How to make a lightsaber prop for $30

Hey, what's up everybody? Today I'm going to be showing you how I made this lightsaber prop for only $30. It is cheap, it's easy to make, it is durable, and you can fight with it. I'll also be showing you how I made a version of this with a polycarbonate blade instead of the metal blade, so stick around and find out how I made it. The tools that you're going to need for this project are a phillips head screwdriver, a tape measure, some sandpaper, PVC cement, a saw, and a drill with a 9 and 64 inch drill bit. For your materials, you will need a 1 1⁄2 inch sink tailpiece that is 12 inches long. It was $10 and I found it in the plumbing section. A 1 1⁄4 inch steel insert coupling. That was $4 and also found in the plumbing section. A 1 1⁄2 inch to 1 1⁄4 inch poly pipe insert reducing coupling, which was 84 cents. A 1 inch PVC plug for $1. A pack of number 17 o-rings for $2.50. A number 8 3⁄4 inch metal phillips screw for $1.24. A number 10 knurled nut for $1.15. A roll of duct tape for $3.37. A 5 foot piece of 1⁄2 inch EMT conduit for $1.65. 1⁄2 inch foam pipe insulator for $1. And silver and black spray paint for $3. I will leave a full list in the description below for all the materials that you will need. Okay, so first, you're going to be taking your sink tailpiece and cutting that down to 6 inches. We're going to be using the part that has the lip on one end. On the other end that you cut, you're going to want to sand that down so there are no sharp or jagged edges. Once you have that sanded down and it's nice and smooth, you're going to take the steel coupling, which will be the emitter part of the lightsaber, and insert that into the end with the lip. Right now, it's not going to fit. As you can see, the coupling is smaller than the sink tailpiece. So what I do to fix that is I take some duct tape and I wrap it around three times. This is going to give the steel coupling a little bit more width on it and help it stay into place once you insert it into the sink tailpiece. Once you're done with that, just cut off the excess tape on the end so it doesn't get in the way when you put your blade in. Now reinsert the coupling and you can see that it will have a lot firmer connection with the sink tailpiece. Next, drill a hole through the sink tailpiece and the steel coupling a half inch below the lip. This is going to be where you insert your screw and nut, which will help the steel coupling stay into place even more and act as your activator switch on the lightsaber. Now you're going to take your PVC plug and your reducing coupling and sand off any of the text that you can see on the outside. After you have those sanded, take some PVC cement and put a little bit on the plug and then insert that into the coupling and wipe away any of the excess glue. Next, go to a well-ventilated area and spray a layer of silver spray paint over your reducing coupling and your plug. After that dries, spray it with a light coat of the black spray paint. I made my coat really light so that the silver would show through and give it that metallic look. So after it dries, this is what it's going to look like. If you want, you can take some sandpaper and sand off some of the black spray paint on top so the silver will show through. It'll give it a nice weathered, worn look. Now take your reducing coupling and some duct tape and wrap three layers around the smaller end. This is going to do the same thing that it did for the steel coupling and help it fit better into the sink tailpiece. Now take your O-rings and on each one of these grooves on the steel coupling, you're going to want to put an O-ring. I also slipped one into this groove on the reducing coupling. And you can put one on the sink tailpiece underneath the activator switch if you want. I actually ended up moving this above the activator switch, I felt like it looked cooler. Now you can insert the reducing coupling into the end of the sink tailpiece and the hilt is finished. Now we can move on to the blade. Okay so for the blade, you're going to take your 5 foot piece of EMT conduit and cut it down to 45 inches. Then you're going to take that 45 inch piece and on one end, you're going to take some duct tape and wrap it around 19 times. Yes, I said 19 times. This is going to be the bottom of the blade and where you slip on your reducing coupling. Then cut a 2 inch piece of the foam pipe insulator and slip that over the top of the blade all the way down to meet the duct tape. Now right above the foam, take some more duct tape and wrap it around 21 times. Now I know this uses a lot of duct tape, but what it's doing is it's thickening up your blade so it doesn't move around while it's inside the sink tailpiece. Okay so now that you have your 19 wraps, your 2 inch piece of foam, and your 21 wraps, you're going to take some more duct tape and at the halfway point, you're going to wrap it 4 times around the top layer of duct tape. And then push that down so it inclines up into the thicker part of the duct tape. And then just put a layer of tape over the foam so that it doesn't get cut as you slide your sink tailpiece on and off. And I promise that's all the duct tape that you're going to have to use. I know it's not much to look at, but trust me, it does a really good job at holding your blade in place. Now take the reducing coupling and twist that over the end of the blade. Remember to twist it with the direction that you wrapped the duct tape so it doesn't tear off as you twist it on and off. After you have that on, take the sink tailpiece with the screw out and slip it over the top of the blade and twist it all the way down over the top of the reducing coupling. Then you can realign your holes if you need to and reinsert your screw. The screw is actually going to dig into the duct tape underneath and help hold the blade into place even more. Now with the blade secure, you are finished and I will show you how to make the version with the polycarbonate blade. I used a 72 inch long piece of polycarbonate tubing with a 1 inch outer diameter and I cut that down to 45 inches. Now take that 45 inch piece and on one end, take some duct tape and wrap it around 3 times. This will be the bottom of the blade and where you put the reducing coupling just like you did with the metal conduit blade. Now instead of using a piece of foam for the middle part, you are just going to use some more duct tape and you are going to wrap it around 19 times. And then you will take some more tape and at the halfway point, you will wrap it around 4 times on that middle layer. And just push that down and make it incline up into the thicker part just like you did with the metal conduit blade. Now you can take your reducing coupling and twist that over the end part of the blade. Then take your sink tail piece with the screw out and slip it over the top of the blade and twist it all the way down over the top of the reducing coupling. Realign your holes if you need to and then take your drill with your 9 and 64 inch drill bit and drill a hole into the polycarbonate tubing. I made a small mark with a permanent marker so it will be easier to line up the holes when I take the blade in and out. And I still used a number 8 metal phillips screw but with a length of 1 and a quarter inch instead of 3 quarters of an inch. After you have the screw secured, you are finished and now you have a version with a polycarbonate blade. Okay so now that you know how I built it, I do have a few notes that I would like to share. The overall length of the hilt is going to be 10 and a half inches long. That is if you decide to cut this sink tail piece down to 6 inches. And you can see exactly how much of the hilt will be taken up with one hand if you decide to go with that length. So if you do want a little bit longer hilt, I did make a version of that that I can show you right now. So here is the longer version compared to the shorter version. This one is 13 and a half inches long and this one is 10 and a half inches long. So you can see this one is a lot easier to grab with two hands. If you are a little bit taller and have bigger hands, the longer hilt will be a better option in my opinion. You make it exactly the same way as I showed earlier. The only difference is you cut this sink tail piece to 9 inches instead of 6 inches and on the inside you will extend your pipe insulator 3 more inches to fill out the rest of this metal in there so that your blade isn't moving around on you while you are fighting. Okay so now I have the polycarbonate blade in. So you can see it is a lot more flexible than the metal conduit blade. It's a lot lighter so you can fight with it a lot faster. It's also a lot safer to fight with. If you get hit with this while you are fighting, it's not going to hurt as much as it will with the metal conduit blade. The price of this blade was $20 compared to $1.25 for the conduit blade and it will take the overall price of the build to $50 rather than $30. Alright, well thank you for watching. I hope you learned something. Remember if you decide to make this, it's going to cost you only $30 or $50 depending on which blade you go with. It is very easy to make, it is cheap, it is durable, and you can fight with it. See you next time.