Come on… Who hasn’t wanted a lightsaber at somepoint? Star Wars has always fascinated me and at a very young age I learned that you can build very really looking sabers with some light sources, hacked up electronics, and some sink tube. Eventually I hit a point where I also had a 3D printer and this seemed like the perfect project to start learning desinging and limits of 3D printing.
General Design:
- RGB LED with polycarbonate tubes
- Arduino based electronics
- 18650 lithium cells
- Constructed of 3D printed parts/accents inside modified chrome sink tubes
Michael’s Saber:
- Roughly based on Anakin original trilogy sabers
- Both main and aux buttons hidden under PCB clamp in middle
Lindsey’s Saber:
- Roughly based on Yoda’s saber
- Black middle section has one main button and a side aux button
Researching Electronics
The biggest unknown in the cost of the project was the internal electronics to drive the light source and sounds. When I began building there was alot going on in terms of new controller options. While there were definitely more feature rich controllers, I ultimately went on a solution and codebase that used relatively cheap components. The main board was based on Arduino with an additional 6 deg of freedom sensor and an MP3 player module.
Designing Hilts
The hilts themselves were designed to be made out of chrome sink tubes easily and cheaply available at any hardware store. The design was done in Fusion 360 in such a way that I create flat pattern to print out. The pattern was then glued to the sink tube and used as a guide to create all the profiles and holes.
Anything not made of sink tube or various pieces of sheet metal are 3D printed. The main prints are a sled that also holds the battery, speaker, and switches inside of the sink tube. The part that holds the 1in polycarbonate blade is also 3D printed. This part was a test to see how well I could thread the plastic itself and retain the blades with a screw. So far that is holding up well.
End Results
Let’s get the important stuff out there first… Lightsaber battles are fun. These are super entertaining, the electronics solution is plenty repsonive, the RGB allows lots of customization, and the hilts do look good I must say.
This is an older project, that taught me a lot. Feel free to comment below with anything you’ve learned!!