Custom suggestions for Electroluminescent Blades

[Kyrel-Dak]

As an owner of many EL blades I will share my customizing techniques. I own only Parks EL blades so these suggestions are mainly for this brand but will work on others too.

First, I cut the tip down closer to the actual EL with a pipe cutter, then trim any excess laminate. Be carefull not to cut into the EL. I am not fond of the large bulbous rubber tip that comes with them and I feel there is about an inch too much polycarbonate (of course this is needed during the assembly process)

Second, I take 600 grit sand paper and run it the length of the blade in single strokes (not up and down).......what this does to the blade is frosts it so that the light from the core hits the frost of the outer surface of the polycarbonate. This creates more of a glow and recreates a more authentic look to the blade. The central core is slightly brighter than the frosted surface. Very cool effect.

Everyone who has purchased sabers from me has been given the option of the blade as is or my custom features and all have chosen the custom. Be carefull though if you decide to try this, there is no going back to the way it was before. It only takes four to five single strokes of the sand paper, of course you can do it more or less to achieve your desired level of effect. If anyone tries this share your thoughts as to whether or not you like the outcome. Good luck and have fun.

[Jauhzmynn Enz]

Have you any pictures of the blade illuminaited before and after the process for comparison?

[Kyrel-Dak]

Unfortunately no. I was pretty nervous myself many years ago when I did this to my first saber blade. I bought two blades initially with my saber and I choose one to try. I began with only one or two single swipes with the sandpaper. After seeing the results I was very happy I did it. If you only have one blade, the blades come with an extra piece covering the plug, try it on that and put a small flashlight into the opening and see what you think. This will simulate it on a smaller scale. Good luck.

[Leda EmBorr]

Kyrel, this question came up a while back... Is it possible to shorten an EL blade purchased from Parks or the like? And if so, how would you do it?

Also, where would one find Electroluminescent paper?

[Jeffrek]

Leda shortening a parks blade is easy to do.

You first remove the connector and the EL material being very careful of the delicate wire connections where it connects to the EL sheet.

You then cut down the polycarb tube to your desired length with a normal hacksaw or similar.

After that you simply cut the el sheet to length with a pair of scissors and reassemble. Thats all their is to it.

As long as the 2 connection points are not damaged in anyway you could even cut pretty pattern holes in the sheet without effecting it electrically. Not that you would do that for a sabre of course

EL wire blades are slightly trickier as you have to make sure the internal copper wire doesnt come into contact with the hair thin silver conductor directly but its very straightforward.

EL inverters have a maximum they are designed to handle, for sheet inverters thats rated in surface area it can power, for wire inverters thats rated in the length of wire it can handle. As long as the el material doesnt exceed that rating its fine, if you do exceed it it just makes the EL dim as the inverter cant handle it and struggles to cope.

Just make sure the wiring doesnt come off as repairing that connection isnt easy.

The EL sheet in the parks blades is actually best decribed as EL strip, it then wound into a tube shape when inserted into the blade.

www.beingseen.com/flatlite.html does the type of EL used.

[Kyrel-Dak]

I am sorry but I must disagree with Jeffrek

First - if you remove the EL sheet and open it up to cut it you will have blotches all through the el, this is because it is laminated and unrolling the sheet causes the thin el paper to loose contact with the laminate. This can also happen with heavy duty fighting as sometimes a hit is hard enough to cause that blotch to occur. One of our locals who purchased a saber from me did this to try and figure out how it worked, after all the blotches occured we sent it back to Jeff to try and get a new el sheet put in and he was hot that someone had tried to reverse engineer the blade. He told me to sell him a new one and didn't even send back the one we sent.

Second - if you attempt this Parks will not warranty or replace your blade if it messes up.......however Jeff (Parks) can either shorten or make you a new shorter blade upon request and then of course it is warrantied to a point.

Third - never cut your blade with a hacksaw, this will never cut right unless you use a mitre box. A pipe cutter is cheap to purchase and cuts perfect every time. I have cut over thirty blades so far and each one perfect.

It is not easy to cut the laminate, I have to trim them each time I cut the tip down and I have to do it with a sharp knife with extreme care not to twist it since the line that runs the length of the blade will show the twist. I never cut into the el and I stay about 1/4 inch above it to keep the laminate intact.

Lightech Industries uses el wire and seals the tip of his blades. Mike too would be willing to make you a shorter blade if you happen to own one of his.

A word on the frosted blade suggestion I made:
I came up with this when, upon viewing my first blade the intieror diameter of the el light is 1/2 inch and you could see the shiny polycarbonate tube, more noticeable than I like. The light blades in the films are 3/4 inch in diameter as shown with the glow surrounding them (although MR which is liscensed makes the FX's 1 inch in diameter). In the Classic trilogy they sometimes appear 1 inch but in the prequels you can really see the difference, definately 3/4 inch. When you frost the blade with the 600 grit sandpaper you achieve a true 3/4 light blade and have no shiny polycarbonate on the outside visible. This is why all my customers have wanted this conversion, because it very closely simulates the movie blades, it also helps to mute the annoying line in the blade.

I mean no offense to Jeffrek, but I have had a lot of experince tweaking these and have not damaged any of my own (or my stock) yet. Feel free to hit me with any other questions on these too..........

[Kyrel-Dak]

Oh, sorry, I forgot about your question where to find el paper. Best thing to do is a search engine and type in Electroluminescent........you will find several commercial sites that deal with all types of el and even sell kits for lightsabers. The kits run about the mid one hundred range and they have all colors. With the popularity of Star Wars and the lightsaber more companies are offering the el kits which are relatively easy to install and adapt to almost any saber. The blade kits are also offered in varying lengths. Do shop though as prices vary and be carefull to deal with a reputable company. Today, in our business world there are more and more internet sites devoted to cheating customers, taking their money then shutting the site down while never sending you your goods or even not having any goods to sell. Buyer beware.........good luck and happy hunting, if you don't find any let me know again, I have a few older ones saved I can forward, although I am not vouching for them, they are just what I found too.

[Leda EmBorr]

Thanks Jeffrek and Kyrel.

I might play around with one of my older blades.

That's a great link Jeffrek!

[Jeffrek]

Kyrel the point about cutting with a mitre box is a good one for those who are not used to using tools.

They do make cutting stright easier, personally Ive been building stuff since I was little so cutting straight by hand and eye has never been a problem for me.

Its all a matter of practice, saying its impossible is going a little too far.

As I said you have to be careful with the EL material and connections, if you dont feel completely confident about doing it then of course go to those who do, the makers of commercial blades being obvious choices.

My profession is designing electronics, with a fair amount of optics thrown into what I design at work anyway so I find most of the electronics used in prop building fairly standard including sound playback, leds, lighting, sevos's etc.

The technical aspects of EL are pretty simple really, I currently own 7 EL sabres, one is a Parks and the others were made by myself. I use el wire in my blades primarily and I too seal the ends of the wire, i did mention that you shouldnt allow the inner copper conductor to touch the outer silver conductor.
I find the combination of a small amount of hotglue with heatshrink over the top has been the most durable so far.

As for the twisting of EL flatlite, theres a little trick you can use to stop that. Basically it involves taping the inside edges together so they dont move. I do this by putting a strip of tape down one edge on the bottom (what will become the inside) and then roling it around a suitable length of dowel so that the other edge sticks to the tape too. Then its just a case of sliding it into the polycarb tube. Once you do that you will find it doesnt twist anymore.

Kyrel I dont take offense at your comments really but judging others abilities without having met them or knowing anything about them is a mistake.

Ive been doing electronics ever since I left school, (which was 17 years ago) and Ive been building props and models for a long time too although actual costuming making has only been of interest in the last couple of years.

My background is in industrial electronics and engineering so I guess I find it easier than most when it comes to designing and building stuff. I'll be the first to admit though that I still have much to learn about other aspects of the hobby such as sculpting out of clay etc and Im still learning the tricks of mouldmaking. Mainly time is the limiting factor. So much to do, so little time.

If your going to C3 Id be happy to chat about blades, sabres or any other topic in person.

[Kyrel-Dak]

My point to Leda Em-Borr was that the Parks are the el sheets "laminated" and to cut those as you described would have ruined her el, producing blotches. When passing along these tidbits of advice one must not assume anything about anothers skills at working with these, that means high or low skilled. If someone ruins a $70.00 dollar blade due to a slight omission of information that you might have assumed automatic then who pays for it, surely not who gave the advice. That is why I always caution others before trying anything to be sure the result is what you will like because expensive items are at stake. I made no inference about your skill level as you jumped somehow to that conclusion. Perhaps you might go back and reread how you phrased the instructions. To someone who has never done this to an el sheet would have been extremely unhappy with the results.

1)you said "you first remove the connector and el material" Once you remove it the el sheet will move and the blotches begin.

2)you said "simply cut the el sheet to length with a pair of scissors" if removing it didn't damage the el cutting it this way would surely have done it.

Who would be responsible for her blade if these blotches appeared? It would have been due to all the movement of the laminate.

I have been a dealer for Parks for over two years now so I have particular experience with his blades.

[Leda EmBorr]

Thanks guys... I appreciate your input. You both have given me good advice. I'm happy that it can be done.

But easy directions are a must if I'm to attempt anything at all. Hacksaw, scissors, I can do that! Simple series circuit I can do... parallel, yes, but only after much head scratching and hmmm.... Soldering... forget it, I might as well make a mud pie. Pipe cutter? My brother in law is a plumber, he might know what that is. I'm sure he uses one all the time. Mitre box? never used one, but I'm pretty good with a circular saw on the back porch steps! And if it's not perfect...well I can always file away at it! lol!

But before I made a seventy dollar mistake, common sense would tell me to inquire at my place of purchase before attempting a customization like this, Parks, Lightech or whatever. I'm sure a method that works for one type of EL blade will not work well for another, and vice versa. I'm sure they all have slight design differences, like the laminate thing.

I bought a blade from a dealer once that was all blotchy, but it was cheap and all he had left in purple, so I settled for the blotches. It kinda looked like it was wet inside... like the paper was sticking to the tube. I guess the laminate may have been the problem. Not really such a good idea if fighting with it can make it do that. hmmm. Thanks for the heads-up on that, Kyrel.

Since I'm not electronically inclined, perhaps I will ask Mike at Lightech to make a shorter one for me. I own two of his EL sabers. I don't own a Parks. And I think cutting a blade with any kind of saw would pretty much void anyone's warranty.

Again, thank you both for the advice. I will proceed, as always, with caution.

[admin]

I really appreciate everyone's suggestions here. We must remember that this is a forum of opinions and therefore we must be careful on how we process this information.

[sporty]

Well I am in the learning process of a few things and learning on others.

I recently got the saber24 kit from amazing1.com, not a bad saber. may be not intented for hitting but a decent firt time saber for $49.95. not bad

Now I have recently been at another forum. I ordered and i am in the process of making some lightsabers for my sons and myself. Using el wire. But when i got my el wire and put it into polyethelene for the difusser. I was not happy with it. So Im now looking to try el flat/film.

But i Have some questions. Hoping for some help.

Not the el is rolled and slid into tube is this correct ? is it overlapped at all ? 3/4 tube for example, 1 inch wide el flat ?

also here is a link to another forum that i think can help with people wanting to try building one.

boards.theforce.net/Costuming_and_Props/b10019/15796050/?85.

we all in this together, who wants to pay a fortune for a lightsaber, not me, Im not into replica's. i like my own tyle of saber's. I dont have no biz, so im not trying to make money here only build a saber. And I would hope anyone else is not selling for money and in this forum pushing there product. SOme of the links i found in this forum, some would help me some would not. Some have agreements with lightsaber people doing it as a biz.

Thanks

Sporty

My comments and thoughts are not meant to upset or agitate anyone. I just feel that anything over $50 for a lightsaber is someone out there making money, on the el wire. I dont know what the el flat costs yet. And this is in the mind set of builing your own.

[Leda EmBorr]

Good luck with the saber blade... I think in one of my el's the paper overlaps... the others use el wire, which is different... but I didn't make either of them, so I'm no technical help in that area.

Also I can tell you that The Jedi Assembly does not allow any selling or pushing of one's product outside of the Buying/Selling/Trading Arena. We used to have alot of product pushing all over the boards, but now any vendors have to do all of their vendoring in that forum only. And some might not want to reveal their sources/secrets, but they're vendors, not TJA members, and naturally, business is business.
I've found that for the most part, everyone is as helpful as they can be.

Hope that helps clear things up for ya...

[Ani-Chay Pinn]

Have you ever seen this thread on the FanForce costuming board?

boards.theforce.net/Costuming_and_Props/b10019/15796050/?2

It begins with a fairly detailed description of how one person makes her EL lightsabers and comments follow. I toyed with the idea of making one, but I just don't have the time. There are also other threads about EL lightsabers, but this is the only one I've really looked at. Check out the forum index for props discussions.