Aeryk
Newly Enlightened
- Joined
- Feb 14, 2003
- Messages
- 70
Ive been wanting to build myself a lightsaber to use for halloween etc, and figured maybe you guys could help me out on ideas for how to make one.
Currently there are a few places you can buy pre-made lightsaber replicas, they come in 2 flavors...electroluminescent and neon.
The EL variety is nice because its tough stuff, and resonably bright. The neon/plasma variety are alot brighter, but use glass blades so they are extremely fragile.
I have been looking around for ways to make a lightsaber which would be brighter than the EL variety, yet still be tough enough to have lightsaber fights with.
So far this is what I have come up with.
The base handle should end up at around 12" long by 1.5" around (roughly the size of a 3 D cell mag).
Blade length should be around 40" total, figuring about 4 inches should go into the handle for strength and stability.
The best idea I have come up with so far would be to use a super bright LED as the light source (Luxeon 5W seems to be the current top dog) to light up a polycarbonate tube with SideGlow fiber-optic cable run through it.
I was just wondering if you guys thought something like this would be possible? Would a LS 5W white be enough to brightly light 3-4 feet of SideGlow cable? Would you be able to fit the electronics for a 5W LS in a 1.5" outer diameter tube around 6" long?
In this case brightness would be more important than battery life, but durability is also a key factor as it would see occasional use as a sword.
Any thoughts, better ideas, etc?
Thanks
Aeryk
Currently there are a few places you can buy pre-made lightsaber replicas, they come in 2 flavors...electroluminescent and neon.
The EL variety is nice because its tough stuff, and resonably bright. The neon/plasma variety are alot brighter, but use glass blades so they are extremely fragile.
I have been looking around for ways to make a lightsaber which would be brighter than the EL variety, yet still be tough enough to have lightsaber fights with.
So far this is what I have come up with.
The base handle should end up at around 12" long by 1.5" around (roughly the size of a 3 D cell mag).
Blade length should be around 40" total, figuring about 4 inches should go into the handle for strength and stability.
The best idea I have come up with so far would be to use a super bright LED as the light source (Luxeon 5W seems to be the current top dog) to light up a polycarbonate tube with SideGlow fiber-optic cable run through it.
I was just wondering if you guys thought something like this would be possible? Would a LS 5W white be enough to brightly light 3-4 feet of SideGlow cable? Would you be able to fit the electronics for a 5W LS in a 1.5" outer diameter tube around 6" long?
In this case brightness would be more important than battery life, but durability is also a key factor as it would see occasional use as a sword.
Any thoughts, better ideas, etc?
Thanks
Aeryk