Using a Trans White Tube as Blade Diffuser

[DopeChicken]

Anyone ever tried this? I've been using a 7/8" trans white poly-c as a blade with some diffuser gift wrap from Michaels with good results but I had this idea a while ago.

I ordered some more 7/8" as well as some 3/4" trans white to see how it will work but I just wanted to see if this had been tried before, and if so, how it looked.

Also, just fyi. Marshalls also has a pack of assorted circular mirrors for $2. One of the smaller sizes in the bag fits perfectly inside the 7/8" thin walled trans white, and when lit the end of the blade looks kind of like the blade plug sold on TCSS, not realistic, but not bad in my opinion. Plus it's nice if you don't want to pay shipping on something so cheap ($0.25 on TCSS)

[DarthFender]

I have not done it, but I think it would be the same as using a thick walled trans-white polyC blade. IMO those are a bit heavy. I would stick with Thin wall and cellophane gift wrap. But if you do try it. Post pics.

[Obi1]

I tried TCSS' transwhite with the supplied additional diffuser tube inside, for an LED-string blade, with that it works wonderfully (maybe do not go for the thickest, because it's damn heavy, and as someone I know righty told, you need that only if you really want to bring down someone with your blade).

However, because I like to experiment, I tried transwhite only, transwhite with warp, different kinds of transparents with wrap and with diffuser tube: in all of the variants (bar the transwhite+diffuser) you can clearly see the individual LEDs.

If you use a single LED, I find that a transwhite distributes the light more evenly along the blade as a transparent, and IMHO I find it brighter. You can also put cellophane wrap, it makes it even better. Only drawback of the transwhite (while keeping the pros in mind) it that it makes especially red color a bit dull (as rightly pointed out by Bertuzzi from SaberProject to me recently).

[Hellgeist]

What is it about two trans white tubes that makes it brighter? Just less direct transparency?

[Obi1]

I'm not sure if you refer to my post, but if yes, that's just my empirical observation: my transwhites (I have 2 of them from different vendors) make the blade look brighter than my transparents (also 2 from yet another two vendors, with cellophane wraps inside).

[DopeChicken]

So... while the 7/8" thin walled trans white will fit inside the 1" easily, the 3/4" doesn't really fit very well inside the 7/8". It does fit, but it is very tight. I was able to get it in about 7 or 8", but after that I think it probably wouldn't be worth the effort.

Furthermore, the 7/8" tube inside the 1" does technically act as a "diffuser" but I just noticed that it wasn't as bright as without it, so I let the idea go.

It is crazy that there aren't better blades out there than what there is now. And that's not a complaint to TCSS, it seems to be the same everywhere. With the resources of toy companies it is really amazing that they haven't made better lightsaber toys. For some reason they think that the coolest part about a lightsaber is the way it extends from the hilt, hence the telescoping plastic blades that have been around forever. It is just stupid. If they made their blades from the same material, and basic shape (slightly narrowing starting at the hilt, then just a simple rounding at the tip) but in one piece, the blades would be perfect, and there would be no need for any diffuser because the light would hit the slight angle of the blade the whole way down, relatively evenly at least.

I am not sure how the polycarbonate tubing is manufactured, but the only thing that the transwhite polyC blade is lacking is a rounded/bullet tip that is actually part of the blade. I feel like with injection molding of plastic or polyC (not sure of the differences between the two in terms of chemistry) this could be easily done, by a toy company or something, not by me.