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.

1. TwistSabers
2. DIY Lightsaber Thoughts
3. Wait, haven’t I worked on this before?!
4. Considering the design elements of a DIY light saber
5. More Musings on Lightsabers, Mechanical Components
6. Slow Progress…
7. Capstan Drives as alternatives to Planetary Gears?

1. and other cutting instrument [↩]