FX-Sabers.com
FX-Sabers Discussion - Including a Gallery of custom sabers. => Saber Modifications & Customs => Topic started by: Obi-Vaa on October 23, 2017, 03:19:45 AM
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I am in the process of building two full size sabers and my youngest daughter who is 8 years old and a star wars fan wanted one as well. She wanted the green saber that Luke has in ep.6 so I just had to start building:)
The goals for building this saber was:
- Make it smaller to fit a young padawan
- Make it rugged so it can be played with and not breaking
- Using mostly parts I had
- Make it as screen accurate as possible
I had the following to build from:
- 13mm OD clear acrylic tube
- 18650 LiIon battery
- PCB etching equipment
- 3D printer
- Spray paint
Ended up ordering LED's and a switch for the total of 5-6$
I found this nice model on Thingiverse: Star Wars - Lukes ROTJ Lightsaber by lilykill - Thingiverse (https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1266293)
It was possible to scale it down to 75% and still have room for one 18650 cell and a rear end switch, and this seems to be a good size.
Made the following changes to the models before printing:
- Hilt printed as one piece (exsept rear end) with room for a 18650 battery and the 13mm acrylic tube
- Hilt rear end made with holes for a 12mm push switch and a micro USB connector for charging
- Control panel was added the switches and a larger slot for the PCB
- Front emitter tube enlarged to fit the 13mm tube
- Emitter replaced with a more accurate 2-piece model with cutout for the 13mm tube
Everything was scale down in the slicer before printing.
My models can be found and modified here: http://www.tinkercad.com/things/1z49kfzIgBL-lukes-saber-ep6-public/editv2 (http://www.tinkercad.com/things/1z49kfzIgBL-lukes-saber-ep6-public/editv2)
Note: Cutouts are too large and made to fit when scaled down to 75%!
After printing the parts was spray painted without sanding and the details painted with a brush.Some black acrylic paint was also smeared on the paint to give it a slight patina.
Saber parts before assembly: Hilt, rear end, emmiter tube+ring and emitter+ring: Saber parts (https://imgur.com/UWe4N63)
13mm acrylic tube was inserted in the hilt: Tube in hilt (https://imgur.com/csnMtlU)
Emitter tube was slided on to the tube with an easy press-fit: Emitter tube (https://imgur.com/TMyng4B)
Emitter was then slided on: Emitter (http://imgur.com/GjwSuc3)
When the blade tube is inserted down into the hilt like this it should be almost impossible to break, but still don't look nice and is too thin. I 3D printed one additional tube with transparant PLA to slide on outside the tube to make it look better and act as a diffuser for the LED's: Diffuser tubes (http://imgur.com/OZEe7gX)
Battery in hilt (not all the way in): Battery (http://imgur.com/TyHD2Vy)
The read end is pushed into the hilt and will be secured with a drop of glue when the electronics are installed: Rear end (http://imgur.com/cLm6VcU)
One thing that was not possible to make with a 3D printer that looked good was the PCB on top of the control panel. So I made a proper PCB for this.
Started with a 0.8mm PCB cut to fit the control panel: PCB Before etching (http://imgur.com/QJmZsXY)
Masked it with stripes cut from a sticker with a paper cutter: Masked PCB (http://imgur.com/o6sw1mX)
Etched it with etching powder and water: Etched PCB (http://imgur.com/OadN0x1)
Finished PCB. The edges are a bit rough and would have been nicer it it was etcher for some minutes longer: Finished PCB (http://imgur.com/RvuFYJo)
Installed on the saber: Installed PCB (http://imgur.com/VkzQLg6)
Almost finished, just missing D-ring, LED's, connector and switch: Complete saber (http://imgur.com/i7KRfM7)
When I get the rest of the parts and install LED's I will update with more pictures.
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Saber finished and in action.
Jedi robe is next on the list:)
(https://i.imgur.com/WcXjkxT.jpg?1) (https://i.imgur.com/WcXjkxT.jpg?1)