A while back, Julie posted a news item about a ‘wooden pocket knife.’  I was intrigued: normally, one cuts wood with a knife, right?  So when the opportunity to review Nathan’s Knife Kit from Klecker Knives came up, I had to check it out.  My 8-year-old son had been asking me when he could get his own pocket knife.  I want him to begin to appreciate knife safety, but at the same time I know that he is not ready yet in the responsibility department for an actual knife of his own.  Add to this that he and I like to do little DIY-type woodworking projects together (bearing in mind that my tools and skills are meager at best), and this seemed like a perfect fit for both of us.  Onward!

NOTE: All images in this review have been enabled with clickable enlargeability for your viewing pleasure.  ;-)

Background

Packaging

Contents

Assembly

Some shots of the knife in the open and locked out position.  Yes, the locking mechanism really does lock out, and the thumb button must be depressed to close the blade, just like in a real lock-back folding knife.  It even produces a tactile and audible “lock” sound when locking open.

Detail shot of the locking mechanism in the open and locked out position:
A few more shots to illustrate the finished construction.  The parts in our kit all fit together nice and tight, with no slop or loose connections.

Something to keep in mind is that, while the blade is not “sharp” in the sense of having a true blade edge, it does have a sharply pointed tip.  

Part of the benefit of having the kit made from wood is that the finished knife can be sanded, glued, sealed, stained, painted and decorated as desired.   They encourage everyone who completes a kit to send them some pics of the finished work which they will post in their Hall of Fame.

And finally, below are a few shots of my son holding the completed knife.  He was eight when we assembled the kit just a month or two ago.

Conclusion

Filed in categories: Do-It-Yourself, Reviews

Tagged: DIY, Pocket Knife

Nathan’s Wooden Knife Kit Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on November 28, 2011 at 8:00 am.

If you’re looking for a cool gift for your favorite ukulele player, this is it. It’s a kit for a folding soprano ukulele. The parts are made of laser cut bamboo. All you need is some sandpaper, glue and a few other miscellaneous items and you’ll be able to build your own instrument that just happens to fold up into a nifty little package that can easily stow in your backpack. The resulting uke won’t sound as good as a traditionally built instrument, but it will make a fun do-it-yourself project. There are two kit designs to choose from, which are priced from $75-$87.50 (pictured). If you don’t want to take the time to build the kit, you can even buy them already finished… but for the price of the finished kits ($250 – $375), you could buy a decent regular uke. Check out these kits here.

Filed in categories: Do-It-Yourself, Musical Gear, News

Tagged: DIY, Musical instruments

Ukulele taking up too much space? Fold it. originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on November 26, 2011 at 11:49 am.

I enjoy making stuff, and I love electronics, so I generally really like electronics kit projects. The SpikenzieLabs Solder:Time Watch Kit seems like a great option for someone like me. This is actually a hackable watch- they provide the source code and other info, as well as convenient pads on the circuit board to tap into.

The Solder:Time Watch is loaded with interesting features for something so apparently simple and only $29.95:

• Laser-cut acrylic case (4 layers thick!)
• Dallas Semiconductor DS1337+ RTC clock chip
• PIC 16F631 micro-controller
• Low power consumption components
• Simple, one-button set-up and operation
• Long 2-sided Velcro strap wristband fits even large wrists
• Large, bright display
• Hackable and tinker-friendly allows for lots of other options- pocketwatch, desk clock, external power supply and more

Everything in the package

The parts for the case- some with protective film still in place

The electronic components

• Soldering the battery holder was annoying since there are no pins or anything to stabilize it. The directions have a handy trick I should have thought of, but I made it work.
• I needed to go back and trim the leads a few times- they need to be REALLY short for the right fit and to prevent issues when the board is squished into the case.
• It took a few tries ‘dry-fitting’ the 6 parts of the case, not including 4 socket-head screws, to get everything to line up right. It was fun to try to work out exactly how things fit. The directions make it super-easy, but I enjoyed the challenge.
• Troubleshooting was irritating and kind of fun. Long leads, mediocre solder jobs, and so forth plagued me- try it, works fine, assemble it and it was acting odd. Disassemble, try something, repeat. Even after it was working well enough for this review, it started to act up again.
• Trying to determine how to set the time without looking at the directions was fairly straightforward and I got it in only a few tries.

The glitches I had just added interest to the project for me, but could easily have been avoided by following the simple directions.

Assembled 'guts'

So what did I end up with for my investment? Well, to be charitable, it is a big watch- it measures 2 3/8in (60mm) across, 1/2in (12mm) thick- not counting the screw heads, which bring it to 9/16 in (15mm). It is also a simple watch- when you press the button, it displays the current time for about 5 seconds. No date, no seconds, no other functionality in its default state. If you wear it as it is, it actually looks a little silly- big clunky watch on a skinny 3/4in (20mm) band- albeit one you can see though,  which is kinda cool.

Finished watch on a reluctant model's arm(I forgot to remove one of the protective films- the back piece is clear as well.)

I doubt most people would wear this as is- it begs for hacking the case. I’m trying to decide it’s final purpose. If I carry it as a pocket watch or clip-on clock, I’d want to replace the 4 socket-head screws with countersunk flatheads, round off the top and bottom edges for a smoother package and figure out a cooler strap (carbon fiber???) If I use it as a desk clock, I’d glue it to a clear stand, probably taking advantage of the DC power option to run it off a battery pack in the base. Hacking the chip itself is outside my skills although I am curious what is possible. I did not find a lot of ideas or tips online for that.

Sure, for $29.95, you can buy lots of watches that look nicer and do more, but the cool thing about the Solder:Time is that you did it yourself and that you can then modify it into anything you can imagine.

Filed in categories: Do-It-Yourself, Reviews, Watches and Clocks

Tagged: DIY, Watch

SpikenzieLabs Solder:Time Watch Kit Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on August 25, 2011 at 11:15 am.

The Solder : Time from Spikenzielabs is an easy to solder wristwatch kit that has a laser cut acrylic casing that allows you to see the internal PCB, electronic components and battery (CR2032). There’s a velcro wrist band included, but you can also wear it as a badge with optional badge clip. This looks like a fun project for both young and old that can elevate your geek cred by several levels. The kit can be purchased for $29.95 or if you’re too lazy to build one, you can get an assembled watch for $39.95

Filed in categories: Do-It-Yourself, News, Watches and Clocks

Tagged: DIY, Watch

You aren’t a real geek unless you solder your own watch originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on July 24, 2011 at 1:00 pm.

One really nice thing about being an iPhone owner is that the third-party accessories market is so enormous that one is never at a loss for accessory options.  However, there is a trend in phone cases in general to lean towards the sleek and industrial or luxurious, often leaving those whose tastes tend toward the relaxed and unique out in the cold.

Fortunately for those people, Connect Design is now offering a DIY iPhone 4 case that allows the more skilled iPhone 4 owners to customize their phone with cross-stitch, thanks to a weave pattern on the back.  The case is available in six colors, and the Connect Design website even provides a number of sample patterns in case you’re not feeling terribly creative after all.

The DIY iPhone case is available now from Connect Design for $18.00.

Filed in categories: iPhone, iPad, iPod related

Tagged: Custom iPhone cases, DIY, iPhone Case, Spotlight Gadgets

Show Off Your Crafty Side With the DIY iPhone Case originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on July 14, 2011 at 12:00 pm.

Bobble heads.  Cool, right?  How about a trapezoidal-shaped bobble head that you construct yourself by downloading a template, printing on cardstock, cutting, folding and gluing it?  Too good to be true?  Check out Pally Pal Paper Toys.  They have a growing inventory of Pal designs in several categories or download a blank template and create your own.  You can even submit your own designs to be added to the site.  Funky DYI papercraft toys.  And they’re FREE!

Got a favorite?  Who would you submit?

Filed in categories: Do-It-Yourself, Geek Toys, News

Tagged: DIY, Geek toys

Pally Pals: Trapezoidal, Foldable, Bobbly & Fun originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on January 26, 2011 at 12:30 pm.

JJ’s Knife Kit from Garrett Wade is a nifty build it yourself kit for little ones aged 4-7. Kids always want what their parents have, so this is a safe way to let them feel like they have a grown up tool. These kits come with pre-cut and pre-drilled pieces of Oak or Cherry depending on the style. Even though they are supposed to be for kids, I’d like to have one too They are priced from $11.75 – $22.50.

Filed in categories: Do-It-Yourself, Kid Gadgets, News

Tagged: DIY, Knives, Spotlight Gadgets

Do-it-yourself pocket knife building kit for kids originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on December 5, 2010 at 10:02 am.

I don’t know about the rest of you, but I rarely use the CD drive in my iMac or Macbook Pro. 99.9% of the time, I download software instead of buying CDs. And I don’t watch DVDs on my devices either. OWC has a cool product that will let you ditch your optical drive for something that you might use more often – more disk space. With their $79.99 do-it-yourself Data Doubler kit for the Mac mini (2009) and iMac (2009/2010), you can replace the internal optical drive with a second hard drive or Solid State Drive for up to 750GB additional internal capacity or a RAID array. Check their site for compatibility info.

Filed in categories: Desktop Computer Gear, Do-It-Yourself, News

Tagged: DIY, Hard Drive, mac, Spotlight Gadgets

Add a 2nd internal HD to your Mac mini or iMac originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on October 31, 2010 at 8:00 am.

TOKYObay will be offering a Limited Edition DIY Toolbox in time for the holiday gift buying season. This kit will give watch enthusiasts the ability to customize and assemble the main components of a classic style watch. The DIY watch kit includes two mid size classic watch faces. One with a cream dial and and one with a black dial. Four different colored straps in military canvas, sporty nylon and leather are also included. You can mix and match the bands and faces to create just the right look. Also included are nine tools for watch repair, back up batteries and watch band slug pins. This kit will retail for $210. Visit TOKYObay to add your name to the waiting list.

Filed in categories: Do-It-Yourself, News, Watches and Clocks

Tagged: DIY, Spotlight Gadgets, Watches and Clocks

DIY Watchmaking with the TOKYObay Limited Edition DIY Toolbox originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on October 8, 2010 at 9:00 am.

The Gadgeteer recently showed you how to easily change your downlights into pendant lights without hiring an electrician.  Today, we’ve found another way update the look of your recessed lights.  Sky Mall is offering Recessed Light Covers in a variety of styles from modern to traditional.  These Recessed Light Covers snap into place over your existing recessed lights.  Simply slide in the inner can with clips to hold it in place, then attach the glass insert and detailed steel outer ring.  The inner diameter is 7″, outer diameter is 8.5″ .  The Recessed Light Covers are $34.99 each at Sky Mall.

Filed in categories: Do-It-Yourself, News

Tagged: DIY, Home Improvements, Home lighting

Another Way to Change the Look of Recessed Downlights originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on September 6, 2010 at 12:51 pm.

If there’s anything that I love as much as getting my hands on a shiny new gadget, it’s taking old gadgets and repurposing them to accomplish something completely awesome.  I recently combined a low-end Eye-Fi card, a 2008 Mac Mini, and a little elbow grease to turn my home theater system into a slideshow displaying photos of a party at my home — live, as I was taking them.  Here’s how I did it, and how you can too.

What you’ll need

• A home theater system in the same room as your party
• A Mac Mini (you might be able to accomplish this with a Windows HTPC as well, but there may be limitations — details on that later)
• A home wireless network
• An Eye-Fi card
• An Eye-Fi-compatible camera (most cameras are, these days)
• minor scripting voodoo

Setup

HTMac/HTPC
Fortunately for me, I already had half of this project done before I began, because I had been using a Mac Mini as a home theater PC for some time.  While the 2008 Mac Minis didn’t have HDMI-out, I was able to run video out via a DVI to HDMI adapter, and audio out via the Mac’s mini-TOSLINK jack.  With Plex installed, the Mac Mini becomes a rather formidable living room media solution.  But I digress… the point is that a Mac Mini — even an older one — is ideal for this project.

If you don’t have a spare Mac Mini laying around, you can probably pick one up fairly cheap from the refurbished section of Apple’s online store, or you can try your luck with one of the many Windows-based HTPCs out there (yes, I realize that there are Linux-based HTPC solutions, but Eye-Fi did not work with Linux when I last checked, and that’s a crucial element here, as you’ll see in just a moment).

Regardless of the OS and hardware you choose, you will need a computer of some kind hooked up to your home theater and providing video to your television (unless, of course, you use one of those gorgeous 27-inch iMacs as your TV, in which case you have one less thing to set up).
Eye-Fi
With your HTMac/HTPC set up, now you have to establish a conduit for your photos to get from your camera to the computer.  Fortunately, Eye-Fi makes this easy.  First, you want to use the Eye-Fi manager software to configure your Eye-Fi card to transfer photos to a specific folder on your computer.  It doesn’t matter where this folder is located, but I’d recommend starting with a fresh, empty folder, and placing it somewhere that’s easy to remember and navigate to.

Next, you’ll probably want to configure your Eye-Fi card to use Selective Transfer.  This step isn’t strictly necessary, but I recommend it.  With Selective Transfer active, the Eye-Fi card will only transfer selected photos to your computer, instead of every photo you take.  Selecting a photo for transfer is as easy as pressing the “protect” button while viewing the photo on your camera.  By using Selective Transfer, you ensure that only the best photos end up in your slideshow, rather than including all of those photos of people with their eyes half-closed, which you’d normally just delete and re-shoot.

It should go without saying that you also need a wireless network set up in your home for this to work.  The Eye-Fi card can’t communicate with your computer unless they are both connected to the network.
Slideshow software
Now that you’ve got photos flowing to your HTMac/HTPC, you need to display them.  How you go about this will depend on which OS you’re running on your computer.  While it’s true that both OS X and Windows have a screensaver that can display a randomized selection of photos from a specified location, there are limitations.  For example, I have confirmed that the OS X slide show screensaver does not automatically refresh — that is to say, when the screensaver kicks in, the slide show that it creates contains only photos that were in the specified location at the time that the screensaver launched.  Any photos added to the folder after the slideshow has begun will not be included in the slideshow.  I haven’t had a chance to confirm conclusively that Windows’ “Photos” screensaver has the same limitation, but from what I’ve seen so far, it seems to work in the same way.

Fortunately, there is a simple solution if you’re on OS X.  I threw together a simple AppleScript that addresses this is the simplest manner possible:

repeat
 tell application "ScreenSaverEngine" to activate
 delay 300
 tell application "System Events" to key code 59
 delay 2
end repeat

When launched, this AppleScript will trigger the screen saver, wait five minutes, simulate the pressing of a key (quitting the slide show), wait two seconds, trigger the screen saver again, and repeat until manually terminated.  The end result is that the slideshow is effectively “refreshed” every five minutes (you can adjust the frequency of the refresh by tweaking the delay values).  Save this AppleScript as an application, and you can put it on your desktop or in your Applications folder and launch it whenever you want your self-refreshing slide show to run.  Now you need only set the slide show as your screen saver, point it at your Eye-Fi photos folder, configure your display options, and you’re set.  When you want to quit the auto-refresh, just press a key or move your mouse to exit the slideshow, and quit the AppleScript from the dock.

Unfortunately, Here is where the OS X and Windows roads diverge.  Windows does not provide any reasonable equivalent to AppleScript, so Windows users will need to find some sort of slideshow application that will get them around this limitation, or some sort of scripting/macro utility that will let you mimic the behavior of my AppleScript.  Being that I no longer use Windows unless I really have to, I’m afraid that I don’t have any suggestions that will help Windows users over this last hump.  If you have suggestions, please add them in the comments.

Putting it all together

Once all of these ingredients are in place, you’re basically done.  Insert the Eye-Fi card into your camera and fire off a few test shots to confirm that the photos end up in the correct folder (remember to protect the photos if you’re using Selective Transfer), start up your AppleScript (or whatever you’re using for Windows) to launch the slide show and confirm that the correct photos are displaying, and that’s that.  The HTMac/HTPC can do double duty as your party’s jukebox while it’s displaying your photos, if you like.  You could even take this to the next level by using iTunes’ DJ mode to provide your party’s music, and allow your guests to request or vote on tracks via their iPhones.  Welcome to the future.

Now… go get some beverages and snack foods, invite your friends over, snap some photos, and enjoy!

Filed in categories: Articles, Digital Cameras and Gear, Do-It-Yourself

Tagged: DIY, HTPC, Photos

Geek Up Your Party With a Live-Updating Slideshow originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on July 19, 2010 at 10:00 am.

If you are tired of the way your recessed can lights look, you can convert them to pendant fixtures in minutes without paying for an electrician.  These Instant Pendant Lights from Solutions simply replace the bulb in your old fixture.  You can adjust the length of the fixture without having to cut the wiring, and the pendant light’s canopy slides up to cover a 4-6.5″ can light opening.  The pendant uses conventional incandescent or compact fluorescent bulbs.  There are four shade style/metal color combinations.  Each Instant Pendant Light is $49.95.

Filed in categories: Do-It-Yourself, News

Tagged: DIY, Pendant lights

Change the Look of Your Room With Instant Pendant Lights from Solutions originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on July 12, 2010 at 9:34 am.

If you are equally handy with “needle, thread, and battleaxe”, you can make yourself a D20-shaped handbag (called a dice bag, if you’re male).  The ThinkGeek kit contains all the components you need to make the bag;  you just need to supply the sewing machine, thread, iron, and the skills.  The DIY Dice Handbag kit is $29.99.  You know you want it!

Filed in categories: Do-It-Yourself, Gaming Gear, News

Tagged: D20 dice, DIY, handbag

DIY Dice Handbag Kit originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on June 26, 2010 at 1:55 pm.

Photo courtesy of The Modern Day Pirates website

I recently posted news items about an official Moleskine Kindle case with a reporter-style notebook and the DODOcase Moleskine-style case for iPad.  If you really want a Moleskine-style case for your iPad but don’t want to spend $50 and wait up to six weeks for it, you can try your hand at making your own.  Brandon at The Modern Day Pirates website has posted complete instructions for making your own iPad case.  He even included a list of supplies you’ll need and the source and approximate price for them.  Brandon warns the project isn’t for people with no crafting experience, and he says he took a college class in bookbinding.  However, his instructions are so clear that any one with crafting skills should be able to give it a try.  Brandon spent less than $20, and his cover looks great.  I snagged a picture from his website to show you his finished product next to a real Moleskine notebook.

Filed in categories: Do-It-Yourself, iPhone, iPad, iPod related, News

Tagged: DIY, iPad case, Moleskine

DIY Moleskine Case for iPad originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on June 24, 2010 at 7:58 am.

Wee-Meng Lee sent in a nifty tip for those of you that own a Pilot Varsity disposable fountain pen and would like a relatively easy way to refill the ink instead of throwing away the pen. Wee-Meng has created a video that demonstrates his method. If you have other gadget tips like this one, please send them to me so I can share them.

Filed in categories: Do-It-Yourself, News

Tagged: DIY, Pens

Recycle Tip – Refill Pilot Varsity Fountain Pens originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on April 18, 2010 at 11:32 am.

If you are a photography buff or just like to build things, check out the Plamodel build-your-own working 35mm camera with a 28mm lens.  You simply snap together the plastic parts in the DIY camera kit from Japanese design house SuperHeadz.  This could be a fun project for you to do with a younger child who’d like her own camera.  Unicahome has a plain black model for $17.00, or a “custom moriyama special edition cow model” with a picture of a cow on the body of the camera for $27.00.

Filed in categories: Do-It-Yourself, News

Tagged: Camera, DIY, Spotlight Gadgets

Build Your Own 35mm Camera originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on April 2, 2010 at 3:45 pm.

Benny Johansson sent in a link to his site where he demonstrates how to make your own holders for flashlights, bicycle pumps and other items. His photography and clear instructions are great. I’ve bookmarked the site for future reference. Go check it out.

Filed in categories: Do-It-Yourself, News

Tagged: DIY

DIY holders for flashlights originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on March 14, 2010 at 5:10 pm.

Look on the Internet for plans to build a robot from an old computer mouse and you’ll find plenty.  Really useful, huh?  But, look for a set of plans for a Murphy bed and you’ll be disappointed.  Oddly there are plenty of people out there searching for do-it-yourself plans for Murphy beds, myself included (both in the “searching” and in the “odd” category).

Murphey Brown

Eddie Murphy

A typical Murphy bed

Moddi Murphy bed (twin size)

I finally found the Moddi Murphy Bed Plan and purchased their set of plans for $8.  The plans include not only the exact parts that are needed (and where to buy them) but a pretty thorough set of instructions, too, including cut sheets.  I was suspicious about shelling out money for a set of plans that you would think would be available anywhere on the internet but after a few days of searching and not finding such a thing, I was willing to splurge.

The deciding factor for me was not only that the plans are in one place and contain obtainable parts list, but that the entire bed (minus mattress) can be constructed for less than $400 (or less than $300 for a twin size).

Filed in categories: Home Tech

Tagged: DIY

A Real Murphy Bed Plan originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on January 20, 2010 at 1:06 pm.

I had no issues with my Droid battery cover for the two weeks I used it, but I have heard some complaints that the cover can fall off. I know another reviewer that had no problem with her review unit, but after purchasing she had issues with the new one. So it probably is dependent on the unit you get.

I did come across a nice little video that describes a potential DIY solution if you don’t mind slightly customizing your Droid. Actually in the world of DIY this is really minor. Of course I am not going to take responsibility for any over-zealous mods on your part. If you want to follow these instructions, take care.

Update:

Matt from Motorola (he manages the Motorola Support Forum) added a nice comment below about a non-DIY solution. It’s great to hear a company stand so solidly behind their product. He provides this link to get support if your cover is coming consistently off: https://motorola-global-portal.custhelp.com/app/utils/chat

Filed in categories: Android related, Do-It-Yourself

Tagged: DIY, droid, Motorola

DIY Droid Battery Cover Fix originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on December 7, 2009 at 9:56 am.

If you’ve read some of my iPhone related reviews, you’ll know that I have a love / hate relationship with the phone. It mainly has to do with the fact that there are no call end and answer buttons on the phone. You have to use your finger, which isn’t a big deal during the warmer months, but it’s already getting chilly here in Indiana. Soon I’ll be busting out my fuzzy gloves for the morning drive to work. Ever try answer a phone call on your iPhone with a gloved hand? It no worky. There are gloves on the market that you can buy just for this reason. But why not convert a pair of your own? I saw this do-it-yourself article from Instructables this morning and thought it was a great idea. All of you craft geeks go check it out.

Filed in categories: Do-It-Yourself, iPhone, iPad, iPod related, News

Tagged: DIY, iPhone

Make your gloves iPhone friendly originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on November 25, 2009 at 8:59 am.

If you have a thing for fire, check out the Magna-Lite keychain micro torch from Weller. It’s less than 3 inches long, but can create a flame up to 2400° F!

Filed in categories: Do-It-Yourself

Tagged: DIY, Spotlight Gadgets, Torch

Scorch something with the Weller Magna-Lite Butane Micro Torch originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on April 21, 2009 at 9:24 pm.

Shapeways is a website that allows people to create printed 3D models that you can keep. Their current deal is a $49 Ringpoem napkin ring made of stainless steel infused with Bronze or just plain stainless steel. The price is pretty steep for just one napkin ring, but the design looks pretty cool – and of course, you can create your own poem for the ring. Even if you’re not interested in a napkin ring, check out gallery on their site. Some of the things that their community has created are amazing  and for sale in their shop.

Filed in categories: Home Tech

Tagged: DIY, Gift Idea, Spotlight Gadgets

Shapeways 3D Metal Printing Napkin Ring originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on March 24, 2009 at 7:25 pm.

I am definitely a child of the 70′s and 80′s. As such, I was (and remain) a pretty huge Star Wars fan. I remember my father taking the day off for the first Star Wars movie, not going to school, and standing in line to see the very first showing of Star Wars at the Cinerama 150 in downtown Seattle. From that moment, I lived and breathed Star Wars for years as a kid. I had a ton of Star Wars toys during that time period….from the trading cards to the figures to the cheesy lightsaber they had out at the time. Back in the day, the best lightsaber available was a painted flashlight with a plastic balloon you had to keep blowing up, the end flopped around, fell off, no sound, etc.

Well, lightsaber technology and design have come a long way in the past 30 plus years (from top to bottom: kids $20 (Toy-R-Us), Master Replica–Mace Windu $150 (at the time), PVC Battle Blade $50 (created by Bryan Alford), my and the Gadgeteer Kid’s Custom Saber Shop MHS lightsabers). Today’s $20 kids lightsabers have a rigid, extendable blade, are decently lit, can stand a good amount of abuse, and make a good variety of battle sounds. But for those hardcore fans, about a decade ago, Master Replicas began designing FX lightsabers that were identical replicas of many of the lightsabers you see in the movies. FX lightsabers have a solid blade that lights up just like the real thing, an intricately designed metal hilt, and emit incredibly cool ‘lightsaber’ sound effects. As the story goes, my son and I came across several reasonably inexpensive, used FX lightsabers that we decided to battle with. We found out the hard way, the stock blades on those are not for striking each other and did not last a month.

(I really am getting to my point ) With the destruction of our FX lightsabers, I began searching for a way to repair our FX lightsabers with a blade engineered to withstand the force of many blows and abuse. My quest led me to a world I never even imagined existed, where Star Wars enthusiasts actively build and battle with what they create. These lightsaber ‘battle blades’ can be constructed of everything from PVC piping, metal plumbing parts, to finely machined pieces of aluminum. The electronics within also ranges in complexity and quality from the very simple to the incredibly complex. The Custom Saber Shop has the best materials and instruction forums currently available (I would like give a huge thanks to Bryan Alford for answering all my technical questions and Tim Yaskus (owner of The Custom Saber Shop) for answering all my parts availability questions).

The Hilt

The Custom Saber Shop is for everyone….from the noob to the most expert saber-smith. For the newbies, the owner of the website has created a very helpful/slick tool (called the Modular Hilt System (MHS) saber builder) which allows you to virtually create your lightsaber. My son and I worked together to design our lightsabers….it was a great deal of fun.

It is great being able to see your lightsaber/creation before ordering all the pieces.

When you are done designing your lightsaber you can save a graphic of the hilt you designed onto your computer. The top one is the Gadgeteer Kids and the bottom is mine.

The basic hilt is comprised of three main pieces; the blade holder, center section, and pommel. But you can add various extensions and exterior facades to make your lightsaber hilt look as complicated or simplistic as you wish.

The Electronics

The electronics is where the real hands-on experience begins. As I mentioned earlier, you can make the electronics as simplistic (on and off) or complicated (FX sounds and blade flash) as you like. As my first attempt at saber-smithing, I decided to keep my electronics relatively basic.

As you can see from this line diagram from the The Custom Saber Shop, there are five pieces that make up the hilt electronics; the LED assembly, heat sink, some type of resistor, on/off switch, and battery holder.

The LED is the heart of the lightsaber. Depending on how bright you want your blade, they range in power from 1 watt to 5 watts. They come in a variety of colors dependent of which type of LED you choose.

The Custom Saber Shop sells ‘electronics kits‘ that make it easy for you to receive all the correct pieces. Definitely a benefit to us noobs…. Because it is very easy to order the incorrect part(s).

The Battle Blade

The blade is made of a clear, thick and very durable polycarbonate (think schedule 40 PVC) pipe. The interior of the blade is coated to diffuses the LED light. There are two types of blades; a Corbin style and a TCSS style blades in two thicknesses ‘show’ or ‘battle’. You can buy the materials to create your own blades or order complete pre-made blades. The blades can be ordered in a variety of lengths between 24 and 40 inches. We chose pre-made 34″ TCSS battle blades.

The blade slides into the blade holder (top of the hilt) and is held in place by a blade retention screw. Since I do not have the tools to punch the threaded hole in the blade holder, I had Tim do that for me. But if I create another lightsaber, I will give it a try myself.

Bringing the Parts Together

The Forums on The Custom Saber Shop are an invaluable resource for noobs to learn the basics of saber-smithing. Once you figure out what parts you want/need and get the electronics connected/operational, combining all the pieces of the lightsaber was relatively easy.

Even unlit, the lightsabers are impressively well made and ballanced.

And once lit, they are even more impressive. The LED’s do a great job illuminating the blade.

Doing Battle

The next best part of creating your very own (ultra high quality, one of a kind) lightsaber, is doing battle with it.

The Gadgeteer Kid and I spend hours per week fighting against each other with our handmade lightsabers. And I can not tell you how much time per day he dedicates to practicing his ‘moves’. He will watch one of the movie battles and work for hours perfecting the their Jedi techniques.

The Cost

I have to admit, this project was expensive. I chose to upgrade several electrical components, buy pre-made blades, and had Tim tap the blade retention screw holes, all of which added extra cost. The overall cost was approximately $175 per lightsaber, which is more than double the price of a FX lightsaber now available from Hasbro. While the FX lightsabers have cool sound effects, they are not as bright or battle worthy as what you can create from The Custom Saber Shop. Also, if you add the electronics for sound and blade flash it could easily exceed $400.

Conclusions

The Gadgeteer Kid and I had an INCREDIBLY great time on this project, start to finish. We have created something that we will use/play with for years to come and potentially pass onto his kids decades from now. It was a great father/son experience and a memory I will cherish.

Whether you are an old or young Star Wars fan that always wanted the ultimate lightsaber, I highly recommend visiting The Custom Saber Shop, if for no other reason than to tempt yourself.

May the Force be with you….

Filed in categories: Do-It-Yourself, Geek Toys

Tagged: DIY, Light Saber, Star Wars

My Lightsaber Saga…. originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on February 16, 2009 at 1:00 am.

I received an email the other day asking me to check out a video site called VideoJug. They claim to be the world’s most popular, free to use, video learning site, with over 43,000 bite-sized, professionally produced films on a wide range of topics – including gadgets. They have some fun do-it-yourself type videos that I’m sure some of you will enjoy. I know because I’ve been wasting a couple hours watching them this afternoon.

Filed in categories: Uncategorized

Tagged: DIY, Gear Diary, Video

VideoJug How-to Gadget Videos originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on January 24, 2009 at 2:19 pm.