to sqeeze in a proffie board a battery recharge port and 2 switches in 22mm by 6.5 inchs.