This is a first build for me. My introduction is over in the Welcome Forum. This saber started as a basic Lowes hardware prop build for my son to play with, but it's turning into more now, so I thought I'd start a build thread.
First came the basic construction. I started with one of these Keeney Mfg. pop up drain assemblies from Lowes:
I removed the center piece with the red arrow. It was a combination of a chrome lid with an o-ring screwed to a plastic piece. I unscrewed the chrome from the plastic, and inserted the chrome piece down in the body of the drain assembly. Then I pushed it up to the bottom of what is to become the base of the emitter, with the screw hole facing up. The o-ring seats it nicely in place. Until I get some electronics in place, this at least closes off the top of the saber body and gives it the vague appearance of something going on in there. I also fitted a sink strainer to the top chrome drain ring, just for some bling. It made it look a little to "sink-y" for my tasted, so I later removed it.
The pop-up arm attachment is the logical place to have an "activation switch", so I removed the chrome end piece from the stopper lever (purple arrow), grinded the radius down some so it would fit, and placed it behind the pop-up arm locknut, so it looks like a chrome button. On my particular assembly, this chrome button has a big "K" engraved on it, but it's subtle enough that it doesn't detract too much. (I imagined it was a mass-produced factory saber from some point in Jedi history, so it had a manufacturing mark on it, obviously)
After all that I attached a chrome slip joint coupling to the tail end to finish off the saber, also found at Lowes:
This is open on both sides, so I found a chrome cap that looks like this:
and stuffed it in the tail end. It didn't quite fit right, and doesn't fully seat. If I have time in the future I'll fix this problem. One issue I have with the slip joint is that it has some wiggle, even when tightened. It's meant to connect two different pipes, not hang off the end of one. I haven't determined how to fix this yet.
Once all that was done, it was just a matter of rearranging the rubber seals and brass locknut to finish the emitter, and wrap some electrical tape as a quick grip solution, and here's how the saber looked on the end of day one.
Then my son said he wanted it to be green, "like Luke's!"...
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