TOPIC: Build my own saber

I want to build a saber with my 9 year old son. Does anyone have an easy to follow set of instructions and list of parts we can use?

Did you want to go as far a soldering everything? or is something like a plug and play kit more your thought?

Hello and welcome! There's a few different ways that you can accomplish this goal. The Custom Saber Shop YouTube channel has quite a few video tutorials for DIY saber building. Since I'm not that well versed on the whole DIY side (with soldering electronics and all that jazz)... I'll detail the somewhat simpler way of using SaberForge's Adaptive Saber Parts and Plug n' Play kits and components.

Here's the link to the hub for SF's Adaptive Saber Parts (ASP). At the top you can find a link to the ASP Builder program where you can mock up saber designs as 3D models.

For the parts, you can either start with any Initiate tier hilt offered by Saberforge - Shoto, Apprentice, Elite, etc.

Or, you could go into the ASP section and choose an Emitter, a Switch Section, a Body section, and a Pommel. If you're using Emitter 08, the Prodigal Son Emitter, or the Redeemer emitter then you will need one of the Thin Neck Adapter pieces that connects the emitter to the body of the saber.

Then you will need the electronics. SaberForge electronics are broken up into "tiers". Initiate is just the empty hilt (you MUST request "do not glue" in the order notes when ordering), Warrior tier is a basic stunt saber that is light only, no sound. The Champion tier is basic sound with a single color LED. The Hero tier is advanced sound with an RGBA color changing LED. With ASP, SF has a line of Plug n' Play (PNP) kits and components that easily assemble, but you need to be careful and select the correct components for each tier. Here's what you will need for each:

Warrior kit
PnP Warrior kit - the kit includes only the pre-wired battery sled
PnP Switch - the Warrior tier requires a latching type switch
PnP LED module
18650 Li-Ion battery
18650 battery charger - this is a very basic and slow charger, you can find faster ones from other vendors

Champion kit
PnP Champion kit - includes battery, speaker, soundboard, wires, recharge port, and charger - your choice of sound font (Viridian - light, Crimson - dark)
PnP LED
PnP Light-up Switch - this is a momentary switch required by the soundboard, if you do not wish it to be illuminated, you can select "momentary" from the other switch listing

Hero kit
PnP Hero kit - the Hero kit includes everything that is needed

And that's pretty much it for the ASP PnP. It really is "Plug and Play". The fun part comes from building a hilt that is truly "your" saber (or your son's saber), and doing any customization to the parts (painting, weathering, etc). While you're probably looking more at actual DIY, hopefully this will answer any questions about ASP or PnP that you may have had.

I learned how to build sabers from those videos on the TCSS channel. Rob Petkau takes you through things step by step, which is tremendously helpful.

I second that. Rob Petkau's videos are invaluable. I follow him on YT!

A big thanks to KelbornX for that awesome post.

Rob use to live about a 30 - 45 minute drive from me when first starting out his lightsaber tinkering then business. Had I known... would have apprenticed for free... mind you I likely wasn't all that keenly hooked on sabers at that time. He needs to move back home... to his family ( and neighboring neighbors ) lol.

Dauntless 7 wrote:
It would seem that you missed THAT boat.

Rapine wrote:
You all are very welcome, I gave my Ctrl+C & Ctrl+V quite a workout on that one.

I have quite a few copy+pastes ready to go for common questions that need detailed responses (mostly for stuff asked over and over in the FB groups)

Dauntless 7 wrote:
I mean.... at least he's still in the same country? No import duties there! I've got my eyes on an Ascend from him, but that's probably not going to be until well into next year.