18:00 Norm, place a piece of plywood wood across the base of the drill press. You can then rest your work on the wood and have a better chance it will stay in line with your drill bit.
I just imagine Norm walking into his office and saying "Hey Alexa, turn on lightsabers" and then on the book shelf 15 miniatures have their light sabers light up in unison, then just to complete the effect some speakers with the saber hum piped in.
I'll tell you what I will probably never do this but there's something about see Norm getting so excited about the possibility of this project makes me smile. Thank you and Adam bring a little happiness and normalcy to my day during a time of confusion outside. You and the Tested team are definitely doing your part keeping the rest of us from cabin fever. Again I appreciate your time and effort. Thanks
19:20 Wearing the glove there makes it more dangerous than without. A pushed away finger is preferred to the glove getting snared, can make it impossible to retract your finger from the spinning bit in a reasonable amount of time.
I've seen what happens to a gloved finger caught in a spinning tool. It was not nice! Sure, it was much higher power, and a fatter drill bit, but things were really bad for the dude. REALLY bad! Don't wear gloves with spinning tools, folks, coz if things go just a bit wrong...... bad shit happens!
Also, do not wear jewelry when operating power tools. This includes rings. If they get caught, it's a battle between flesh and a power tool. Guess which wins.
@@fredknox2781 You're so right! Sleeved fingers are not nice. Necklaces? Heavens, what might they cause? Bracelets? Just don't wear jewellery, of any sort, folks. All a cut needs is a bandaid (except for chainsaws, of course) but there's much worse that can happen.
OMG, Thank You So Much. Such an honor to be mention here. I am out of words... And yeah i bleed my fingers many times when drilling the hilt 😆 Wow... That liquid electrical tape is a good idea, especially to make effect like kylo ren lightsaber Never new such liquid existed
I just watched all of your tutorials last week! and look at you now! that is awesome, congratulations to you and your beautiful method of giving us illuminated lightsabers
@@LuisMendoza-pp9qi if you wanna modify a head sculpt but aren't trying to risk ruining the paint job, I recommend checking out someone like jazz Inc here on TH-cam.
Instead of using clear heat shrink, you can buy clear 4mm diameter plastic drinking straws. These are the smaller ones (handily usually 6inches in length) which they typically use for juice boxes etc. pop some clear UV resin in to seal off the end and then you can paint them whatever colour you choose or also sand them a bit to create more light diffusion.
This would be a good project for making a mold. Make a mold of the hilt, embed the tube into the mold and fill with resin, no drilling and you get to keep your original hilt.
To aide in wiring projects like this I would recommend 44 gauge enameled copper wire. It handles high heat and the insulation is very thin. It’s used for electric coils and wound magnets and motors.⚡️
That black wire was still quite thick. If flexibility wasn't that big an issue, kynar coated wire-wrapping wire would be a lot smaller and easier to fish through.
Glad to see such a cool one day build from Norm. Fascinating stuff. I was doubtful about the liquid tape at first but the end result was awesome. The ending was the best :D
Just a suggestion about how to deal with the exposed thin light saber wire. Maybe you can pull the wire tight against the tube as straight as possible. Then drip some CA glue coating it the whole length. The result would be make it almost invisible and permanently secured. Hope this helps!
Hello Friend. CAN you give me ANY advice on 'how' I might replace the inner workings of the Darth Vader light saber on my sideshow collectable..? It is the Darth Vader Premium Format™ Figure by Sideshow Collectibles which it 25" tall, and with a light saber tube which measures 12 inches long. It never worked quite fully correctly from the start, but now it no longer works AT ALL. Sooo......I would like to figure out how to rebuild it with new internals. The connection area is fine, I tested it with a tester probe, so it is the lightsaber neon tube that must have been defective from the start. The piece is fantastic and incredibly well done, and with the light saber 'on', it is quite amazing. I am bummed out that it is no longer working. I NEED to fix it myself because Sideshow told me they cannot help me since I purchased this piece more than the allowed time for returns. I am on my own. If you can somehow give me advice for this particular piece, it would be so much appreciated.
Oh, wow! My friend, I have the EXACT same problem with the exact same Premium Format Vader. The SUPER NUDGEABLE tube bent just a little, and now I have a non-functional lightsaber. I feel the same as you, it's such a great piece except for the fragile saber, AND I got the same "you're on your own!" message from Sideshow, which was highly unsatisfactory. It seems like this method in the video would work, it's just a matter of soldering the wires into the housing on the front of the saber. One of the great features of this figure is that you can plug it in and not have to worry about batteries. I'll use this info to give it a try and hopefully be able to report on how it works. Wish me luck!
Hot damn this is awesome. Thanks for sharing the process, Norm. I'm going to cast my Mythos Obi Wan statues 'saber hand and do this! Now to wait a month for the tubes to ship from China.
probably easier to just use LE wire (light emitting) where you can just sheath it with a small translucent tube for strength. would be safer to work with a lower voltage to power.
Not sure if mentioned, but would have been arguable easier to just pop the pins out of the jst connector (take a pick and pry up the retaining finger slightly and they slide right out; have done many times to get connectors through panels, or rearranging pin order) in order to fit through the outer tube and then put them back into the housing after the inner fluorescent tube was removed
Hey Norm, I've made maybe 7 or 8 of these now and 2 of them will only light up halfway (closer to the hilt). I can't find anything different that I did between them, do you know what might be causing this?
@@wangdennys LED with side-emitting fibre optic might be the way to go - You can actually make a passable substitute for this by sanding thin acrylic rod and it glows fairly nicely
@@countzero1136 Yeah, nice thing about fiber is your light source can be much bigger than the saber. Could even hide a high power laser diode in a diorama base or in an article of clothing.
My first thought upon seeing the thumbnail was, "that's not 1/6 scale!" Those models are so detailed that initially I thought those were people in costume. 😁
An adhesive that would be perfect for this project is UV resin. I keep an applicator of "5 Second Fix" in my cosplay repair kit, but you can buy it for less (per ounce) without the whole thing. It sets as a clear solid so it would have worked to seal the connection at the top of the tube, and to set the tube and wire into the hilt. Unlike superglue, it does not cure until the UV is applied, so it is easy to clean up and control, then it sets almost as quickly as superglue hit with an accelerator.
Please try running it off a low voltage 60Hz source, so that it has that classic strobing "flicker" when you move it around, Not sure if this works with neon lamps, but it looks great with LEDs. :-)
Some CCFL tubes have a polarity!☝️The Anode is bigger to absorb the heat created by the electron bombardment. Edit: Please never ever use gloves on spinning equipment like your drill press! Veeery dangerous. It can get snagged and wrap around with your hand still in it.
If you do a way back version, it would be a cool effect to drill straight through the hilt, wrap the wires in a spring from a ballpoint pen and mount the inverter to the Jedis belt to make it look like a protosaber. Now it would it be a cool thing you don't have to hide and actually maybe even be a piece to be highlighted and shown off . . .
There are something called "neon wire", the one I found first was 2,3mm in diameter and at least the ones I have can be cut to length. They often comes with a battery pack and driver. The downside is their color, may be better and worse, and that they are soft
I wonder if there isnt a way to get a miniature wireless power module in one of those hilts to be rid of the wire coming out of the saber all together?
For photographing toys, you can get a glowing lightsabre effect by doing a long exposure shot while running a laser pointer up and down the blade. Not as impressive for display, but a lot cheaper if all you want to do is have good photos and don't have the tools, skills or cash to do this mod. Also, Kotobukiya do some LED "laser swords" in their Model Supply Goods line, but they're scaled to be used by Gundams more than larger figures, so they'd work with the Black Series more than 1/6 scale if you're specifically looking to do Star Wars
How expensive is liquid electrical tape? Might have ended up with a smoother finish by actually dipping the CFL inside. The surface looks a bit rough the way you did it, it would however suit Kylo Rens saber perfectly.
Very cool, i was wondering if you might be able to dip the blade portion in maybe a tinted pva glue? Opaque enough to hide the wire, and maybe diffuse the tip? Either way, thinking about doing this for my Vader piggy bank.👍
Hello from The Shire...While watching this video, I found myself, quite surprisingly and unexpectedly making a list of the things that I fully intend to go shopping for this afternoon. My wife is gonna kill me to death until I die from it....Thanks for letting me choose the manner of my passing....Its gonna be great...love these builds...
If you do that again, you might consider wiring the fluorescent tube from the base of the tube through the lightsaber handle using varnished armature wire. You will maintain the required electrical separation, but the hole needed for the wires in the handles will be far smaller and much easier to thread the wire through.
Of course, he still wanted to reduce the wire diameter to a smaller wire. Splicing was unavoidable anyway, so why waste the time extracting the contacts and potentially damaging the locking tines when he still needed the connector to be functional?
Could you use EL wire and a small clear tube to accomplish the same idea? Would that eliminate the need of the extra wire from the tip? Possibly reduce the fragility of it also?
The figures are sold in their hundreds, possibly thousands. Their value isn't going to go up significantly. Not a good investment option. The addition of the lightsaber adds value if you ask me.
Could you use magwire to do that with? then you would not have the thick black wire to deal with. And thread the wire up through the hilt backwards before you solder it , then you wont need to go fishing.
But wouldn't it being simpler to use EL wire? That way there's no Cable from the end that has to go back to the hilt.... Also, the tip of the saber is perfectly lit as oppose to having a gap at the end....and no need to rewire
instead of thin wires for some of the tight place conductor needs what about that paint used for rear windshields? That conductive stuff used to make defrosters.
I wonder if the end of the tube would look a little less like a fluorescent tube if you etched the last half-inch or so of the tube (or maybe even the whole tube?) to diffuse the light and mask the electrode.
Thanks for the nice tutorial. I did everything you did but my ccfl just shine only the half way of the tube. I tried everything but find no solution. Can you give me an advice? Thanks and regards Chris
There are transparent conductive films and paints out there, just not on the retail market (yet) ... how cool would it be to be able to paint the transverse wire onto the tube and have it be invisible from all angles?
I bought a ready-made light tube on e-bay, but I'm not so sure im ready/willing to drill out my Luke saber hilt. LOL Do you know if Hot Toys sells extras/replacements?
Hi Norm, Thanks to you and Dennys for this. I have been looking to make these and it was actually a lot easier than what it looks. My question to anyone that would have the answer is about the Red Neon. The ones that I have found look pinker than red. I understand that you can paint the clear heat shrink tube to make it redder. The question is what type of paint do you use for this? Is it brush-painted or air-brushed? And do you paint it after you heat it up on the neon light or before you put it on? Any help would be appreciated.
Hey Norman, great video I just wanted to ask I have these car light kits, and so they came with Molex connectors and a power supply that would connect to the cigarette lighter in my car, but I don't plan on using that supply. Can you recommend any particular one that I might use in its place to power the custom lightsabers that I hope to build myself?
This is little bit excessive and kinda dangerous, because of neon-tube voltages. BigCliveDotCom has shown flexible led-tubes as a replacement for neon tubes.
6-inch CCFL tubes: amzn.to/2YFHfXL
CCFL power inverter: amzn.to/2Qwg9hr
9V battery holder: amzn.to/2D8uzkQ
USB Soldering Iron: amzn.to/2QtbaOv
Dremel kit: amzn.to/3jilsNJ
Liquid electrical tape: amzn.to/2Qs76Oi
4mm heat shrink tube: amzn.to/3lvjpYP
30 gauge flexible wire: amzn.to/3gD5EDn
Mythos Obi-Wan Kenobi: www.sideshow.com/collectibles/star-wars-obi-wan-kenobi-sideshow-collectibles-100327
The Last Jedi Luke Skywalker: www.sideshow.com/collectibles/star-wars-luke-skywalker-hot-toys-903316
21:00 would have been easier to filter the cables through the lightsaber before you soldered them to the fluorescent tube.
that ending right
you know what recycling is, then tons of plastic in the sea
18:00 Norm, place a piece of plywood wood across the base of the drill press. You can then rest your work on the wood and have a better chance it will stay in line with your drill bit.
I just imagine Norm walking into his office and saying "Hey Alexa, turn on lightsabers" and then on the book shelf 15 miniatures have their light sabers light up in unison, then just to complete the effect some speakers with the saber hum piped in.
*:0*
I'll tell you what I will probably never do this but there's something about see Norm getting so excited about the possibility of this project makes me smile. Thank you and Adam bring a little happiness and normalcy to my day during a time of confusion outside. You and the Tested team are definitely doing your part keeping the rest of us from cabin fever. Again I appreciate your time and effort. Thanks
19:20 Wearing the glove there makes it more dangerous than without. A pushed away finger is preferred to the glove getting snared, can make it impossible to retract your finger from the spinning bit in a reasonable amount of time.
that's a great point! definitely not recommended for a drill press and ideal to use a vise. thanks for pointing that out!
I've seen what happens to a gloved finger caught in a spinning tool. It was not nice! Sure, it was much higher power, and a fatter drill bit, but things were really bad for the dude. REALLY bad! Don't wear gloves with spinning tools, folks, coz if things go just a bit wrong...... bad shit happens!
Also, do not wear jewelry when operating power tools. This includes rings. If they get caught, it's a battle between flesh and a power tool. Guess which wins.
@@fredknox2781 anyone else just hear Tim Allen get excited?
@@fredknox2781 You're so right! Sleeved fingers are not nice. Necklaces? Heavens, what might they cause? Bracelets? Just don't wear jewellery, of any sort, folks. All a cut needs is a bandaid (except for chainsaws, of course) but there's much worse that can happen.
I see you've constructed a new lightsaber...your skills are now complete.
Great work Norm!
OMG, Thank You So Much.
Such an honor to be mention here.
I am out of words...
And yeah i bleed my fingers many times when drilling the hilt 😆
Wow... That liquid electrical tape is a good idea, especially to make effect like kylo ren lightsaber
Never new such liquid existed
I just watched all of your tutorials last week! and look at you now! that is awesome, congratulations to you and your beautiful method of giving us illuminated lightsabers
@@Galactic_Factotum you are very much welcome
Thank You
Hmmmm... I just printed a near 1/6 Ahsoka Tano from season 7 of The Clone Wars and was wondering how to make the lightsabers pop...
where? where? where?
I just printed a Vader and I was trying to figure out how to make his saber glow red, and here is this video! It's like they are reading our minds!
Be sure to post it on Reddit or somewhere!
How do you guys paint your models to make them as real as retail ones?? Do you use a spray gun? By hand brushes?
@@LuisMendoza-pp9qi if you wanna modify a head sculpt but aren't trying to risk ruining the paint job, I recommend checking out someone like jazz Inc here on TH-cam.
To do this wireless, you could power the tubes using a small tesla coil, it would easily power up the lightsabers with about a metre of range.
SO talented! Norman, you and Dennys Wang have pulled off THE coolest light saber hack EVER! I would have broken... everything. HAHA! Nicely done.
Instead of using clear heat shrink, you can buy clear 4mm diameter plastic drinking straws. These are the smaller ones (handily usually 6inches in length) which they typically use for juice boxes etc. pop some clear UV resin in to seal off the end and then you can paint them whatever colour you choose or also sand them a bit to create more light diffusion.
This would be a good project for making a mold. Make a mold of the hilt, embed the tube into the mold and fill with resin, no drilling and you get to keep your original hilt.
To aide in wiring projects like this I would recommend 44 gauge enameled copper wire. It handles high heat and the insulation is very thin. It’s used for electric coils and wound magnets and motors.⚡️
Again I asked about miniature lighting and you delivered
Would love to see a tour of your 1/6 scale collection!
Who says he has one?
Would it have been easier to have fed the wires through the small side hole and out the blade hole on the sabre hilt, before soldering it to the tube?
This modification is so cool you could use UV resin is much easier to use and there is different heat shrink diameters
You can release the cables from the connector, you don't need to cut the cable, with a small pin
Maybe a small pipe cutter that you sping would be a safer way to cut the outer tube
That’s what I’ve used for years.
That black wire was still quite thick. If flexibility wasn't that big an issue, kynar coated wire-wrapping wire would be a lot smaller and easier to fish through.
Would love to see more 1/6 scale photo content from you Norm.
You seriously have good talent
Glad to see such a cool one day build from Norm. Fascinating stuff. I was doubtful about the liquid tape at first but the end result was awesome. The ending was the best :D
is it possible to plug the ccfl lightsaber directly into the arm box with the soap reactor cable rather than on ccfl power inverter battery 9v?
Just a suggestion about how to deal with the exposed thin light saber wire. Maybe you can pull the wire tight against the tube as straight as possible. Then drip some CA glue coating it the whole length. The result would be make it almost invisible and permanently secured. Hope this helps!
Norm this is the coolest thing you've ever done
Hello Friend. CAN you give me ANY advice on 'how' I might replace the inner workings of the Darth Vader light saber on my sideshow collectable..? It is the Darth Vader
Premium Format™ Figure by Sideshow Collectibles which it 25" tall, and with a light saber tube which measures 12 inches long. It never worked quite fully correctly from the start, but now it no longer works AT ALL. Sooo......I would like to figure out how to rebuild it with new internals. The connection area is fine, I tested it with a tester probe, so it is the lightsaber neon tube that must have been defective from the start. The piece is fantastic and incredibly well done, and with the light saber 'on', it is quite amazing. I am bummed out that it is no longer working. I NEED to fix it myself because Sideshow told me they cannot help me since I purchased this piece more than the allowed time for returns. I am on my own. If you can somehow give me advice for this particular piece, it would be so much appreciated.
Oh, wow! My friend, I have the EXACT same problem with the exact same Premium Format Vader. The SUPER NUDGEABLE tube bent just a little, and now I have a non-functional lightsaber. I feel the same as you, it's such a great piece except for the fragile saber, AND I got the same "you're on your own!" message from Sideshow, which was highly unsatisfactory. It seems like this method in the video would work, it's just a matter of soldering the wires into the housing on the front of the saber. One of the great features of this figure is that you can plug it in and not have to worry about batteries. I'll use this info to give it a try and hopefully be able to report on how it works. Wish me luck!
I'd like to see a video on your pictures of 1/6 scale figures, I'd like to see more of this
Can everyone agree that Star Wars is the best
No
Wk Pictures I bet you only watched the sequels
Was
Aiza Playz that was quite possibly the most passive aggressive thing I have ever read
Oh yes they're amazing
Very neat project, thanks for sharing! And I learned that these CCFL tubes exist too, so that's a bonus.
VERY cool, nice job Norm
Hot damn this is awesome. Thanks for sharing the process, Norm. I'm going to cast my Mythos Obi Wan statues 'saber hand and do this! Now to wait a month for the tubes to ship from China.
Very timely plan to do this for my ahsoka when she comes in next year and a half or so
I just got my hot toys one to fit sideshow Jedi luke, now I need to make this!
probably easier to just use LE wire (light emitting) where you can just sheath it with a small translucent tube for strength. would be safer to work with a lower voltage to power.
Norm! When are you gonna post a video room tour of your collections? Awesome video by the way! Keep em going brother!
Awesome work, Norm :) Great idea
Not sure if mentioned, but would have been arguable easier to just pop the pins out of the jst connector (take a pick and pry up the retaining finger slightly and they slide right out; have done many times to get connectors through panels, or rearranging pin order) in order to fit through the outer tube and then put them back into the housing after the inner fluorescent tube was removed
Hey Norm, I've made maybe 7 or 8 of these now and 2 of them will only light up halfway (closer to the hilt). I can't find anything different that I did between them, do you know what might be causing this?
Norm! This is awesome! 👍🏼😃 Right on 👍🏼 Thanks. I will give this a go!
What about some EL wire inside a tiny acrylic tube? Should be much safer.
Safer, yes, but EL wire is far, FAR less bright than a CCFL tube.
@@MysticalDork tried it, very dim even LED is brighter
@@wangdennys LED with side-emitting fibre optic might be the way to go - You can actually make a passable substitute for this by sanding thin acrylic rod and it glows fairly nicely
@@countzero1136 also tried that, not bright enough but wayyy better than just led.
@@countzero1136 Yeah, nice thing about fiber is your light source can be much bigger than the saber. Could even hide a high power laser diode in a diorama base or in an article of clothing.
These look so amazing...
My first thought upon seeing the thumbnail was, "that's not 1/6 scale!"
Those models are so detailed that initially I thought those were people in costume. 😁
I NEED to do this. i just got Luke ROTJ deluxe. and the 40th anniversary Darth Vader on Pre-order. They NEED this.
An adhesive that would be perfect for this project is UV resin. I keep an applicator of "5 Second Fix" in my cosplay repair kit, but you can buy it for less (per ounce) without the whole thing. It sets as a clear solid so it would have worked to seal the connection at the top of the tube, and to set the tube and wire into the hilt. Unlike superglue, it does not cure until the UV is applied, so it is easy to clean up and control, then it sets almost as quickly as superglue hit with an accelerator.
Please try running it off a low voltage 60Hz source, so that it has that classic strobing "flicker" when you move it around, Not sure if this works with neon lamps, but it looks great with LEDs. :-)
Excellent! yet again I'll be putting to use, something you've taught me Norman 😊
Awesome job. Next time feed the two black wires through the hilt first then attach them to the tube. Much easier to do.
Some CCFL tubes have a polarity!☝️The Anode is bigger to absorb the heat created by the electron bombardment.
Edit:
Please never ever use gloves on spinning equipment like your drill press! Veeery dangerous. It can get snagged and wrap around with your hand still in it.
a fine addition to my collection
If you do a way back version, it would be a cool effect to drill straight through the hilt, wrap the wires in a spring from a ballpoint pen and mount the inverter to the Jedis belt to make it look like a protosaber. Now it would it be a cool thing you don't have to hide and actually maybe even be a piece to be highlighted and shown off . . .
Thank you for this. Concise and very helpful!
Absolutely brilliant!!! I wish there was a solution for my 1/12 collection. Till then I will just admire yours. Great build and share.
There are something called "neon wire", the one I found first was 2,3mm in diameter and at least the ones I have can be cut to length. They often comes with a battery pack and driver. The downside is their color, may be better and worse, and that they are soft
solution for 1/12: th-cam.com/video/7Wd2RBvGU2I/w-d-xo.html&ab_channel=BoyleiHobbyTime
I wonder if there isnt a way to get a miniature wireless power module in one of those hilts to be rid of the wire coming out of the saber all together?
For photographing toys, you can get a glowing lightsabre effect by doing a long exposure shot while running a laser pointer up and down the blade. Not as impressive for display, but a lot cheaper if all you want to do is have good photos and don't have the tools, skills or cash to do this mod.
Also, Kotobukiya do some LED "laser swords" in their Model Supply Goods line, but they're scaled to be used by Gundams more than larger figures, so they'd work with the Black Series more than 1/6 scale if you're specifically looking to do Star Wars
How expensive is liquid electrical tape? Might have ended up with a smoother finish by actually dipping the CFL inside. The surface looks a bit rough the way you did it, it would however suit Kylo Rens saber perfectly.
not expensive! about $12 a bottle
Crystal clear heat shrink on the outside of the tube and wire would look a bit cleaner and give a nice finish overall and be less hassle perhaps :)
Very cool, i was wondering if you might be able to dip the blade portion in maybe a tinted pva glue? Opaque enough to hide the wire, and maybe diffuse the tip?
Either way, thinking about doing this for my Vader piggy bank.👍
NICE!!!
The plasti dip was the better choice.
Hello from The Shire...While watching this video, I found myself, quite surprisingly and unexpectedly making a list of the things that I fully intend to go shopping for this afternoon. My wife is gonna kill me to death until I die from it....Thanks for letting me choose the manner of my passing....Its gonna be great...love these builds...
Ha! Share a photo on social if you end up following through with making a lightsaber!
@@tested will do, unless I'm dead...lol
I recommend adding a dimmer to the ccfl if you’re going to use them for your display, they can get pretty hot if you don’t.
If you do that again, you might consider wiring the fluorescent tube from the base of the tube through the lightsaber handle using varnished armature wire. You will maintain the required electrical separation, but the hole needed for the wires in the handles will be far smaller and much easier to thread the wire through.
Wobbly like Adam, learned from the best 😁
you can pull the crimps out of the connector, instead of cutting the wire.
i was yelling watching cut the wires NOOOOOOO!!!! hehehe! little more work re-soldering but ok..
Of course, he still wanted to reduce the wire diameter to a smaller wire. Splicing was unavoidable anyway, so why waste the time extracting the contacts and potentially damaging the locking tines when he still needed the connector to be functional?
@@danielcameron9857 yes as i watching i get the point of why cutting the plug. great build by the way NORM!!!
Could you use EL wire and a small clear tube to accomplish the same idea? Would that eliminate the need of the extra wire from the tip? Possibly reduce the fragility of it also?
This looks so cool keep it up
Dude SO amazing! 😍😍😍😍😍😍😍
Value has been decreased.
Quality has been increased.
Odd.
The figures are sold in their hundreds, possibly thousands. Their value isn't going to go up significantly. Not a good investment option.
The addition of the lightsaber adds value if you ask me.
@@maxximumb It's certainly nicer, but you won't find a serious collector that wants a modified collectable.
@@anubis63000jd that’s why you try and source a spare hilt. I won’t touch the original.
@@prehistoricgentlemanbird9131 Yeah. Personally, I'd give up the original. This was an excellent build, I'd love to have it.
Is there a way to not have the wire at all? Other sabers I’ve seen dont seem to have that long wire running down the tube
Wouldn't lumarod painted with clear flat paint, lit with a singe ultra bright LED be easier and the same effect?
Could you use magwire to do that with? then you would not have the thick black wire to deal with. And thread the wire up through the hilt backwards before you solder it , then you wont need to go fishing.
Lightsabers is amazing ;) 😎
Great tutorial
But wouldn't it being simpler to use EL wire? That way there's no Cable from the end that has to go back to the hilt.... Also, the tip of the saber is perfectly lit as oppose to having a gap at the end....and no need to rewire
instead of thin wires for some of the tight place conductor needs what about that paint used for rear windshields? That conductive stuff used to make defrosters.
This is a great tutorial 👍
May the TINY FORCE be with you
I wonder if the end of the tube would look a little less like a fluorescent tube if you etched the last half-inch or so of the tube (or maybe even the whole tube?) to diffuse the light and mask the electrode.
Surely noodle led filaments are a better option for this?
Would it be possible to do this with 1/12th scale Black Series figures?
Thanks for the nice tutorial. I did everything you did but my ccfl just shine only the half way of the tube. I tried everything but find no solution. Can you give me an advice? Thanks and regards Chris
Your wires could be too long, or did you braid them too tightly? Cuz that’ll make it do that.
There are transparent conductive films and paints out there, just not on the retail market (yet) ... how cool would it be to be able to paint the transverse wire onto the tube and have it be invisible from all angles?
Are you using an embossing heat pencil? (found it by searching for deep blue heat gun or purple heat gun)
Wish there was something like this for 28mm scale.
I bought a ready-made light tube on e-bay, but I'm not so sure im ready/willing to drill out my Luke saber hilt. LOL Do you know if Hot Toys sells extras/replacements?
Hi Norm, Thanks to you and Dennys for this. I have been looking to make these and it was actually a lot easier than what it looks. My question to anyone that would have the answer is about the Red Neon. The ones that I have found look pinker than red. I understand that you can paint the clear heat shrink tube to make it redder. The question is what type of paint do you use for this? Is it brush-painted or air-brushed? And do you paint it after you heat it up on the neon light or before you put it on? Any help would be appreciated.
I would love if this project could be used for my 6-inch Black Series figures :c
I can barely make a peanut butter jelly sandwich.
Bro.
Will you make one for me?
Does the inverter whine like AC inverters for EL wire?
Hey Norman, great video I just wanted to ask I have these car light kits, and so they came with Molex connectors and a power supply that would connect to the cigarette lighter in my car, but I don't plan on using that supply. Can you recommend any particular one that I might use in its place to power the custom lightsabers that I hope to build myself?
Great video and idea.. Next time I recommend you use magnetic wire.. Much smaller and easier to use..
This is little bit excessive and kinda dangerous, because of neon-tube voltages. BigCliveDotCom has shown flexible led-tubes as a replacement for neon tubes.
A short length of shrink tube would have worked better than electrical tape. Fun build Norm 👍
I'm going to use this method to make a 1/6 scale shishkabob for my X-01.
Hiya can't these be powered by a USB or mains?
Are you picking up the HT Mando Ahsoka? She looks great! Had to preorder the DX one. Great video, btw bc the HT light up lightsabers just aren’t good.
Would this be doable on Black Series?
the voice says Norm, but the top-down workbench shot says Big Clive
Could you do these with Black Series figures?
Hello where did you get the handle?
Awesome! 🤩🤩🤩
LOVE IT
Do you sell them ? I’m looking for a light up lightsaber for my new Vader Mythos statue.