Luke ANH Sabre

After collecting various Star Wars paraphernalia what I really wanted was a lightLightsaber. Kenner's was too much of a toy (not surprising) and icons' was too much money. I was going to have to build my own (a right of passage for every prospective Jedi).

A few months of hunting on eBay made it clear that I was not the only one out there looking for a Graflex 3 cell flash unit. Beat up, scratched, incomplete examples were going for $150. 2 cell examples were going for much the same and mint 3 cell examples started at $200 but often went for much, much more. The auctions didn't yield a Graflex but they did provide a lot of source pictures. I had never seen a Graflex flash in the flesh the auctions did provide pictures of them from every angle. By combining these pictures of 'raw' flashes with canonical sources ('The Visual Dictionary', Chronicles, Lucas Archives, Behind the Magic) I had the information I needed.

Applying the dimensions given in Lucas Archives to these pictures I was able to create a simple 1:1 CAD drawing of the lightLightsaber handle. With my blueprints in hand I started to look around for everyday items that matched up to the various pieces I thought that I need to create a replica and was in a hardware store one day and saw a piece of chrome plumbers pipe. That was it!

I took it home a went back to the web. I couldn't be the only on out there wanting a Lightsaber but unwilling to pay Graflex or Icons prices. A few searches later I came across 'The Graflex Project' and Lightsaber Plus. I had proof that it was possible to construct a Lightsaber out of hardware store parts and even a list of some of the parts needed and some instructions of how to go about it; my blue print and pictures helped me fill in the gaps.  The pictures on this page show side-by-side my genuine Graflex and my copy (I built the copy before I got the real thing).

Introduction - Parts - Shaft- Emitter - Details - Assembly