Light Sabre Anatomy

The basic parts of a custom "EZ-Build" light sabre, built on a 1-1/4" extension pipe as the core. A) The emitter. Simply the slip nut assembly of the extension pipe, painted black. B) The forward grip. One of my favorite sabre builder's tricks, sump pump drain hose. It fits FIRMLY around the pipe requiring no glue and it's black, requiring no paint. C) The clamp/activator box assembly. Basically a PVC connector wrapped in chrome mylar tape, fixed in place with two screws with finish washers, and the activation box is a plastic part of unknown origin, dressed with chrome mylar tape. D) The rear grip. Another of my favorite tricks. I pondered the rear grip on this sabre and the grips on the Vader and Luke sabres for some time, and this is the solution I came up with. Replacement body molding for automobiles. It comes in a few sizes and gold, silver, black trimmed with gold or silver, and good old fashioned black (which is what I used here). It's self adhesive, durable, and extremely economical. $10 got me 16 feet. By my estimation that's enough for at least 8 sabres, or $1.25 per sabre. Can't beat that price, can ya? E) And finally, the "pommel". Or simply put, a faucet knob by Danco. It's a replacement for a "Pheonix" style faucet. It comes clear, so for this I painted it satin black, dressed it with chrome mylar tape, and added a key ring to hang it from a belt.

Evolution in design...

These designs represent the least to most recent in my attempts to create a lightsabre replica.

From the left, the first one, though not in it's original from, represents my first attempt at building a lightsabre. It started out looking much like the "EZ Build" sabre above, but over time evolved as my skills grew. Since it was originally built, I've replaced the activation box, the activation buttons, shortened the forward grip, changed the material for the rear grip to a different auto body trim, and modified the emitter. It may see one or two more addtions or modifications in the future.

The second is a "sink drain" based design rather than the extension tube of the previous design. It's a step in the right direction since the emitter flange looks much better even if the entire assembly doesn't. It also features an early attempt at a metal Graflex style clamp made from aluminum flashing. While it does have it's finer points, overall it misses the mark.

The third and most recent of the three represents a hybrid approach. The core of the sabre is an extension tube, while the emitter flange came from a sink drain. The entire emitter assembly is much better in it's execution. I've also forgone the D-ring/key ring method of belt attachment in favor of the Covertec influenced cell phone clip. While there are still some minor design issues to be resolved, this is the closest I've come to my ideal custom sabre.