Lightsabers & Blasters toy sabers

It's sooooooo bright! Too bad I'm trying to make a red saber, but wow, that'd be a cool thing to have! That's like a cross between Anakin and Yoda. So if the saber's green, how come the little light is blue?

 

He's using a neon colored tube. So when you shine a UV light on it it glows green. Sort of like a blacklight (which is basically a UV light) makes white stuff glow purple, the UV light makes neon colors glow well even with little power behind it. Hence buy a neon red tube and you could pull off the same thing.

That also explains the "blue" light. UV lights are purplish to our eyes and the camera is trying to interpret something that we "shouldn't" really see... ergo the blue.

 

So all you're saying is that I need that UV light (or 4 as you said earlier) and a red tube, and presto? What kind of voltage do I need to power such a thing, and where can I get the proper electronics? (I'm not going to purchase his stuff since I've already got a hilt, just need the blade.)

 

Well, it'd have to be a NEON red (usually called fluorescent colors), but that is pretty much it.

You can use whatever voltage you want. For sounds sake you may want to stick to 6V if you plan on adding that.

When you get your UV LEDs use a resistor and simple push switch. You can find out what resistor you need here: http://led.linear1.org/led.wiz The package the LEDs come in sould tell you the stuff you need to input there. Once you have all that put it on a perfboard (get one at radioshack where you can get resistors and the push switch) and mount it in the hilt.

 

Alright, thanks. And where should I get the tube, a hardware store?

 

A plastics dealer. Look up plastics in the yellowpages. You may luck out and find a store that is willing to sell you the tube in the small quantity you want. You're looking for a red colored acrylic tube MAKE SURE it is either called neon or fluorescent red. A plain red acrylic tube won't glow so well.

 

I shall look for that, thanx again. Wow, this place is full of help!