7 foot lightsaber

I have been thinking of cosplaying a Sith version of Sephiroth (Final Fantasy 7), and wondering if anyone knows of any sites or can help me with the obtaining of a 7 foot lightsaber (like the master replicas with sounds n stuff) I was thinking of getting a kit for EL ones, but two problems came up, the 6 foot blade and the fact that i know extremely little of technology when it comes to making electronics.

Thanks in advanced,
Lucius Belmont

 

You face two big problems with a blade that long:


1. It's going to be very whippy, especially if you go the EL route. You may as well call it a light-whip or the Darth Limp saber.

2. If you go Luxeon, there is no diffuser that long unless you get it custom extruded, which will cost you a small fortune.

 

arent EL made out of plexiglass (or fiberglass, i forgot), how can it be limp if the material is strong?

EDIT: how much is a small fortune for the Luxeon route? and can you supply info about it (since i never heard of it)

 

Wow... I'm speechless.

 

EL blades are made out of polycarbonate, not plexiglass. Plexiglass is acrylic.

Just because something is strong, doesn't mean it's extremely rigid. Polycarb still flexes, especially the 3/4" stuff that EL is made of.

You should check out the 100+ page thread called LED Blade Q and A's to learn about the superior Luxeon technology.

 

You can do a Luxeon, and have a somewhat decent diffusion, for a less than a small fortune. All you have to do is sand the outside of the polycarb tubing. Corbin mentions this in his saber guide at www.corbinscomponents.com He also mentions a "Dual Tube" design, which appears to get the closest effect to the movies. It doesn't use a diffuser material either.

BTW, Sith Sephiroth!? That's freakin awesome!!

 

You're talkig about 7 feet here. Anything less than a good film/diffuser is going to look like ass in a 7 foot blade. But I don't know anything about Luxeon blades, so don't mind me.

 

Bingo. Will an LED even be able to project all the way down the tube? Especially with the flex of the plastic. You're right. It'll look like ass.

 

I wasn't trying to be insulting or "I know more about LEDs than the one of the Trinity" there. I was just throwing out some possible ideas.

Another possible solution might be EL film, if it is available in the length required, or a lot of EL wire. You'd have to use 1" OD tubing, whether polyC or something else, depends on what sort of use this thing is going to see. You'd then use a single dowel, hard to find in 7' though (not impossible however), or two 4 footers put together with wood glue and a peg. The wire or film could be wrapped around this, and the dowel would also help keep the blade rigid.

Again, just an idea.

 

I've been playing with fiberglass for a while now. You MIGHT be able to make a 7-foot tube out of fiberglass that doesn't flex. I've made a 3-foot blade (for a sword, not a saber) that's hard as a frickin' rock, and with enough layers (like maybe 5), a tube made of fiberglass might not flex much, if at all.

BUT...

It'd be a bitch and half to make. You'd have to make a two-part flexible mold (made of silicone, RTV rubber, urethane rubber, etc.) with a plaster mother mold, and after you've made the castings, you'd have to plane the raw edges to near-perfection, and then fuse them together with fiberglass on the INSIDE. I've done that last bit on my 3-foot blade, but it's tapered, and only 3 feet. I can't imagine trying that on a 7-footer.

Besides, why on earth would you want something that long? It would be totally impractical as a weapon. How would you defend youself? You can't point the blade down because it would hit the ground. You wouldn't be able to protect anything below your waist. Someone goes to slice your kneecaps off, you go to block, and your saber hits the ground and now they call you Halfy.

 

VillieGee, have you ever played FFVII or watched Advent Children? Sephiroth is the kicka$$ bad guy with a 7 foot long Masamune. Impratical? Yes. Amazingly Kicka--? Double Yes.

 

I think a 7-foot saber would be a neat endeavor, but I second the opinions of most of the knowledgeable Luxeon folks on here... it wouldn't be very practical design-wise, and the LED would be hard-pressed to light the entire tube.

If you make it EL, I suppose it could work... but can THOSE parts be found that long as well?

Finally--do NOT use acrylic or fiberglass--it will most certainly snap. Alex (Ultra) is right in that strength is not always measured in inflexibility. Au contraire, sometimes flexibility is exactly what you need. Polycarbonate offers such flexibility.

If you want an indestructible blade that has ZERO flexion... you should think solid steel, solid aluminum, solid resin, solid many-a-thing. But you cannot light it up now can you? And it would be DEATHLY heavy... and FURTHER heavy being *SEVEN* feet long!!!

lol... is this going to be used for "Seven Jedi"? Just kidding.

 

In sufficient thickness, I really don't think fiberglass would snap under it's own weight. I mean they make cars out of the stuff.

 

I can't say that I know much about fiberglass, I haven't ever personally worked with the stuff, but it seems to me that you may be comparing apples to oranges. Car bodies have forms to them, many curves and the like. This allows the overall structure to be stronger than a flat sheet of the stuff would be. A solid rod would probably still be too brittle, and it does not have any reinforcing curves or angles. It might not break under it's own weight, but it might break if it were moved and stopped too fast.

 

Well this blade I made can be smacked against a wall as hard as I can and it doesnt break. In cross-section it would look like this: <> It has no curves, just 4 angles and it's tougher than anything I've ever made. There's no way a tube would snap under it's own inertia. No way.

 

Well... basically, the way im thinking of this cosplay is that, "what would Sephiroth be like i he was in the SW universe?" i know that leaves the whole other cast of FF7 to be questioned, but im only focusing on the Sephiroth. I have some good ideas that represents him in FF7, but still Sith jedi, the only thing left is the weapon, which, as X_Gundam said, he wields a 7 foot long katana, a masemune class (no curve, blunt and flat on one side and bladed on the other)


hmmmm, im going to get my friend to help me understand any of this, hes a tech guy. and for reference, the blade is 6 feet + a foot for the hilt= 7, like the masemune.sorry for the confusion (and by the what you guys were saying sounds like a foot woundt matter much) yep, Darth Sephiroth for me, but only if i can get this made.....somehow.....Thanks for the info, keep it coming, i need all the help i can get

 

Hmm..., is it opaque, clear, or frosted looking? (Sorry, I've had no experience with fiberglass whatsoever) Because if it were frosted looking, there would be no need for a diffuser, and EL wire could be used. (EL is sold in sufficient lengths) If it were clear, EL wire could still be used, you'd just have to purchase some polyethylene tubing as well. However, if it is opaque, you'd have to get polyethylene to fit around it and enough wire to wrap the blade. (A lot of wire indeed).

Hmm..., must ask EGR professor about this.

 

I used a water-clear resin, so the blade is clear, but because of the texture of the cloth on the inside, it isn't like looking through glass. But thanks to someone else on this board in Jedi-Loreen's EL lightsaber thread (sorry, I don't remember who it was and I'm too lazy to go look for you), I picked up some spray-on window frosting from Home Depot. The guy who helped me find it at HD (cuz I'm apparently a dumbtard with bad eyes) even said it works like gangbusters.

Hopefully I'll finish this damn sword someday so I can show everyone. I hate messing up. And fiberglass takes forever to cure in this cold.

 

Keep in mind that if you do something like this with EL wire, you will need an inverter that's rated for the length you need. Most inverters that people use for lightsabers aren't rated for as much wire as you might need.

 

Ooh, that's a good point Loreen. You're always thinking.

This idea is fraught with problems, I'm afraid.

 

It also means that the inverter for something like this is likely to be larger that the ones that fit inside a lightsaber hilt.

 

Isn't the pipsqueak rated for 5 - 50 ft though? Figure twice up and down the length of the blade would equal about 24 to 25 ft of wire. Even if it was rated for something like 5 - 25 ft, it'd still work. At least, I'd think it would. Again, just an idea.

 

Generally, I'm a really nice guy, and I almost never flame anyone. I'm not going to flame you now either, but I'm very, very tempted to.

Sephiroth is easily one of the lamest, most over rated villians ever, and FFVII is probably the most over rated game ever made in the history of games, electronic or otherwise.

I'm not saying FFVII is a bad game, it's very good, but it ain't the best game ever made, folks.

Sephiroth is indeed lame though. He isn't even the real villian... he's just Jenova's puppet. Kefka is by far the best Final Fantasy villian. Make an original villian, and that'll save you the problem of making a 7 ft lightsaber...

 

There is a major difference between Sephiroth and Kefka though. That difference is simply the words "Cult Following".

Though I do have to say that the only FF game I've played through the whole way is FFI. I have come to prefer FPS's and Platformers to RPG's lately, and haven't even played past the first summoning on FFX. Anyhow...

 

A word on the strength fiberglass...

I regularly use 1.25" OD tube in 8' and 12' lengths, with a thickness of .125". The 12' has minimal flex, and I put MAJOR stress on it. I am barely able to flex the 8'. By major stress, I am referring to weighted impact with full swing on a hard (armored) target (SCA fighting, if you know what that is) - roughly the worst test you can put a material through, the quintessential "beat something with it."

OTOH, at that thickness, it's quite opaque. Not exactly good material for a blade, if you want to illuminate it. That leaves you with polycarbonate as a viable alternative.

PolyC is usually an even stiffer material, but sometimes more brittle (formulations vary from supplier to supplier, though.) I would still use it here, though. At only 7', whip should not be an issue with 1" OD .75 ID PC tbe.

If you want to light it, you have a few options. If you're going with EL, you don't have to use the .75" OD PC that you usually see. My first EL saber used 1", and looks great, IMHO. Given your length of blade, your'e going to need ~ 40' of EL. Finding a small enough driver for that much EL will be difficult, and then you still have to find a small enough power supply. I personally would reccomend LED lighting. In this instance, I would get a picec of side-emitting fiberoptic cable the same thickness as the ID of a piece of 7' PC (should be about .75"), and use that instead of a diffuser, and light it with the brightest LED you feel comfortable working with. (I'm just now getting in the K2's, and love them. There are some even brighter ones coming soon from different manufacturers, so look out.) It may not be as bright as what you see from UltraSWG or Corbin, but it will definately get the point across.

Your greatest challenge is going to be connecting this long of a blade to a hilt. I think the only real way to do it securely is to drill a hole though the PC blade and your hilt, then tap them together for a single bolt or screw. You might have to do this in more than one place. I suspect that you will have a difficult time making this a removable blade...

Just my 2 cents. Take it as you will... Others here are right. Go check the LED Q&A topic. I learned a lot there.