Aglarond…
Ok, here are my thoughts on this. I’ve looked and did some thinking, and even though I’m not a physicist or scientist of any sort, I am a practical man (most of the time.) I came across some plans to build a lightsaber, but only the handle.
Here are my thoughts on building a fully working (ok, it won’t slash anything) lightsaber. Build the handle, but make room for a powersource, I’m sure a couple of AAA or AA batteries would work, or even a 9volt. Now the blade…
I’ve seen various blade inserts that are that clear hard plastic that capture light fairly well. Take that material and make it into a telescoping blade. Line the inside of that with some sort of string lighting… Is that available? Like my bro says, “It’s 2000, if it can be thought up, it can be made.” Line the plastic with the ‘string lighting’ and that will take care of the ‘light’ of the saber.
Ok, a spring could make it extend, but how would it extinguish?
just my thoughts…
Wouldn’t you rather have my plans for a real one? Oh, well, if you’re sure…safety first, I guess.
You could use SuperVision sideglow fiber optic cable for your light source. If you’re interested, I can dig up contact info for a distributor–I get mine from a home theater place here in Dallas.
The handle’s not a problem. There’s plans all over the place on how to make replicas. My problem has just been the blade. I’m not sure about the string lighting. It sounds plausible, but I’ve never seen or messed with any, so I’m not sure if it exists. Extension wouldn’t be hard. Considering the circumference of the blade, it would be easy enough to set up something along the lines of a power antenna on the inside of the blade. It could extend, pushing the rest of the blade upwards. If it were attached properly, it could bring it back down easily. Cut power to the string lighting at that point and your good to go. If this stuff does exist, I doubt it uses too much power.
I did find a guy who thought of something similar. He uses plasma rods, though. And, the blade doesn’t extend. It is a fixed glass tube, and the things are expensive as hell. The fiber sounds like a good idea. Let us know what you find, Balance.