Whether inspired by “The Mandalorian and Grogu” or something else, my Instagram feed has recently been filled with videos of people making their own lightsabers out of nothing but parts they bought at their local hardware store.
As someone who loves both Star Wars and hardware stores, this proved too irresistible not to try myself. So, like the Millennium Falcon being pulled in by the Death Star’s tractor beam, I beelined to my local Lowe’s to find the parts I needed to make my own laser sword.
The great thing about making your own hardware store lightsaber is that you’re only limited by your imagination and budget. I drew inspiration from the Insta reels I saw, as well as the weapons featured in the Star Wars films.
There are three aisles you’ll want to visit: Plumbing, electrical, and the nuts and bolts aisle. To paraphrase Luke in “The Rise of Skywalker,” it has everything you need.
Settling on a size
The first thing you’ll want to determine is how big you want your lightsaber to be. To start, you’ll need to pick up a threaded rod; I chose one that’s 12 inches long, though you may want to go shorter if you’re making one for a kid or baby Yoda.
Next, you’ll need to pick the parts that are going to make the bulk of the handle. I’ve seen people use metal conduit connectors (like this one which costs $1.48 at Lowes), but I wanted something with a larger diameter (and something that looked more like the traditional Graflex flash).
Assembling the saber
So, I went with a 6-inch, 1-1/4-in diameter chrome-plated slip joint ($17.28), which was a little pricey, but gave me the look I wanted.
Atop that, I alternated between 12mm and 10mm black washers ($0.47 and $0.32, respectively) as an homage to Obi-Wan’s lightsaber.
I then added a SharkBite 3/4-in PEX x 3/4-in Female Brass Sweat Adapter ($3.78; who says Sharkbite isn’t good for anything) and then a surprisingly expensive 1/2-in Copper Female Adapter ($10.81), the second-priciest item on the list.
I was getting close to the end, so I capped things off with five 1/2-inch washers; not knowing how many I’d need, I paid $3.96 for two packages of four, but you could get the five washers for a total of $1.75.
I also needed three 3/8-in x 1-1/2-in Stainless steel Fender Washers (one at the very bottom, and two at the top) which cost a total of $2.04. Here again, I overbought and purchased a pack of 25. At least I’ll have some for my next project.
I also purchased three 1-1/4 in rubber washers ($3.98 each), thinking that they’d make for good accent pieces on the handle. However, I found that they were too bulky for that purpose, but I did add one to the top, which gave it a flare like Luke Skywalker’s lightsaber. The rubber washer also helped lock in the nuts I added to the top and bottom, so that they wouldn’t loosen as easily.
The Force is strong with this one
In all, assembling the lightsaber took about 10 minutes; there was a bit of trial and error when figuring out how many washers I’d need (I ended up with a lot of spares). The other tricky part is making sure that everything is centered; if you can, find washers with the same inner diameter as the center rod, so there’s less room for them to move around.
Yes, there are plenty of lightsabers for around $100 on Amazon that look more like the real thing and have light-up blades. I think for my next attempt, I’ll see if I can add a piece of PVC pipe to the end, to make it a true dueling saber. But, this was a fun project — it’s a great rainy-day activity if you have a kid — and, if your pipes ever start leaking, you’ll have the parts to fix them.
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