Build Your Own Sci-Fi Saber is a digital eBo

ok designed to take you on a rewarding journey as you construct a super bright, working* LED sword using many different and surprising materials. Your saber will be suitable for display, cosplay, costuming or dueling. You will learn to go on the “hunt” and look through hardware, electronic and plumbing stores for things that can make great sabers.

This technical manual is anything but boring. Blending humor and lightheartedness with the technical aspects of saber building makes this an enjoyable read for anyone, regardless of their skill level. From the advanced craftsman to the first-time-hobbyist, this book makes the process of building a saber easy to understand.

For those who aren’t the “handy” type, this book is a thoughtful gift for the people in your life who love Sci-Fi and enjoy working with their hands.

* Your finished product will be a lighted prop, not an actual plasma weapon able to cut through solid objects. 😉

EXCERPT

     It was a dream of mine as a child to have a realistic looking laser sword of my own design. I wanted to be like a space hero and construct my own weapon, so in 2009 I made up my mind to learn how.

     I turned to the internet and found information about building sabers, but much of the information was incomplete. Some sites told how to build a great looking hilt for costuming but didn’t have any information about making them with a light-up blade. Another site taught me how to make a saber blade light up with an “LED string.” This helped, but I didn’t like how you could see each individual LED in the blade and the hilts were just glued-together PVC pipe.

     I found some online videos, but the vocabulary was sometimes hard to figure out.For example: “I used 4 layers of polypro to make the blade light up evenly.” I wondered what the heck polypro was and what defined a “layer.” I found other videos that showed some outstanding custom sabers, but when the guys talked about the electronics I felt like I needed a masters degree in electronic engineering from MIT to keep up.

     Then I found sites with machined parts for building sabers that you simply purchase and assemble. Maybe I’m nuts, but that didn’t seem challenging enough for me. I wanted my saber construction experience to be an adventure, not just a project, so this book will take you on the same journey I went on (minus some of the mistakes I made along the way).