GBDave's Functioning Lightsaber Project by GBDave

Last crawled date: 3 years ago

(Commercial use of this design as well as its parts is prohibited. Contact me directly to discuss commercial use.)
This is my first attempt at making an (almost) fully 3D printable, functioning, prop lightsaber.
If anyone has experience building lightsabers and has any recommendations or suggestions or wants to collaborate I'm open to hear from you.
A met a guy from Florida, USA a few years ago that makes amazing lightsabers (https://www.facebook.com/DarthXanthus?ref=br_rs) and I've always a wanted to make one myself.
So this year I came up with the idea that motivated me to actually pull the trigger and do it; I want to win the $500 Halloween Costume contest at a local bar here in Rochester, NY, USA.
The goal for the project is to make a visually stunning and affordable lightsaber prop so I bought all the electronics to make a simple saber from The Custom Saber Shop (http://www.thecustomsabershop.com/) and am loosely following the plans at https://www.instructables.com/id/Building-a-Lightsaber/.
This design will be simple as it's my first attempt. It won't pulsate as they do in movies, make the sound effects, or have the visual effects of flashing when striking another blade. That would require hundreds of dollars in sound/controller boards and since it is a first attempt I don't want to risk the expenditure on an experiment plus I don't want to spend all the 1st prize money in case I win.
Through my research the biggest problem lightsaber builders face is cramming all the electronics in the hilt. The concept is to make a base hilt that the electronics and accessories fit inside of then decorate it with aesthetic parts that make it look like a true lightsaber.
My goal for the end result will take elements from a number of lightsabers in movies and games but is inspired by Rahm Kota's lightsaber from The Force Unleashed: http://ro-lightsaber.blogspot.com/2010/05/rahm-kota-lightsaber.html.
The current parts list for my electronics will appear in a section below.
Check back occasionally for updates. I hope to finish this project within a month.