Want to learn how to make a light saber blade with Photoshop? Come Here


Lightsaber tutorial

Lightsaber #1: Scout Bike Scrounger

Components:

  • Bicycle seat post with shock absorber
  • Knob from headlight assembly
  • Shower head assembly
  • Vacuum tube
  • Doorbell
  • Gear grips
  • Bike tube Liner insert
  • Keychain rings
  • LED diode lights

Needed Tools:

  • Drill
  • Safety Goggles
  • Pliers

I did not record the specific part names and numbers since much of the saber was assembled from items I happened upon. I'll do my best to be descriptive. A surprising number of components seem to appear by "chance", or are things I might have overlooked had I been trying to buy from a list.

The primary component in my lightsaber is a bicycle seat post. Most mountain and touring bikes these days, the seat is set atop a thin metal post which fits into the frame. This is the post I used. You can find a spare seat post at Bikes USA for between $15 to $25, though the one I used here goes for about $65 separately. I happened to have and extra one because my bike was stolen even though I had taken the seat with me. The interesting thing about this particular seat post is that it has a shock absorber built in. the little black area on the end contains a little shock absorber inside. That component alone would normally be much more than I’d be willing to spend.

The blade intensity knob also came from my box of spare bike parts- many bike headlight kits have such knobs for tightening the plastic clamp that holds the headlight to the bike. It's remarkable how much a little accessory like that can add to the look. It happened to be just the right size to screw into the holes on the seat post.

I bought some gear grips from a bike store- about $10, but the grips I got were not for handlebars, but for the gear changers. Your seat post is a lot thicker than your average handlebars. It’s a good idea to bring your saber with you when you are shopping for component accessories so that you can make sure what you’re getting will be the right size.

Between the two black grips is a small black section of a vacuum tube, which I found on the street. It works just great. I glued it on with superglue.

The activator button is a doorbell I bought at Hechinger ($5) which I screwed in to the post. I drilled two holes into the post to attach it. Unfortunately, when you press it, it doesn't go, "Ding- dong." I think that would be kind of cool. Take your enemies off guard and all that. "Ding-dong!" And then you could say, "Who's there?"

The other item I bought (Hechinger) is a showerhead nozzle, about $15, which acts as the emitter. I had searched the plumbing aisles high and low looking for something good that might fit, but no dice. But I decided to try the rest of the store and let inspiration hit me, and it did. I had to rummage through my screw box for quite a while before I found the screws that successfully attached it to the base of the seat post, but in the end, victory was mine.

Back when I worked in a computer store, I received these electronic buttons to promote 56k modems that had diode lights in them- 4 red and one green. They lit up in sequential order when you turned a tiny switch on the side. I cut open the button and found a tiny chip, wires, and battery system that I hoped to incorporate into my saber. My idea was to fit it inside of the doorbell area so that I could turn on a little switch and the lights would light up in sequential order just like on my button. As it was, the electronics were too bulky to fit inside the doorbell, and some of the wires snapped, so early on I abandoned that plan. But I did still put the diode lights on the side of the doorbell. It would have been the ultimate in coolness if it had worked, but that’s okay. I still have one more button.

The only other components of the saber are a black ring, another bike accessory which is used to help attach things like bike headlights, and a couple of keychain rings to hook the saber on my belt with. And that's pretty much it. It took a while to come together, but now it is complete.

My favorite aspect of this saber is the weight- since it uses metal, it has an excellent heft and feels balanced in your hands. My only regret is the inability to have an effective stand-in saber blade. I sometimes attach a plastic tube to the showerhead to act as a stand-in for the blade, so I can add the "lit" blade in later with special effects, but the showerhead doesn’t accommodate this very well.

That is what prompted me to build…

Lightsaber #2: Jervanish Blade

Components:

Scrounged items:

Needed Tools:

 

The First components I bought were the Serfa Gummy BMX grips. I brought the grips with me to Hechinger and found a foot long PVC pipe nipple (their name, not mine) that the grips would squeeze onto. I also bought a coupler for the end of the pipe. This would give me an end that had a threaded socket so I could conceivably screw some sort of post in to stand in for the blade at a future date. I also bought the chrome downspout pipe, which perfectly fit over top of the Serfa grips. This would serve as the main hilt. It was a very tight squeeze, and when I actually put them on later, I had to lubricate the grips to make them go in at all. I used dish detergent to lubricate the grips because it washes off later.

After making sure all of these components fit together, I got out the Dremel and decided what parts of the downspout to cut away. I recommend putting masking tape on the chrome downspout pipe- this allows you to make marks on the pipe as to what you want to cut away. Holding the pipe firmly with both hands, I paid close attention to where my fingers naturally rested when I gripped the saber with both hands, and marked those areas to be cut away. I always intended for the saber hilt to be a bit on the long side, as my jedi teacher favored such long handled sabers with a two-hand grip. Such is the Dervanish style of saber design. The activator button is located towards the top of the shaft and is less likely to be a hindrance, leaving plenty of room to grip the saber with one or two hands. I based the locations and size of all the cutaway sections for the grips on how and where my hands naturally gripped the saber.

I used to Dremel to cut away and later smooth the edges of the grip areas and used the drill to make the sockets for my switch and my button. Safety goggles are a must for this kind of work.

Once the downspout pipe was cut the buttons and knobs were fit and inserted, I cut a section of a doggie chew toy (which was neon purple, pyramidal, and ribbed- hey, my dog didn’t play with it anymore) and fit it into the upper part of the shaft. I painted the section black. It lies snuggled just under the threaded coupling in the top part of the saber.

The hook ring at the bottom was a regular keychain ring that was unbent with pliers.

For the emitter shroud, I took an old brass piece from a light socket assembly and cut it diagonally with the Dremel. I painted this black also. It fits over the coupling, and I squeezed it down even tighter with the hose clamp, which adds a nice stylistic effect as well. Part of a showerhead assembly that I didn’t use on my first saber can be wedged into this area to look like a very handsome emitter assembly, but I don’t normally keep it in there because I like to attach my stand-in blade instead.

I bought a small PVC pipe nipple (that word again) that screws into the coupler at the top of my saber and then got a wooden dowel which can just barely fit inside of this little section of pipe. After sizing and trimming the dowel, I glued the two together and now I have a saber blade stand-in that can be screwed into the top of the blade.

Mission accomplished!

Made by John Mortenson

MENU


Go To Main Page Chat Message Board SW Replicas Webrings Awards Links Faq Update Refer Me Photoshop 5.0 Saber Tutorial Costume Plus Part I Jedi Los Jedi Rider Brian Ben Talon Part II Darth Saldar Mort Paul Qui Uisgebeaha Part III Chris David Murat Gordon Part IV Andy Bill Jason Jim Micheal Morgan Fan Fiction