Lightsaber: Design, Parts, Experiment

For me, the first part of designing a prop is to imagine a concept.  I start off asking what the prop will look like in a general fashion.  A lightsaber, in this case, is the shape of a tube, pipe, or round bar.  To refine the concept, it helps to look at parts.  I started by going to the Custom Saber Shop (www.thecustomsabershop.com).  They have a link to their online C.A.D. program that will put up their parts for building a saber.  You can experiment with powder coats and all manner of parts until you find something you like.  Here is an image of the parts I chose for my first saber.

Here’s the design that started this saber build of mine.

           That design was a little on the long side, so I pulled a piece out of the saber and shortened it.  Here is the new design.  I decided to get the choke because I may find a use for it yet.

            There was still a problem for me visualizing the saber just from the parts on the MHS Builder.  For me, design really doesn’t occur until I have some parts in hand.  When I can feel them and arrange them in different configurations, my imagination is then engaged as to further artistic refinements beyond the parts.  The parts are just the start in any project.  The magic happens when I go beyond the parts to see the possibilities of what can be done with the parts.

            When the parts arrived, that’s when I got my first shock.  The difficulty with using computers is that I really don’t get any sense of how large or small the individual parts are in relation to each other.  Here is a picture of the saber hilt parts (one is missing because I’m customizing my own – I didn’t want to buy a part that I wasn’t going to use).

            With the parts in hand and a real sense of their scale, I decided that I needed the more expensive parts to see how difficult this project could really become.  Here’s a picture of some of the internal electronic parts that fit in to the saber hilt.

            Note the scale with the quarter.  From the top, going from left to right: Li-Ion battery pack, a speaker, the Petit Crouton sound and LED control board (to be paired with another board that is back-ordered that controls alternate high powered LEDs on the main LED),  the 2.1mm recharge port, 2 momentary switches, the high powered LED unit (Tri-Rebel, Red-Blue-Green), and the micro SD card that contains the configuration and sound files for the Petit Crouton sound board.

            This build is going to be a challenge.

The Experiment:

            Each week, I’m trying to experiment with various decorative techniques.  This week, I decided to try using acid to etch aluminum. 

            I won’t bore you with the details of how to do this: the Internet has plenty of explanations and instructions done by others.  The point is that for me, this is a new technique and I have to play around with it to figure out what I’m doing and how to do it.

            Here’s my very first acid etching on aluminum: the text says ‘hello’ in the lettering seen throughout the Star Wars films.  It's called Aurek-Besh, "AB," and did rather well.

            I should point out, that when I use the word “play” with regards to acid etching or any other potentially dangerous or detrimental artistic technique, I don’t mean that I literally play around with acid or anything.  I use the word “play” because, to me, that has always been the best attitude to take towards learning.  Play expresses the idea of pushing boundaries with imagination, not just sticking to a proscribed route or doing what one is told and how one is told.  I’ve never learned anything except by doing it, by playing with my own ignorant boundaries, and discovering for myself what could be done with the resources at my disposal.