Alternative to blade diffuser

[vadeblade]

Hi,

I have been doing some R & D and have pictures and a production process to share with the rest of you.

BUT first I would like to get permission from Strydur and GeluKhanGharr before I proceed. Strydur because this is his store forum and Gelu because it was his idea. I will not share unless I get a "Go" from both.

-V

Lightsaber Warning Label: "CAUTION: Do NOT attempt to sharpen blade." http://www.geocities.com/projectstm/lightsaber.html

[xwingband]

Is this Gelu's clear film? I remember you saying you lived close to TAP plastics...

<center>
www.dewbackwing.com</center>

[GeluKhanGharr]

"GO" from me []

Born of Sith, seduced by the light.

[Strydur]

Go for it

Tim
The Custom Saber Shop

[vadeblade]

Cool! Thanks S and G. []

Taking a process introduced by GeluKhanGharr in this thread

http://www.thecustomsabershop.com/sa...p?TOPIC_ID=205 (post- 12/28/2005 : 13:32:1

I went to Tap Plastic and purchased this:



Clear mylar, .002" thickness. They had two sizes 24" @ $0.75/ft and 48" @ $2.50/ft. I have a 3 ft blade and Gelu said he rolled 7 feet of the stuff. I said "S***!" that would get really expensive if I purchased the 48" size and I would have like 12" of waste material trimmed off.
So I figured I would just try the 24" size. I purchase 7 feet. Dude at the store gave me 2 ft free = 9 ft role []

I cut the mylar into three 24"x36" sheets. Laid one on top of the other and rolled it into a tight tube. I shoved the mylar tube into a one inch poly blade (same stuff Tim sells).
Working with the material I realized this was not the same stuff Gelu described. Gelu said the stuff he was using was real slippery. The Mylar film I had had so much static cling that it stuck together and stuck to the tube wall. It stayed put without needing a plug.

The blade looked like this when not lit:




It was nice. As you can see, instead of looking like a white tube it looks like a chromed metal tube. SILVER, very nice!

However, when I projected a light in it using a white Lux 3 with Tim's color disk I was disappointed. When lit, it looked like a plain tube with light shining inside, not a searing blade of energy.

I took the sheets back out. First, the static cling made it very hard to keep clean. There was all kinds of stuff stuck between the sheets. I dusted, redusted and dusted some more. I took a lint free rag and wiped down all three sheets, back and front. I also cleaned the polycarb tube.
Gelu said he was trying to get light to bounce around inside and then escape. I was thinking I needed to have some refraction going on between the layers too.

So I took a brillo pad and wiped it DIAGONALLY across ONE of the sheets. Now I have one sheet with fine scratch marks all over it. Why Diagonally? because when you role up the film the scratch marks will criss-cross each other creating an even pattern.

I laid two unmarred sheets on top of each other and the scratch up film on top of that. Rolled the whole thing into a tube and shoved it into the polycard.

Here is the results:


above picture is an unlit conference room with ambient light coming from an open door 10 ft away. Light source is Lux 3 white w/green filter, 6 volts and 2.2 Ohm resistor. I don't have it in a hilt yet. LED with 5 degree optics was taped on and is miss-aligned. Camera was my Palm Treo 650 phone (yeah it sucks but I forgot my digi cam). The camera makes the blade brighter than it really is.



This picture taken under my desk where there is more ambient light from multiple florecent bulbs overhead. Camera still makes it look brighter than it really is but the results are still impressive.

Blade has a half ball on tip with a 3/4" FLAT mirror.


Last picture is with red filter and a blue filter. When putting in the red filter I completely messed up LED alignment so there is a dim spot towards the top. Just issues of doing experiment without a hilt.

Blade has huge flare at base and there is barely a noticeable dim spot near the middle. I was still impressed with how even the light is distributed along the blade length. The flare at the base looks really cool but will be diminished when the whole thing is installed in a hilt. I may removed the films again and add more scratches with 1500 grit sandpaper.

This is definitely more labor intensive than Tim's LED diffuser.

I am waiting on a red lux 3 purchased from Tim. It should arrive today. I will try that out tonight and take better pictures to share.

Opinions?

-V

Lightsaber Warning Label: "CAUTION: Do NOT attempt to sharpen blade." http://www.geocities.com/projectstm/lightsaber.html

[desertscorpion]

That thing is killer looking!!![}]

[GeluKhanGharr]

Great work Vincent! Now we know it wasn't mylar that I used, but I'd be really curious to see the results difference between mylar and my film. Maybe i'll order some mylar from Tap and try it too.
In the pictures you posted the lit blades look just like mine, but you say your camera makes them look brighter than to the naked eye. Do you have an MR to compare? One with fresh batteries? I know everyone says their Luxeons are brighter than MRs, but when you look at pictures that statement is not completely true. Yes, they are way brighter at the base and sometimes at the tip too, but in general the "dim spot" is way dimmer than MR blades. In my blades with a 1 W Luxeon, the dimmest spot was brighter than an MR. With a 3W Lux there is no comparison. I took a shot of an aqua lit blade with 3 spot lights shining straight on it and it still looked bright.
In my next blade I'll use more than 7 feet, maybe 10. It might even the light better. It might also lower the light output. We'll see.

Born of Sith, seduced by the light.

[xwingband]

It does look very good. I too would like to see comparison shots if you can.

Did you look at other films while you were there too?

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www.dewbackwing.com</center>

[vadeblade]

I did get the red lux 3 today. I lit the blade with it and am very happy with the results. I have a Vader MR at work. I will bring a 4 mega pixel Minolta digi cam and take comparison pics. I should make a temporary hilt so i can cover up the base flare. I was thinking that maybe the dimming in the middle is not really there, just my eyes not adjusting properly from getting blinded by the flare.

-V

edit: I looked at other film too. but the next clear film they had was .003" thick and was matt finished. I was not sure it would work. I will try other films in a few weeks and report my findings.
Lightsaber Warning Label: "CAUTION: Do NOT attempt to sharpen blade." http://www.geocities.com/projectstm/lightsaber.html

[vadeblade]

OK. I put in the red Lux 3 and took pictures using a Minolta 4 mega pixel camera. The Minolta actually does the reverse of the previous camera - The blade is dimmer than in real life. This is good beacuse it reveals dim areas that my eyes are not picking up. Picture was taken at high resolution then reduced between 40-50 percent to conserve bandwidth. I took black construction paper and taped it over the LED to get rid of some of the flare.


This is the blade in a pitch black room. I put an object near the blade to show how much light it puts out. Can you tell what it is?



I thought I would have some fun with the comparison pictures. Pictured from left to right are Red Luxeon 3 (no hilt yet), Vader MR, blue-green EL running 12v 2KHz, blue EL running 12v 4 Khz. This is a dark conference room with ambient light coming from an open door 10 ft away.



Same as above except I turned on half the lights in the room - 9 three ft florescent bulbs overhead.



Lux at the bottom and MR up top. MR light is more evenely distributed. Also, the dimmist spot on the Lux is less bright than the MR. However, as you can see in the picture, this perticular MR has many hotspots (64 of them? []) running up the blade which really annoys me.

I still think I am messing up LED alignment because it is just taped on to the base of the blade. I think I will get better results once I have the whoe thing installed in a hilt. The hilt will not be finished till Feb []

Lightsaber Warning Label: "CAUTION: Do NOT attempt to sharpen blade." http://www.geocities.com/projectstm/lightsaber.html