July, 2025 | MakerBlock

TwistSabers

I stumbled across the “TwistSaber” probably six to nine months too late. Their original Kickstarter was for the STL or printed parts to build one, then they accepted payments through their website for a short time, and now they have a new Kickstarter where only the exterior shells are available as digital files.

I wish I could find the source, but I remember a guy who had designed and showed off videos of his own quick extending and retracting lightsaber many years ago. That design appeared fairly chunky and didn’t extend far enough to look very impressive. If I find the source later on, I’ll look forward to adding it here.

Unlike the 3DPrintingWorld‘s fantastic extending light saber1 models, the Twistsaber uses a combination of an interior telescoping screwthread system and a telescoping nontwisting blade, articulated by a small set of planetary gears in the base to extend and retract the blades quickly. The effect is pretty cool.

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There was some scuttlebutt about a “real” Star Wars light saber that was going to be used at the Disney theme parks, which appeared to use dual tape measure slides to extend and retract. However, the mechanism inside the TwistSaber by inventor Thomas Kloucek appears to be easier to implement, no weird parts to source, while still being a bit fiddly to assemble. The design appears to be intricate and makes heavy use of snap fit parts with close tolerances.

This is exactly the kind of project I would love to print and assemble, but hate to buy as a finished product. As a product, it would just sit on a shelf. As a 3D printed project, it would be a thing I built, a story to with it.

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Anyhow, I wanted to jot down some ideas, links to the various sources, and images I found for future reflection. The basic idea, internal increasingly large telescoping spiral and external increasingly small telescoping blade plus planetary gear mechanism might be easy to understand, but as with so many things the implementation is where most of the time would be spent.

DIY Lightsaber Build

and other cutting instrument [↩]

OtherCutter Epilog

I published a long-dormant draft post about the OtherCutter very nearly a full decade after starting it. At the same time I published it, I also filed a FOIA request for DARPA information related to this project – since it was literally a DARPA project.1 I knew it was a longshot, but the FOIA response came back saying they found no responsive records. I provided copious evidence and links to DARPA’s own sites, so I have to imagine that I’m either never going to get a real response with the information I was interested in … or I’d have to file an appeal, roll up my sleeves, and really start digging for this information.

The amount of time and effort involved in fighting a bureaucracy would be considerable and it is not the sort of thing I would enjoy. If I really wanted a cardboard CNC, I could probably build one and enjoy the experiment-build-fail cycle.

OtherLabs OtherCutter

See voluminous links in prior post [↩]

Calibre, Kindle 4 Non Touch

I’ve been using this new-to-me Kindle 4 Non Touchscreen for about a week or so now. The page advance button on the right side is a little sensitive, causing the book to sometimes advance two pages about 25% of the time. However, the battery life is still fantastic – and I discovered that I can use Calibre on my desktop as a “book server” and pull books off of it whenever I want. That’s pretty damn neat.

I’ve gotten over the lack of organization caused by the Calibre DRM adjustments to books. I’m generally only reading one book at a time and so the only “pain” I have is when switching between books.

The custom screensavers are still a source of great joy. I’ll probably add a few more. I’m still willing to give Duokan a try, but the incentive to do so is quickly fading when the Kindle is working so well as is.

Kindle 4 Non Touch Customization