My first sabers

[efindel]

Here's my first from-scratch - Seoul P4 green LED, PVC hilt, Hasbro econo soundboard:

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It slides apart to reveal what I hope to make be a crystal chamber, but don't have that part done yet.

I've also converted a Hasbro FX Vader, but I'm sure you all know what that looks like!

[hedgehog1]

This saber looks very nice. Your use of the PVC and metal combined are a nice touch.

The crystal chamber will be a fun thing to build next. Are you thinking real (like quartz) or artifical crystal?

[Starwinder]

Nicely done and congrats on your first build! Looking forward to seeing how that crystal chamber turns out - that is definitely one big undertaking.

[efindel]

Thanks, all! It took a couple of weeks, but here's the finished product, with crystal chamber open!
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There's not really that much to the chamber... a piece sliced off the Hasbro blade that came with my Vader saber, a "crystal" that's green beach glass from Michael's, a green LED from Radio Shack tied in to the same lines that are powering the main LED, and an 87-ohm resistor to keep that from nuking the power little low-power LED.

Helping a couple of friends make sabers as well - one's making hers from PVC as well, the other's going to be ordering parts from here to make a metal one. And now my daughter wants one as well!

[efindel]

This saber looks very nice. Your use of the PVC and metal combined are a nice touch.

Thanks! Wire-wrapping it like that took a couple of hours, but I think it was worth it - really makes it look like someone's real weapon. (I was going to do paracord wrapping originally, but then spotted the wire while I was looking for the crystal, and decided to go with that instead....

The crystal chamber will be a fun thing to build next. Are you thinking real (like quartz) or artifical crystal?

It's "beach glass" from Michael's, which I assume is quartz. Got a nice bag of it for about $5, then picked out the piece that looked best to me.

[hedgehog1]

So that 'brushed' looking area is really wire wrapping? I can see why it took so long. It is a nice way to bring a different metal finish to to hilt.

[Frank Harris]

That's a nice hardware job there sir!!

[efindel]

Thanks to you both! And yep, the brushed-looking area is the wire-wrapped part. 1-inch PVC pipe, with that section wire-wrapped. Emitter and lower part are PVC sink tube, and the pommel is a sprinkler head from a pop-up lawn sprinkler. Blade retention screw is a gold-anodized Covertec thumbscrew from here. Which reminds me - just got my belt clip today! Need to go try it out!