Lightsaber Prop Tutorial

Build at your own risk! I accept no responsibility for anything you do resulting from these construction methods. These tutorials are just here to help others accomplish some of the things I have. I have made mistakes and learned from them. You will too. Here, I try to share some of the lessons I've learned. Remember to always wear safety gear when working with tools, including safety goggles and breathing masks, and always use glues and paints in well ventilated areas. Thank you.

This will make you some functional "combat" sabers. They are not the best looking, but they offer a quick and cheap solution to a common Fan Film based problem. If you'd like a saber that looks a little better please check out my Hero Saber Tutorial.
Okay, here's what you need. Some 3/4" copper piping, Copperhead BB's, some fiberglass filler, and the cheap "flashlight" toy lightsaber handle (just yank out the telescoping plastic cone). Pictured is the cheap Qui-Gon Jinn Saber handle and you can see an Obi-Wan flashlight handle, both from Episode One. I think I paid maybe $5 for both of them.

Cut the copper pipe down to size so that it will fit in flush with the toy lightsaber handle.

Now take the pipe and make sure that the dowel rod you are going to use fits snuggly within. Use duct tape to make it more snug.
If you want the dowel to be removable, I would put a large layer of tape around the opening of the copper pipe where it meets the dowel so that when you pour fiber glass later, it won't get down into the crack between the copper pipe and the dowel.

Now, the plastic toy saber handle with the dowel mounted in it. Is not properly balanced. We need more weight in the hilt. So what I did was use a mixture of BB's and sand to add the weight and then mixed Fiberglass filler into it.

Mount the dowel and pipe into the handle about where you want it and use wooden or plastic shunts to keep the dowel and pip in place. Carefully, pout the BB's/sand/fiberglass mixture into the remaining space.
Again, if you want the dowel to be removable, make sure no fiberglass gets into the crack between the dowel and the pipe. Because, once it does and dries, that dowel is not going anywhere, and you'll most likely have to drill it out. Not fun. On the other hand, if you don't care about a removable dowel (like me...I had enough extras not to worry) by all means pour fiberglass down in there. It will make it stronger and you definitely don't have to worry about the dowel rod popping out of the hilt during a fight and possibly injuring someone.

Pictured to the right, is what the hilt looks like when it is filled with the BB's/Sand/Fiberglass mixture and has dried. Now the handles weigh 2 to 3 pounds and make the dowels nearly weightless and very easy to weild.

Pictured at right, are three of the stunt sabers used in "Sith: Apocalypse". I went on to modify them slightly by attaching Scotchlite tape in bands on the "blades", so that they would show up better during the Rotoscoping process. This turned out not to be necessary because they didn't show up well anyway. Therefore I recommend painting bands on the dowel rods instead, or leaving them blank.

I hope this helped!