back to article How to build a real lightsabre

As even casual Star Wars fans will know, lightsabers are probably the coolest weapon ever to make an appearance on the big screen. Lightsaber fights are so elegant that they are almost hypnotic and, even though not all of us might have a strong enough flow of Force running through our veins, a lightsaber in the right hands is …

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  2. Shaun 2

    Shut up and take my money!

    This needs a Kickstarter!

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Shut up and take my money!

      Alternately, if you fancy something that looks like a real lightsaber but doesn't slice things up (which would effectively prevent using the thing unless you have both a deathwish and a desire to spend much of your life in prison) you could build a "luxeon lightsaber" which looks the part, and isin't seriously dangerous. (ie, somewhat less dangerous than hitting somebody with a cricket bat)

      If you build yourself a collection it may also grant free access to most fencing & martial arts clubs. It does for me, but your results may vary depending on how much audacity you have and how much your local martial arts clubs like to do something different once in a while.

      You'll find that real (non-choreographed) fights aren't so elegant as to be hypnotic, since unless both people have previously agreed not to use most effective (ie thrusting & difficult to block) moves fights tend to be over in under 15 seconds. Still, good fun and great exercise!

      1. VinceH

        Re: Shut up and give me a blaster!

        See title!

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Shut up and take my money!

        "Alternately, if you fancy something that looks like a real lightsaber but doesn't slice things up"

        Unfortunately, it might still be mistaken for the real thing and confiscated as such.

        Remember that time Luke Skywalker tried to bring his Extra Large Light Saber to the local nightclub to impress the girls, but had it taken off him by the doorman?...

        http://prvotina.eu/foto/album_6.jpg

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Shut up and take my money!

      @ Shaun 2; "This needs a Kickstarter!"

      Oh, I'm sure there are will be people on Kickstarter taking your money in exchange for the not-worth-the-few-bytes-it's-written-on promise of a fully-working light saber if the demand is there.

      'Course, it supposedly used to be that Kickstarter never allowed the most egregiously misleading examples of utterly implausible tech like Indiegogo did, but it looks like they're relenting on that count.

  3. xeroks

    Nah

    We're closer to recreating the death star than one of these bad boys.

    1. sisk

      Re: Nah

      We could build at least the structure of the Death Star now, if not the main gun. We'd just have to put a lot more resources into doing so than any sane person would. The main gun, though....well we may be able to BUILD it, but we'll likely not be able to POWER it for a long, long time. Each shot would consume 2.2 x 1032 joules. A type II civilization could power something that big, but only by sucking up a significant percentage of the total energy available to their entire civilization for around half an hour. More realistically you're looking at a type III or higher civilization to actually be able to use it.

      On the other hand a type I civilization could build a plasma sword that would be functionally similar to a lightsaber. It'd look quite different, what with the ceramic core for the plasma blade, but functionally it'd basically be a lightsaber.

  4. Grease Monkey Silver badge

    And how are you going to support the filament? You have the same problem with that as supporting the mirror for you laser sabre.

    1. Anonymous Custard
      Boffin

      Not to mention it getting all twisted up the first time two sabres clash.

      Something along the lines of this, around the 90 second mark. That Mel Brookes knows a thing or two about science ;)

      1. Frumious Bandersnatch

        Best Star Wars parody, IMO, is from Crayon Shin Chan. Here is the Lightsabre battle clip.

        ("to be a man you must have honour---honour, and a peeenis")

    2. DropBear

      You don't necessarily need an actual filament along the "blade". Strictly speaking, current plasma cutters are about as close to tiny light-sabers as we can get currently - they certainly do cut thick and hard stuff like butter, and all they need is electricity and a steady flow of compressed air (yes, really). Don't let the shower of sparks fool you in those pics, that happens only once you're cutting something. Granted, the plasma stream isn't exactly blade-length (or glowing green / blue / red...) but hey - baby steps...

      Note: as anyone knows, showing up to a light-saber fight without a properly attached ground clamp is extremely bad form...

      1. Michael Wojcik Silver badge

        current plasma cutters are about as close to tiny light-sabers as we can get currently - they certainly do cut thick and hard stuff like butter

        Pfft. Butter's not that hard. I can cut it with a regular knife.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      I have already created it.

      A simple hand-held, AC Powered Neon strip light detached from the ceiling will work very nicely, thank you.

      Alas, the force is not with it as it tends to shatter at first contact.

    4. sisk

      And how are you going to support the filament?

      Shaped magnetic field. Plasma in a magnetic containment field is pretty much the only way to get something that both looks and acts like a lightsaber in real life.

      Of course creating that magnetic field is no small challenge, but it's probably easier than a laser based lightsaber would be.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Happy

    we are still miles away from a working lightsabe

    ahem....

    http://www.wickedlasers.com/

    1. sisk

      Re: we are still miles away from a working lightsabe

      Bah, the Spyder lasersabers use the same trick as the Force FX lightsabers, only without the license from Lucasarts to use the name "lightsaber" and with more powerful lasers. They are, essentially, a mirror in a tube like what his article was talking about.

  6. 27escape
    Flame

    Magnetic fields

    Could contain the plasma, no need for filaments. Would be hard to get the field into a nice cylinder though

    Nearest thing to a light sabre icon

    1. ArrZarr Silver badge

      Re: Magnetic fields

      In the lore, this is how it works. The gyroscopic action created by containing the plasma in a loop is what makes a lightsaber so hard to wield.

  7. Dan 55 Silver badge

    A lightsaber in the right hand is by far the deadliest weapon to be found in the universe

    Careful now, you'll be accused of handism.

    1. DocJames
      Coat

      Re: A lightsaber in the right hand is by far the deadliest weapon to be found in the universe

      Indeed. For most people, a lightsaber held in their nondominant hand is likely to be the deadliest weapon they encounter in their life, as they'll promptly slice themselves in half.

      Assuming that everyone else is as cackhanded as me, that is.

      1. Putters

        Re: A lightsaber in the right hand is by far the deadliest weapon to be found in the universe

        The word you are looking for is ambisinister - incompetent with either hand :o)

    2. Michael Wojcik Silver badge

      Re: A lightsaber in the right hand is by far the deadliest weapon to be found in the universe

      The opening paragraphs of this article (and, yes, I know it's a fluff piece from The Conversation) were rubbish.1

      A lightsaber isn't even the deadliest weapon in the first Star Wars movie; the Death Star easily racked up more fatalities with one shot than even the most capable individual could achieve with a lightsaber.

      1It got better after that. Not a lot better, but better.

  8. adnim

    "where are you going to store the gas to be continuously puffed out of the filament?"

    Is not the atmosphere made of gases?

    Nitrogen plasma is reddish purple and Oxygen plasma is blue.

    Pretty useless in the vacuum of space though.

  9. Alister

    No, you've got it all wrong, what you do is, you get a real-looking hilt and film yourself waving it around, and then you employ Industrial Light & Magic to draw the blade on every frame of the film...

    That's how you get a real lightsabre!

    1. TeeCee Gold badge
      Unhappy

      I'll bet you're the sort of bastard who goes around telling kids that Santa Claus isn't real as well.

      1. Dave 126 Silver badge

        The light sabre effect is fairly easy to achieve using desktop-class hardware and software these days.

        Get a broom handle and glue a table-tennis ball to the end as reference a reference point...

      2. Alister

        @TeeCee

        What! Waddaya mean Santa Claus isn't real? Who reads my letters every year then, hey?

        :)

        1. MyffyW Silver badge

          @Alister Who reads my letters every year then, hey?

          The NSA, GCHQ and the FSB, to name just a few my dear.

          1. AMBxx Silver badge

            FSB?

            Why is the Federation of Small Business reading letters to Santa?

            1. Anonymous Coward
              Anonymous Coward

              Re: FSB?

              marketing opportunities

  10. Nolveys
    Flame

    How Not To Do It.

    I once tried to make a light sabre by blowing a mix of aluminium and iron oxide dust through a tube that ended with a mapp-oxygen pilot light. Management was not impressed when five employees went running around a shareholder's meeting, completely engulfed in flame. Luckily there were no witnesses.

    1. Ben Bonsall

      Re: How Not To Do It.

      Well, not after you'd torched the shareholders as well.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: How Not To Do It.

        Well, not after you'd torched the shareholders as well.

        Business strategist top insight: Once you've got their money, shareholders are just surplus baggage, you can flambe them and their money with total immunity (the umbrella term for this concept of corporate larceny is "joint stock company").

        Even the share price on secondary markets doesn't matter so long as it retains sufficient pulse to avoid breaching bank convenants or attracting "activist" investors who might take away the punch bowl before you've drunk your fill and then vomited back into it. Although it might matter if you've been counting the value of any options.

        The best strategy for non-investors is to style themselves "serial entrepreneurs", which loosens the wallets of future marks, but actually means that you've repeatedly burned through vast amounts of early stage funding and produced nothing, whilst paying yourself a six figure salary, lounging in expensive serviced offices in a fashionable part of town, drinking coffee and preening your LinkedIn profile. After you've done this a couple of times, try and get cosy with whatever scumbag party is in government, because that will open the doors to becoming a special advisor on innovation, after which you can expect a patronage in the House of Lords.

    2. Alan J. Wylie

      Re: How Not To Do It.

      Filling fluorescent light tubes with petrol isn't recommended either.

      http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/beds/bucks/herts/4575291.stm

      1. TheOtherHobbes

        Re: How Not To Do It.

        You don't need petrol. Just stand under a pylon with a fluorescent, and enjoy the show.

        Or poke them into the ground.

        https://nuknuk7.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/richardbox4.jpg

  11. Torben Mogensen

    Plasma?

    The idea of using a filament to produce an electric field to ionize the gas has the problem that it is fragile and likely to melt when surrounded by hot plasma. 27escape proposed using magnetic fields, and that has more merit. After all, this is what fusion reactors uses to contain plasma that is easily hot enough for a light sabre. This could also explain the sounds when light sabres clash (the magnetic fields interfere and create extra ionisation) and even the fact that they stop each other: If the fields have the same polarity, they would repel. But it would need serious trickery to create a strong, shaped magnetic field from something the size and shape of a light-sabre handle.

    1. Ian Michael Gumby

      @Torben Re: Plasma?

      First show me a working fusion reactor that produces more energy than it consumes...

      The current generation under construction do use magnetic force to help contain the plasma, but they also use the plasma field itself too.

      You could think of the plasma as a jet of gas where its shaped and contained in the handle and the length of the blade is based on the amount of plasma being ejected.

      1. Richard 12 Silver badge

        @Ian Michael Gumby

        JET.

        The Joint European Torus does produce more energy than it consumes.

        The current trouble is that they can't fuel it while it's running, which means it only burns for a minute or so before it runs out.

        Refuelling while running is the current technical challenge for fusion.

        1. Ian Michael Gumby

          @Richard 12 ... Re: @Ian Michael Gumby

          Well then its not much of a working Fusion reactor then is it? ;-)

          That's like saying I built this grand electric car that runs on a single D Cell battery... only that you have to recharge it after traveling one foot. 6" if you have the air conditioning or heaters on... ;-)

          I guess the next thing is to build a fuel injector then....

    2. Ugotta B. Kiddingme

      Re: Plasma?

      "But it would need serious trickery to create a strong, shaped magnetic field from something the size and shape of a light-sabre handle."

      A(n equally hypothetical) magnetic monopole, perhaps?

    3. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

      Re: Plasma?

      "But it would need serious trickery to create a strong, shaped magnetic field from something the size and shape of a light-sabre handle."

      Maybe this is why a major part of becoming a Jedi is building your own lightsabre? Fail the build and you're out on your ear :-)

  12. Anonymous Custard
    Headmaster

    Do not try this at home kids...

    What’s more, a laser focuses light in one direction so sharply that you can’t see it unless you look directly down its axis.

    At which point everything becomes somewhat irrelevant as to how it would look, as you've quite possibly just blinded yourself. Looking directly down the axis of a laser is most certainly going to spoil your day, and quite possibly the rest of your life.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Do not try this at home kids...

      And by the way, it's difficult to stop a laser beam with a LS when you can see it was fired at you only when it hits you... unless the Force lets you see the future... (but lasers are a weak point of most sci-fi visuals, including the sound they make in vacuum...)

      1. John Robson Silver badge

        Re: Do not try this at home kids...

        I've always assumed that blaster shots are much like the air packets from an airzooka...

        First four seconds of this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyMKhM1yxnE

        The air is moving pretty fast, but mostly in a torus, so the actual smoke ring progresses slowly, but retains it's integrity...

      2. Mike 16

        Re: Do not try this at home kids...

        ...unless the Force lets you see the future...

        Maybe there are sandworms on Tatooine?

    2. WraithCadmus

      Re: Do not try this at home kids...

      "Please look into laser with remaining eye"

  13. Aristotles slow and dimwitted horse

    How do you make a lightsabre...

    Someone ask Jeff Vader. I think you'll currently find him in the queue of the Death Star canteen.

    1. Locky

      Re: How do you make a lightsabre...

      You start by getting a tray...

    2. Mint Sauce
      Go

      Re: How do you make a lightsabre...

      Hah ha, upvotes all round for cheering me up with those references :-)

  14. roytrubshaw
    Meh

    Pedantry ahead!

    "...while the red lightsabers of the Sith villains could be made of helium, which mostly emits in the red-to-violet region of the spectrum."

    Call me picky, but isn't red-to-violet pretty much the entire visible spectrum? Perhaps you could narrow it down a bit?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Pedantry ahead!

      Could simply be referring to the visible spectrum in a slightly verbose, roundabout way. Speaking of roundabout, there is a relatively narrow band between red and violet (magenta) but it certainly isn't in the spectrum-- it's in your brain :P

  15. Dave 126 Silver badge

    Loved the mini-Lightsabre in Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy film:

    .... it's about 7" long, and slices bread from a loaf whilst simultaneously toasting it!

  16. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Well, He I (non ionized Helium) has peaks (higher to lower) at 588nm (yellow), 668 and 706 nm (red) and 388 nm (violet), plus other smaller ones. He II (ionized, one electron less) emits mostly UV at 30.4 nm.

  17. annodomini2
    Boffin

    There are a couple of other issues with the Plasma concept...

    1. Energy will be comparable if not greater than the Laser solution.

    2. The plasma is basically ionized radiation (which will be streaming off, given the energy levels), so prepare to get irradiated.

    1. Captain DaFt

      Re: There are a couple of other issues with the Plasma concept...

      Not to mention that a plasma in open air tends to produce some nasty gasses that you really don't want to breath.

      (Been there, done that, got pleurisy.)

  18. Graham Marsden
    Coat

    Oh come on...

    ... Please, let's look at this from an "in universe" viewpoint, where you have directed energy weapons (blasters) and deflector shields meaning that you already have a way of containing and manipulating energy.

    So you create your plasma from the same sort of "batteries" you have in a blaster then use a force-field of a similar sort that you use on your shields to contain it, giving you a) the cutting ability and b) the method of blocking other light sabre blades or blaster bolts.

    Therefore all we need to do is to massively increase the energy density of our batteries and create some force-field technology.

    How? Not my department, that's a hardware problem...

  19. Andy The Hat Silver badge

    let me think ...

    Normally the ionized compressed gas (air or specific gas) for a plasma cutter is emitted from a simple nozzle and the plasma 'flame' is only an inch or so long.

    If instead the gas was emitted at higher pressure via a rapidly rotating shield (much like those flame vortices that suck in air through a rotating mesh) it would tend to propel it forward into something the size and lethalness of a small piece of celery straight out of a beef stew ... :-) Increasing the pressure and the power and hey presto a fully length-controlled plasma sword.

    Does Amazon sell 100kW+ generators and EHT step-up transformers? Admittedly I'd still need a small van to carry it all around in but in the absence of a Death Star that shouldn't be an issue in the short term ...

  20. Individual #6/42

    Gases

    Well the colours would imply that Jedi smell of swimming pools whilst the Sith get squeaking voices, Maybe that's why they get used to growling all their words, so they don't sound like Darth Alvin.

    1. MyffyW Silver badge

      Re: Gases

      @#6/42 - Most Jedi's I've met smell of double-strength coffee, tobacco and fast food. But that might be the circles I move in.

      1. Mark 85

        Re: Gases

        Different circles then. The ones I've met smell of tobacco, stale beer, and have fingers stained orange.

  21. Dabooka
    Stop

    How is this an article?

    Seriosuly?

    What?

    1. Dave McKewan

      Re: How is this an article?

      I find your lack of a sense of humour disturbing....

      1. Dabooka

        Re: How is this an article?

        I get that Dave, it's just.... well it stops. I read it and was looking for the next page.

        It's a tad unfinished old bean, and not quite up there will usual Reg standards is it?

        1. Mark 85

          Re: How is this an article?

          Read the fine print at the bottom left... "This article was first published on TheConversation.com. " Thus, not an El Reg article.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: How is this an article?

        I find your lack of a sense of humour disturbing....

        The farce is weak in this one.

  22. Kaltern

    To build a lightsabre IMO takes a few basic things: Energy, Stability, Control.

    In SW lore, the original lightsabre was connected to a power-belt worn by the wielder, as the amount of power required was too much for anything small enough to put in a hilt. Some of the more advanced sabre techniques were therefore not applicable - no spinning the blade about your person... getting tangled would be a surefire way to lose!

    So given that we're not even close to making some Fusion based Duracells, it would be prudent to focus on the actual blade itself and forget the hilt for the time being.

    The blade must be contained within some form of magnetic field, strong enough to repel other fields (so we get that lovely CLASH! (probably minus any sound effects), and of course enough to contain the plasma which creates the blade - lasers are useless here, you'd never generate one powerful and wide enough to cut through anything fast enough.

    The plasma is generated as part of a circuit. In the lore, it's all done with focusing crystals, which Is possible now, given the right form of crystal and grinding tools. But my understanding of energy/plasma generation is non-existent, so I can only speculate how you would produce plasma and somehow focus it into a upwards beam. I do understand the concept of the confinement field, and that the plasma must be made to come back down to the hilt again, to complete the power circuit - the plasma itself is used to power the energy/plasma conversion, thus ensuring power is continuous. A small amount of energy is used while the plasma is visible, lost with light and heat, and when striking an opponent, but the majority would find itself back within the circuit.

    My idea for a fake sabre in the real world would just be either a powerful laser diffused into a wide beam, or a REALLY powerful bulb, again, focused to travel upwards as much as possible, with a telescopic central core, like automated car aerials, with the mirror on the top - this should be sufficient to produce a nice looking beam.

  23. Thecowking

    How I'd make a a lightsabre

    First make the magnetic bottle, then create a plasma to fill it. Next use a laser to continually energise the plasma.

    Use a simple electron gun to ionise gas and accelerate it into the bottle continuously to cope with losing plasma to collisions.

    Steps to achieve this:

    Room temperature super conductors for a magnet that doesn't require real cooling.

    A good capacitor and a fuel cell. (You don't lose much energy from the bottle when you use superconductors and some LED lasers would probably only sip power)

    The Force.

  24. Stevie

    Bah!

    Fools! The problem is not containing or limiting the length of the blade, nor in making it go through anything except another blade. Those issues are laughingly simple to solve for the three most common colors. I have a proof of the math involved but don't have room for it here.

    The real problem, the only problem is in slowing down laser blaster rounds so you have time to block them!

    1. Andy The Hat Silver badge

      Re: Bah!

      "The real problem, the only problem is in slowing down laser blaster rounds so you have time to block them!"

      Nope - easy. The blaster rounds are themselves plasma clouds. Therefore there's potentially a decent magnetic interraction between the sword and the round so, fundamentally, Luke, Han etc cheated as they were helped by the force ... err ...

  25. xeroks

    Not so clever

    so they worked out how to do all this stuff with energy sources, and magnetic fields, but they never came up with the zip? or digital watches?

    pah!

    1. Anonymous Custard
      Joke

      Re: Not so clever

      Or the internet. Forget putting plans for Death Stars into droids, just email the damn things or set up a dark website on Tor.

      1. Thecowking

        Re: Not so clever

        In the extended universe they have access to the Galactic Holonet, which is essentially a 3D version of the internet. The plans were shifted in a physical medium because the Holonet isn't secure. There are "Slicers" who are skilled computer operators who can extract information and decrypt it from the Holonet.

        Basically, they didn't want to let the Imperial version of GCHQ get their hands on the evidence of it in their hands. A sensible precaution if recent history is anything to go by.

  26. Diodelogic

    YOU'LL POKE YER EYE OUT, KID

    Hence why I'm not really interested in a lightsabre*.

    What I definitely would like to have is the power source for a lightsabre. Could drive an electric car for years on a thing like that. Or fly a drone to freakin' Jupiter.

    *One-third less calories than a regular sabre?

  27. Captain DaFt

    Uh, point of order.

    "a light saber in the right hand is by far the deadliest weapon to be found in the universe."

    OK, give a skilled Jedi a light saber and turn him loose at any assembled war fleet that needs exterminating. He might be a while, a long, long while.

    Give any klutz that's capable of pulling a trigger a friggin' BFG, and turn him loose on said fleet. Fleet's gone before I finished typing that sentence.

    A bit OTT on my part, but while a light saber's a very cool weapon, it's hardly "the deadliest in the universe".

    1. Graham Marsden
      Mushroom

      @Captain DaFt - Re: Uh, point of order.

      > while a light saber's a very cool weapon, it's hardly "the deadliest in the universe".

      "The ability to destroy a planet is insignificant next to the power of the Force,,,"

      1. Anonymous Custard

        Re: @Captain DaFt - Uh, point of order.

        Although it may also depend on which planet you happened to be standing on at the time...

  28. Mike 16

    Somewhat OT

    I'd love to know if Lucas ever paid, or even acknowledged, Gordon R. Dickson's story "Wolfling" (1969) as the source of the lightsaber.

    Also a bit curious if the hum is a bit lower when the films are shown in countries with 50Hz mains.

  29. MrDamage Silver badge

    Michio Kaku has explored this idea

    And he decided that plasma was the way to go, instead of lasers.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lr5OUjFDkg

  30. David Cherry

    Obligatory XKCD cartoon

    https://xkcd.com/1433/

  31. sisk

    Much as I REALLY don't like the end product, Michio Kaku's metal tube with tiny plasma torches all along its length is about as close to a real lightsaber as we're probably ever going to get. I was going to link to a video, but apparently Discovery hit YouTube with a DMCA notice.

  32. Gigabob

    Lightsabres R Us

    The author's premise that a lightsaber leverages lasers is pure rubbish. As anyone from a galaxy far far away knows - these are cutting plasma fields and the trick is containment. If Earth scientists could make a lightsaber they would have conquered fusion long long ago. Power to contain the field varies with the square of the length and the cube of the radius so a longer or thicker sabre requires a much greater level of force to contain it. Lasers are for kids.

  33. Zmodem

    it would be more of a controlled reflected arc wielder

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTDx3sN2dhU

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTDx3sN2dhU

    use some magic to make electric go in a straight line with a prism or something

    find a real stupid hz and you can probably control the laser length with atmosphere pressure sensor

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