ROTJ: Force Pike

(Status: completed)

Introduction

Ingredients

Description	Source	Cost
Parts
1 1/4" Poly Slip Joint Washer (Pack of 4 - Used as the piece between the pommel and the chrome tune on the handle.)	Orchard (Plumbing)	$0.99
1" Black Rubber Leg Tips (Pack of 4 - Used as the conical piece of the handle.  This piece will be hidden when it is wrapped in the black wire in the finished pike.)	Orchard	$1.89
Aerator	Orchard (facets)	$2.39
Armitage Shanks Handwheel (This is the same one that is used on OB1 ANH Lightsaber for the pommel.  I use this as the pommel of the force pike although there is discussion as to whether this is accurate or not.  This part can be hard to find as it is only available in the UK and is relatively expensive for what it is.  A cheap alternative may be a suitable acrylic handwheel from the plumbing section of your local Kmart.  This could then be either painted with chrome or black paint.)	Capt. Ron
Aluminum Ski poles (You might consider buying cheap new ones if you want to avoid some clean up work.  Eyeball and consider  the pole for its potential imperial transformation. )	Thrift store	$3.00
Funnel (I found this tall, thin funnel near the gas cans and lawnmowers at Home Depot.  I had originally considered the wide end as a candidate for the muzzle of a Jawa blaster the a section taken from the narrow end made a create first section of the pike handle.  )	Home Depot	$1.99
Metal 1-3/8" Hole Plug (Used to 'cap' the pommel.)	Orchard	$1.29
1" Diameter chrome plumbing pipe (Left over from hardware Lightsaber construction. Buy a small length if you don't have any lying around.)	scrap box
1 1/4" Diameter chrome plumbing pipe (Another left over from Lightsaber construction. Buy a small length if you don't have any lying around.)	scrap box
1 1/2" Black ABS plumbing pipe (Left over from house maintenance. Buy a small length if you don't have any lying around.)	scrap box
Used plastic marker pen barrel (Look for something with a suitable diameter to encircle the pole at the business end of the pike.  I found a dry erase marker suitable.)	trash
Old, curled, black telephone receiver cord (Used to wrap the center of the handle.  Pre-curled wire helps when wrapping the handle but just about any round, black wire of a suitable diameter that you can find will work.)	scrap box
Scraps of acrylic (Used to cut the spike triangles for the pike's tip from.  1/8" to 1/4" thick.)	scrap box
Consumables
2 ton epoxy glue (I've found the 2 ton glue to be better than the 10 minute epoxy.  It takes a little longer to set but the resulting strength is much better.)	Hardware store
Super glue	Hardware store
Emery Cloth (various grades)	Hardware store
Wet & Dry paper (various grades)	Hardware store
Aerosol Primer Paint (Optional.)	Hardware store
Aerosol Gloss Black enamel paint	Hardware store
Testor's Metalizer non-buffable brass paint	Hobby store
Plumber's water putty (This is very cheap and easy to use; poor man's casting resin.  Just add water and then cast.  When cured it is very brittle but can be worked, with care, with wood working tools.  I use this to fill the handle and it provides great strength and weight )	Hardware store
Clear coat (Stealing an idea from scale modelers I use future floor polish to finish and protect my painted surfaces.)	Grocery Store
Tools
Drill (Corded or cordless, the most basic drill will suffice.)
Utility knife
Hack or Razor saw (Used to cut plastic and the chrome pipe.  A Dremel can speed up some tasks.  A pipe cutter could be used if you have one but don't buy one specially.)
Screw drivers

Remove the grip from the ski pole.  For the pole that I used for this project this involved removing a screw and then carefully cutting the grip along it's length with a utility knife.  Be careful doing this as it takes quite some effort to cut the grip and if you slip with the knife you could do yourself some damage.

Remove the snow basket from the pole.  This piece of plastic was easily removed with a pair of pliers and a little brute force.

Strip the paint from the pole.  I have found that the paint on ski poles was not made to easily come off.  The paint stripper I tried had little effect.  I used emery cloth (not paper) starting with a relatively course grain.  The following process is probably dangerous to you and your tools so it is not a suggestion that you use the same process, just a description of how I did it.  I mounted my drill in the vice on my workbench.  The drill's chuck is just large enough to accept the pointy end of the pole.  I then used the drill with the pole mounted in it as a primitive lathe.  Wearing work gloves I held emery cloth of various grades on the spinning pole taking care not to put undue stress and the cluck (a long pole is a powerful lever) and to get out of the way if the emery cloth bound to the spinning pole.  It took a while but this method allowed me to remove the paint and many of the surface gouges that a ski pole gains after a several seasons of use.   If you can find a suitable, cheap, new pole it may be worth buying rather than spending all that time trying to remove gouges from a used example.  Then again, if you don't mind a slightly battle worn look the thrift shop purchase is a great buy.

Handle; this is constructed, top to bottom, from the following parts:

A chrome faucet aerator with the aerator parts removed - basically, I just used the chrome housing.

A suitable section cut from funnel (seen in previous picture).  About 5" but eyeball it.  Cut from the funnel using a hacksaw and then cleaned up with wet and dry paper.  Scrub the surface of the plastic a bit to give the paint some bite.

Section of 1" chrome pipe.  About 1.5" are left visible on the finished handle but I used a 6" section.  This allows the chair leg end to be mounted on it and the pipe to be solidly embedded in the funnel section.

Rubber chair leg end.  I drilled a 1" diameter hole in the bottom and it them was mounted on the 1" chrome pipe.

Section of 1.5" ABS pipe.  I cut about a 4" length and, again, finished it with wet and dry.

Section of 1.25" chrome pipe.  About 1" is left showing on the finished handle but I used about 3" so it could be positively mounted within the 1.5" ABS pipe.

1.25" slip washer.  This mounts perfectly over the 1.25" chrome pipe.

Finally the AS handwheel.  This is mounted backwards and capped with the chrome hole plug.

Once I'd prepared the various pieces for the handle I painted the slip washed, ABS pipe and funnel section first with a primer and then with a couple of coats of gloss black paint.

Handle assembly:

Dry fitting all the pieces together on the ski pole I estimated where to mount the funnel section of the handle.  I then removed all the pieces except the funnel section and epoxied it in place on the shaft.

When the epoxy holding the funnel section in place had cured I carefully epoxied the 1.25" chrome pipe into place in the funnel.

When this had cured I used my secret weapon, plumber's water putty.  This comes as a powder than is simply mixed with water before use.  I mixed enough to fill the funnel and 1.25" chrome pipe.  I pored the putty into the partly constructed handle and left it over night to cure.  The putty locks everything solidly in place giving strength and heft to the finished piece.

I now fitted the rubber chair leg over the 1.25" chrome pipe.  No glue was required to hold this in place.

I then carefully epoxied the 1.5" ABS pipe in place on the rubber chair leg.

Once the epoxy had cured I carefully wrapped the end of the 1.25" chrome pipe with tape until it snuggly fitted in place within the ABS pipe.

With all of the handle now precariously in place apart from the slip washed and handwheel I again mixed water putty, filled the rest of the handle and left it to cure.

The next night, with the handle pieces all solidly held in place I put the painted slip washer in position and then screwed the handwheel in place.  I then capped the pommel with the metal hole plug.

I then carefully wrapped the rubber chair leg stopper in the black wire.  To make this look as professional as possible I drilled a hole the same diameter at the start and the end of this detail and superglued the ends of the wire in these holes.

Finally I slipped the aerator hosing in place from the top of the pike and epoxied it permanently in place.

The spiky detail was scratch built:

I cut a suitable section from the old marker pen barrel.

I then split this along its length and epoxied it in place close to the snow basket detail of the pole.

When the epoxy had cured I sanded the joint and the barrel smooth.

I cut the the spikes themselves from the scrap acrylic.  This was quickly achieved using my Dremel and a standard cut off wheel.  Each spike is a triangle approximately 1/3" x 1/2" x 1/2".  Again, I eyeballed these pieces for appropriate scale with the rest of the pike.

The spikes were then glued in place using a good brand, gap filling superglue.

The rest of the pike was masked and this detail was painted in place using metalizer, non-buffing brass paint.