We've gathered up a list of great Star Wars projects and posts from right here on element14 to get you ready for the new movie, but I'm going to subject you to a bit more shameless self-promotion as I dazzle, impress and astound you with my own Star Wars project from around 20 years hence.

Luke's Lightsaber

Admittedly, this isn't an electronics project. At least, not yet. But I'll show off my prop replica of Luke's lightsaber without the slightest provocation, and I do, one day, intend to add in some electronics to at least make the lightsaber sounds. You guys are invited to offer a few words of advice on what'd be the best approach in the comments below.

Anyway, this beauty was put together before the days of eBay, which was no small task. I started by writing off (snail mail style) to Elstree Studios, who were incredibly helpful. It took a few months and quite a bit of back and forth, before one of the prop team phoned me up to talk to me about the live lightsaber props.

In the end, I decided to go with recreating Luke's lightsaber, as the flash handle (we'll come to that in a moment) was slightly more available than Darth Vader's, and Obi Wan's lightsaber used the handle of a World War I hand grenade! So if you're ever wondering, that's the reason you'll find almost no prop replicas of Ben Kenobi's sword!

Flash Handles

Both Luke's and Vader's lightsabers began life as camera flash handles. You know the kind; when you think of 1940s press photographers with the big cameras that have a metal handled down one side with a dish mounted at the top where the flash bulb is housed. That handle is a battery holder for the flash, and makes for a great futuristic sword grip! To the right you can see one mounted on an old camera (the same handle as was used for Luke Skywalker's lightsaber, in fact.

Luke's was made from a 3-Cell Graflex flash handled, manufactured in the 40s in Rochester, New York. I made enquiries at a few camera repair shops here in the UK, and thanks to the strong number of vintage photography collectors in the region, it didn't take too long for one of the shops to source a Graflex 3-Cell (although I get the feeling they weren't too enamoured when I said I was going to butcher it to make a "toy"!).

This is the handle I managed to get hold of, for around £50, which was a lot at the time, but nothing compared to what these things go for now that word is out about making your own Jedi weapon.

Calculator Display

Of all the aspects to a lightsaber prop build, I think this one with resonate with you guys at element14 the most.

Remember when handheld calculators first appeared, and rather than LCD displays, they had beautifully bright, red LED segments? And really nice, clicky buttons too, but that's not particularly relevant!

Because the LEDs devoured the batteries pretty quickly, the smallest possible segment displays were used. But to make them more visible, bubble lenses were positioned in from of each segment to magnify them, and it was one of these lenses that the Elstree prop makers put in the Graflex's clamp (that attached it to the side of the camera) to cover it up, and to add a bit more futurism to the Jedi's weapon.

Fortunately, I had such a calculator, long since broken from juvenile tinkering within its innards. It needed trimming a little to fit the clamp, but it worked beautifully. Incidentally, if you see Luke's lightsaber with a piece of a PCB in place of the bubble lens, that's actually a replica of the second model from Empire Strikes Back.

Windscreen Wipers

To make up the lightsaber's grip, the guy from Elstree tells me a story about some old windscreen wipers the team found in their workshop, which had been removed from (he thinks) and old Jeep. Nice and easy, I initially thought, until he remembers that these weren't actually the rubber blades as you might expect.

These were some kind of stiff rubber fins positioned along the back of the blade, either to redirect the water or for some other, aerodynamic purpose that I've never been able to uncover.

A scrap yard was put on alert to notify me of any Jeeps that came into the lot, and I was surprised how many did. It only took a few weeks before I was told to pay them a visit to check out an old model that had been wrapped around a wall and dragged into the scrappers for junking. I've never entirely confirmed that the fins I found on the Jeep's wipers are the ones that Elstree used, but they look damn close (after a little careful trimming, that is).

Finishing Touches

Plumber's metal tape went around the middle of the handle, I was told, to cover up the Graflex logo that's etched into the middle, which was pretty much the easiest part of the build.

The handle also had a D-ring riveted to the bottom, which was used to hang the lighsaber from Luke's belt. However, since I never really intended to wear this (way to valuable!) I've never quite been able to bring myself to drill holes in the bottom of the Graflex handle, so mine's missing this small aspect of the prop replica.

One day I'll show you guys the rest of my epic and slightly insane Star Wars collection (consisting of 30-year-old yoghurt pots, soap, toothbrushes, balloons, flip-flops and so much more), but for now I'll leave you with the pride of my sci-fi hoard, and open this up to discussions on your own collections, props, and thoughts on how we might add some sound effects (and maybe a bit of light?) to my Luke Skywalker lightsaber. Take it away, my young padawans!