Lightsabers & Blasters EL lightsaber

Does anyone know a web site that teaches you to make a lightsaber with a Electroluminecent blade?(if their is one)just PM me the site.thanks



I'm redirecting the EL discussion to a new thread, Jedi-Loreen's EL Lightsaber Blade Tutorial which has a fabulous kickoff tutorial post that covers the vast majority of the questions brought up in this thread. Be sure to read it!

-sg

 

Hey Mclean, try looking here future horizons look at how they made theirs and base yours off of it.

 

That page links to a seller of plasma blade sabres.

The question is about EL (electroluminescent) sabres, which is quite a different thing.

What exactly were you looking to learn about EL blades?

 

Ive seen a sight before(that i cant find now) that basicaly gives you the gist of how to do it. Instructions on how to power it and what supplies you need. I wish i could find the old site though....

 

I've been making EL blades and kits for myself and others for almost a year now. I've made about 30 blades, so far.

I know about everything you need to make an EL bladed saber and have taught others how to make them using my own contruction methods for the blades.

If you'd like to PM me, I'd be glad to tell you what you need to know.

 

JediLoreen has the BEST red blades for any El saber i have ever seen... id definitly take her advice!

 

Thanks, Dan. They're even better now, with the High Brightness EL wire that's out now.

 

ahh...dont tell me that! now i might have to get one! haha

 

I guess it's time for me to sit down and actually write up a tutorial for these EL blades. I know of a guy that's working on one, with pictures, but I haven't heard from him in a while and I don't know if he ever got it done. *sigh*

 

You can be sure any tutorial would be well received. I found all the supplies to make one in the past but never ordered them because I was uncertain if I would actually be able to one one together.

 

We will be waiting for the tutorial in excitement

 

A tutorial would be awesome Jedi-Loreen. Like LukeSkiewalker I have also found the parts that I think I need to make one but I havent bought them because I'm afraid I will screw something up. I'm waiting in anticipation!

 

YES, a tutorial would be awsome!!!!!

 

Oh dear, what have I gotten myself into?

You guys are going to be benefiting from months of discussion (as anyone who was a frequent visitor to the ASAP Lightsaber Blades forum a year ago can attest to ), money spent on my R&D and experiments, trial and error. The hardest thing for me to figure out was what I wanted to use as a diffuser. The rest of the blade construction was pretty straight forward.

I wonder how many people have made their own blades with my ideas? I don't know if anyone else has made as many as I have, though. Most people just do it for themselves, and friends.

They're not really that hard to build, especially since I've already done all the hard work. Soldering ability is a plus (I am a professional at this, literally), but there are ways people have found to get around this, too, at least the hardest soldering, on the EL wire itself.

Maybe I'm just saying they're not that difficult because I've made so bloody many of them. I've just gotten warned of more future commissions coming up, so my total will be over 35, soon. And that doesn't count the original blades I've redone, as I have improved them.

And I do a good job at it, too. I didn't get my special title on these boards for nothing!

And I never asked anyone if they wanted me to make them a blade, they asked me, when they saw the ones I've made for myself.

Give me a little time to get this all together. With a parts list of what I use, and where to get everything. I'm not sure if I should post it, or just PM or email it to those that really want it.

 

Hey Jedi-Loreen, take all teh time you need.

I am really only fuzzy on one part of the blade construction and that is what do you use to fill the empty space around the wire in the plastic tube? I was thinking I could use clear caulk but I'm not sure.

Thanks

 

Yes, the diffuser is the tricky part.

Remember the idea I mentioned to you at Dragon*Con Lori? Isn't going to work it seems. Can't find the right kind for my purposes.

I've put the idea on the back burner for now, going to make a few more handles first and then go back to adding blades to them I think.

Oh and yes a tutorial would be a handy resource when I'm ready to make some blades of my own

 

I'd be interested in that tutorial, as well! I've got some ideas that I've been thinking about for almost a year now, but I'm curious to see how yours go together. Especially since everyone says that they are the best of the best!

 

You need a part that goes inside the clear polycarbonate tube, between it and the wire, which is the diffuser that I mentioned.

The diffuser's purpose it two-fold. First, it serves to hide the El wire, unless you're only using one strand and want it to show as a very narrow "beam", like some I've seen people make. I prefer 3 strands, for more brightness. The second purpose is to make a nice overall glow inside the tube when it's lit by the EL wire. The diffuser spreads out the light evenly, ideally without dimming it.

Lightech blades use a special kind of paper, but that leaves the wire kind of flopping around in all that space inside the tube. I came up with an idea to use a tube-with-in-a-tube when I saw pics of a blade that someone bought somewhere else.

I use a polyethylene tubing for that purpose, I tried 6 different types of tubing, and this seems to work the best. But I use a 1/2" piece, so there is some extra space inside the polycarb tube, which has a 5/8" Inside Diameter (ID), so I use some extra 5/8" tubing that I was originally going to use, but couldn't get inside the polycarb tube as "bushings" to hold the narrower tube centered inside the polycarbonate tube at top and bottom.

I like the narrower-looking "beam" it makes, and it seems like the wire is brighter, I guess because all the strands are closer together, so the light is almost "concentrated", compared to ones where the wire is inside a larger diameter tube.

The only drawback to this method is that the tubing I use for a diffuser comes on a roll. I've never been able to get it to stay completely straight, so my blades have a slight bend to them, which is only noticable when looking straight down them. But I've noticed that the first blades I made early last year seem to be getting straighter the longer they sit.

 

Wow, cool thanks for the info on difuser loreen. But where do you get teh polythylene tubing as I cannot find it at the US plastics site which is where I will be getting my parts. That's all I needed to know so now I can go buy my parts and build it.

 

I have made 16 blades for myself, my kids and their friends using the Jedi-Loreen method.
On the ASAP boards there is a post with a nice list of parts and links. Once I built a blade or two, I was cranking them out in under an hour. I think the total coast of a blade is around $30. Not bad when you consider blades sell for about $85 to $95.

One more thing.I think the key to brightness is the inverter you use. Some are better than others.

 

Wow, 16 blades! That's a lot! The most I've ever heard of anyone else for making home-made blades.

Yes, $30 is much better than $85, that's why I began my quest to learn to make them for myself. I couldn't afford $600+ to have 8 colors of blades that I wanted.

I agree about the brightness key being the inverter, though the High Brightness wire helps with not-to-bright inverters. The best I've personally found are from Lightech. I have one in my first EL hardware saber I built, and I was able to get a hold of two more for my next 2 sabers.

You can now ask for the EL kit without the blade from Lightech, I have several friends who have done so. I don't know how much Mike is charging for them, I got mine from Guy Thomas, who owns the Saberworks, since he uses Lightech kits and blades in his sabers. I traded him for 2 blades I made him and got some other various parts besides the inverter kits.

 

Jedi_Loreen,

Do you have a website with some photos of your work? Also, do you build your own hilts? Are your blades removable from hilts or permanantly attached?

 

I have 3 the Lightech inverters myself. Two custom hilts and one hilt from Guy. He has a great product. Very clean, solid and nice looking lightsaber. Check them out.

Jedi-Loreen, how does your red look compared to the Lightech red. Thats the one color I have not made yet. I do have a red Lightech and it doesn't glow like the homemade blades I have made(green, blue, yellow and purple).

 

I do build my own EL hardware saber hilts. I've built one full-sized saber, so far, though I'm about to start another one, and what I call a "lightdagger" which is smaller and holds smaller diameter, half-length blades (I purposely made it so it can't hold the regular saber blades ).

My blades are indeed detachable, there's no other way to make them, in my view. How else would I be able to wear my saber on my belt!? ? And why else would I want to make 8 different colors for myself, if I couldn't change them?

I have a Yahoo Photo Album with pics of my blades, including the "guts" of a blade before I assembled it. I'll be adding a few more pics of some new, High Brightness blades when I finish up the disposable camera they are on. Feel free to check out all my Public Albums there.
My Album

 

Jedi_Loreen,

Cool stuff! I look forward to seeing some pics of the brighter blades. Please check your yahoo e-mail account. I sent you an e-mail yesterday also.