Darth Maul's Lightsaber

I have been wanting to make my very own Instructable after seeing so many great ones made by others. While looking for resources for my Darth Maul costume I had trouble finding a whole lot. So here is my take on one of my favourite Star Wars character's lightsaber. Also, I noticed that in the sci-fi contest that the first place prize was a phantom drone, so I thought that I should make something from "The Phantom Menace".

Note, I live in Canada so I cannot be sure if the specific materials will be located in your vicinity.

1: 4 flashlights

2: 1 aluminum can

3: 2 male and 2 female 1/2 inch pvc pipe adaptors

4: 1 inch pvc pip

5: 1/2 inch pvc pipe

6: plastic shot glasses

7: black and silver paint

8: black paracord

9: twist ties

I found the flashlights at Dollar Tree and I bought them since they were metal and had a cool ripple effect on them. Also, The buttons were somewhat similar to that on Darth Maul's actual lightsaber. The pvc pipe and adaptors can be found at any hardware store. I found my shot glasses and twist ties at a dollar store and some paracord at Walmart.

First, take your flashlights. Take the glass end out of two of the flashlights and leave the end on, and take the bottoms off. On the other two, take the bottoms and tops off so there is only the handle. My flashlights did not quite fit perfect on my pvc pipe so I used an aluminum can so that the flashlight would be snug on the pipe. Next, you will have to measure out the amount of 1 inch pvc pipe you will need. I decided to make my hilt 30 cm or 12 inches long so I cut off that much pvc pipe. Next, I took some of the buttons off of the other flashlights and added them onto the ones that were on the pipe. Lastly, I took some paracord and wrapped it around the flashlights, dividing them roughly into quarters.

In this step, I wanted to be able to attach and detach the blade from my lightsaber so I thought that an easy way to do that would be to use male and female pvc adaptors. First you have to ensure that the adaptors will fit inside the 1 inch pvc pipe. To do this, sand the inside with a file, drill, or rotary tool until the female adaptor fits snug inside on each end. Then, I cut 12 inches of 1/2 inch pvc pipe to be connected to the adaptors. I slid the 1/2 inch pipe into the 1 inch pipe and then used some pvc glue to attach everything. From here, there is only a little bit left to do.

I'm not sure what to call what Darth Maul has on the end of his lightsaber, so from here I will call them "the ends". To make the ends, you will need four plastic solo shot glasses, two for each side. I began by cutting just the top off of two of them, and about half off of the other two. The two that are halved are painted black and the other two are painted silver, but first, I cut out some pieces to make them look a little more like vents. After that, I cut up some zip ties and hot glued them on to give a little more detail. Then, stack the silver cup onto the black one, and hot glue them by putting the glue in the crevice between the cups. Lastly, glue the top of a flashlight onto the top before hot gluing it to the ends of the flashlight on the hilts. Now, the hilt is done and all that remains is the blades.

For the blades, I decided not to do any electrical work as I have no prior experience in the field, so I went with the next best thing, spray paint! I wanted my lightsaber to be about at my eye level if it was standing vertically, so I measured out the pvc pipe needed to do that, then cut it in half. After, I spray painted it red with some flakes of white and black in hopes to give it a neat looking affect. Then I put the male pvc couplings on the ends so that they would be able to attach to the hilt by screwing them in. Now, your lightsaber is complete and you just have to put it together.

I hope you guys have as much fun making your lightsaber as I did mine, and if you have any questions, please feel free to ask them in the comments and I will try to answer them. Also, I would be willing to take any advice you have. I may make an instructable for my Darth Maul costume if you would be interested. Thank you for visiting and keep on building!