Foam practice lightsabers

Hey Denver,

Jedi Knight Birr sent me a PM asking about the foam weapons I made for the PFF when we went up to Flagstaff last weekend. In case anybody else is interested in playing with these I'm posting the instructions I sent him. We had a blast knocking each other around with these and the people who wanted to learn how to fight with a saber, and not get slammed by a hard blade, said they had a much easier time learning with the foam first, then the EL blades. Enjoy and PM me at any time, or post here, if you guys have questions.

-Void

For a standard lightsaber...

Get a 10ft length of 3/4 inch diameter PVC pipe from home depot, lowes, etc. Have it cut into two 46 inch lengths of PVC and one left over piece of 28 inches.

Also from home depot, lowes, etc...pick up the pack of pipe insulation that has four 3 foot lengths. It should be fitted for a 3/4 inch diameter pipe and have a wall thickness of 1/2 inch minimum, 3/4 inch is better.

Plus get a supply of duct tape. Basic grey works just fine, I have been able to find black, red, silver, white, yellow, and brown duct tape. Then in the painting section I've found blue and green masking tape that worked just as well. I know there are other colors out there such as orange and purple...keep looking if you want.

Finally go to a fabric store, or salvage some sofa/chair cushions and pick up a block of open cell (squishy) foam that is 3 inches thick.

Take the 46 inch of PVC and slide the 3 foot foam insulation over it until the top is flush with the end of the foam. Cut out a section of 3 inch squishy foam about the diameter of the pipe/foam combo. Wrap it up in duct tape to round it off, but be very careful not to compress it too much. Place this on top of the foam edge and attach it with tape. Then place 1 layer of tape down the entire foam assembly...reinforce the point of connection between the stabbing tip and the main body as this can break off easily. Also tape up the 10 inch grip area left over at the bottom to keep the PVC from splintering. You now have a 10 inch handle with 39 inches of foam (1 meter)...a standard lightsaber design.

Do the same thing for the smaller 28 inch lengths but use a 2 foot section of foam instead of a 3 foot section, you can also compress it to get more handle space. Keep the left over 1 foot section to use on other small saber designs (Two 3 foot foam sections will make 3 small sabers). Use the same 3 inch section of open cell foam from before for the stabbing tip. This will give you either a child sized foam weapon or a wakazashi sized for those who want fight niten-do style with lightsabers.

 

that sounds like a cool idea . maybe we should try it .

 

the first chance i get, i am going to try my hand at building one. They sound fun.

 

Thanks Void!

 

tim will be heart broke.

 

yeah , but our knuckles wont be !

 

Go check out the pictures from PFF's Flagstaff trip, you can still get beat pretty good with those things, but it does sound like fun.