Introduction: Lightsaber From Trash! (and Less Than $20.00 Worth of Hardware)

About: I'm an actor/tech/IT/graphics/editor/writer kind of guy. I do a fair share of voice over work and have the full time gig at Bard College at Simon's Rock. While waiting for machines to do things, I hit the wo…

Ok, someone on this forum gave me some sage advice.  Each Jedi had to build their own Lightsaber.

DOH!  I didn't have to copy ANYONE!  I could make my own!



Step 1:

So, here's how it all started.  I found a camera lens in the garbage, and I'm going to apologize right away for not taking a picture of it BEFORE I took it apart.  I thought I was going to fix it.

But upon dis-assembly, the inner lens was cracked.

Step 2:

So the idea hit upon me to build my own Lightsaber.  I completely dis-assembled the lens and started fiddling with how each piece could be spun or fit onto another.  Basically I just played around.

For example, this is how I figured the pommel would look.

Step 3:

For the emitter end, I toyed with a knob that I had picked up for a dollar at Ocean State Job Lot.  but it really didn't seem to be the solution.  So I had some old hard drive bits from drives that I have taken apart. (for security reasons....)

using a drift and  a hammer, the drive parts come apart.  They're only press fit.

I did sand down the drive motor so it would fit in the same spot as the old lens.  Thank goodness for a belt sander!

Step 4:

And then that piece was screwed onto the larger lens piece!  OOOooooo we were excited!

That was the end of day 1.  I was surprised I slept that night as I couldn't wait to get back and finish it!

Step 5:

as for the pommel end, I ran a screw into the old lens cap to hold the D-ring on.  then that got screwed to a secondary piece.

Step 6:

Now the next step took some fussing.  The pommel pieces were all about the same size, and larger than the 8" chrome pipe extension as far as the Outside Diameter was concerned.

Digging around I found a microphone piece from Shure that fit inside the pipe and took up most of the room of the inside of the lens pieces.

I created a drawing to show how it all fit together as it's a little confusing.  I also used a film canister to fit inside the pipe, the screw screws into the bottom of it, there's some JB Weld to hold it there, then everything is glued together.

Step 7:

Back to the emitter end.  I drilled a 1/2" hole to hold the indicator lamp and installed that.  Then screwed the 8" pipe extension into the lens body.  It actually tightened up!

Luck.  Pure luck.

The rubber gaskets are then slid on.

Step 8:

So with everything just roughed together, here is where I was at.

Not bad.

But what to do about grips?

Step 9:

I toyed with strips cut from a rubber mat from the bottom of the tool drawer...

And then I flipped that mat over and found a cool pattern!

BINGO! So we cut a piece and glued it on and let it dry overnight.

Step 10:

I then added a few screws that went through the outside of the pommel to the inside to catch the film canister and that pommel is all tied together as a unit.

A few rivets to hold the grip on... and VOILA!

Total cost for the build was well under $20.00 as I only bought the pipe extension, the lndicator lamp, a couple of gaskets and the D-ring.

My Jedi skills are now complete...

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