How much space for the internals?

[Davey]

I was chatting with a few others the other day in the chat room but unfortunately I can't remember everything. Sorry. I'm still trying to collect my thoughts, and I need a little help.

I drew up my own designs for a lightsaber using a system similar to the MHS that would be held together by a locking system that uses set screws, but unfortunately I've run into a problem.

I have never designed a lightsaber before and I don't have all the parts yet. I'd like to wire in a Luxeon V with all the trimmings, acrylic crystal, sound board, battery life indicator, lockup/blaster deflection switch, all that. The problem is I don't know how long to make my saber.

The body tube is made from 6061-T6 Aluminum Schedule 80 pipe, so that means I've got slightly over 1.25" I.D to work with. It's the length that matters now.

Here are the AutoCAD drawings:
http://daveluck.deviantart.com/gallery/#Lightsaber-I
I drew them from scratch myself and modelled them with computer assisted design.

The pipe that forms the body is 12" long, but that's only for reference (note the break line in the pipe). The problem is that I intend to make a matched pair of these and put them together at the pommels to form a saberstaff, and if I did that with both of the body pipes being 12" long or more, the end result would be a saberstaff hilt the length of a baseball bat, and I can't have that.

So about one inch for the crystal, a couple more for the batteries, about three or so for the saber core, and more, all squeezed into the space of one and a quarter inches of pipe. How short can I safely make the body pipe? I need to leave a little room in there for the resonating chambers (there are special vents bored into the pommel for this) and also for assembly, but I'd like to make the two sabers as short as I comfortably can. (The body pipe does not feature a blade mount)

Anyone got some advice?

Thanks!

[Novastar]

Well, if the question is solely about total length, I would say... given the precision it seems you're showing with the drawings/parts...

...you would use the same amount of precision and room for slight error/extra space in determining parts placed. Some examples:

* Battery cell(s) used... length, width/diameter, voltage
* Luxeon V + optics + heatsink... how much space it takes
* Sound/driver board used... how much space
* Resonance cavity + speaker... how much space
* Room for switches/buttons?
* Room for "pretty" LEDs (if wanted)?
* Naturally, the 2" or so space in the emitter for the blade

Given all of that... you should get an idea of the length needed.

In terms of wanting EVERYTHING in your hilt... well, it is naturally POSSIBLE... but it usually increases the hilt's length or width or both.

Here is an example of a saber that is 10.5" or so, and has quite a few goodies:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=2iaDEhfd4yo

Good luck, and welcome!

[xwingband]

Make guesstimates and add 1" for margin of error (wires).

I'm guessing based on the requirements you probably want Erv's Crystal Focus. So 2" for the blade socket, length of optics*, length of heatsink*, 2.5" for the board, 1" for speaker and resonation, 3/4" for every LED and switch*.

(*variable as I don't know your intentions there or you might stack them...)

IMO unless you doing a ported design with windows... I'd ditch the crystal. It's going to add like 1.5" inch and having to make a chassis to be movable only hampers your internal diameter.