Have you ever wanted to be a Jedi?

Well, we can't provide you with force sensitivity, but you can build yourself a lightsaber! And you can make it for few dollars. The whole project is under 25$. Surely it is something amazing to show your friend. You can use it for a cosplay or as a super cool lamp.

Let's start!

Step 1: Materials and Tools

You will need:

transparent tube
some idraulic tubing
leds ( a lot)
some big low value resistors
super glue
duct tape

The tools you need are:

soldering iron
breadboard
test power supply (optional)

TEST EVERY LED BEFORE SOLDERING IT

Step 2: Handle Build

This is the part where you should free your creativity!

The best way to choose how to shape your lightsaber's handle is to search online some pics of them. Surely you will find a lot of inspiring images. I used some pvc tubing found at the nearest

Step 3: Led Core

Now you have to choose your lightsaber color!

The color of your lightsaber is the color of the led you will use in its core. You can vary color, brightness and the number of your led. I found the best ones are blue 3v flat head ultra bright leds. As you can see from images above they can easily light a room in a blue glow.

Wiring is quite easy: if you want to apply 12v just split the 3v leds in 4 groups. Wire in paralle all the leds in the same group and wire the group in series. This is quite a simple setup, not the best but easy. Be sure to place your big fat resistor in place, in series to all the led groups.

The camera had some probelm with the led brightness but this is a good thing: in all the images the leds appear even more brigth then what they are in real life. Perfect for cosplays.

Building the core is a long but simple procedure. Numbers in this instructable are correct for 100 leds at 3v.

Step 4: Blade

Building the blade is probably the most time consuming part of this build.

You need to secure everything inside the tube. The best way i found to secure the leds and make the light more homogeneous is using oven paper and acrylic disks.

Acrylic disks are used to keep the led core in the center of the tube without adding a visible support structure. You have to be very careful cutting the disks to make them fit perfectly both in the tube and on the led strip. You need to wrap the led core in oven paper and secure it with very small pieces of tape. Then you have to wrap the inside of the tube with oven paper and secure it with tape once again.In the end just seal with hot glue. (see photos)

This way you will have a very smooth light without dimming the brightness too much.

Now just solder the leds to the handle parts and you are ready for the next step!