Hello everyone,
I could not find polycarbonate tubes where I live.
I did find 1 inch, 3mm thick transparent acrylic tube.
Is acrylic stronger or weaker than polycarbonate ?
How could I turn a transparent tube into a translucid tube ? I would imagine some level of sanding ? What sanding grit would you use and what motion pattern would you do ?
Also I need some light diffuser material for the inside. Would a large sheet of tracing paper work ?
Thank you for any insight for my first blade build.
Its is not as durable as polycarbonate. It would be prone to cracking and/or shattering in a saber application. I’m sure you knew that dueling would be out of the question, but I would also be afraid of just the hitting required to simulated blasts cracking the tube.
Yes, sanding would do it. Just use some fine grit, maybe 400, and sand the whole thing in a few directions in sequence.
I would bet that would work fine with a couple layers.
Possibly. Never tried it though.
Maybe you can find some heat shrink that can be used (the typical application is for boats and such…they might have some options). Many layers of cellophane is a possibility. The problem is using a material that doesn’t crease or get moisture/dust stains too early.
Good evening @orntar & @LyleStyle
Nope I didn’t, I was hoping light dueling would have been ok.
What else would you use or could I use ?
inside or outside the blade ? In fact that gives me an idea to make the blade stronger and slightly thicker (the metal pipe I found has an internal diameter slightly bigger than 1 inch). I can use 1 meter of trans-clear heat shrink outside. I have seen a store that has large heat shrink tubes that should fit on 1 inch blade.
but that creases a lot, al least when I use cellophane. 
good point. Thank you both.
To be clear, I do not have any experience with an acrylic tube blade. I am just basing this off experience with acrylic vs polycarbonate. Acrylic would probably last a while, impacts and age degrade it in my experience, so just don’t plan on it lasting forever. 
Regular printer paper might even work fine, if you can find some large enough, like A0 (or something like that, I don’t know metric page sizes). Presuming you want a pixel blade, those leds are pretty bright and I think it would shine thru paper just fine.
Side note - what country are you in? thesaberarmory is UK based and ships world wide, and has all the materials to build your own.
It’s inside a sealed blade, seems like that wouldn’t be a concern?
That’s fair. Eons ago I saw Space Windu build a blade with heat shrink around the LEDs…3 layers I think, and have done a couple blades without any over heating. I only used one layer.
I suppose the key is an even amount of thousands of creases in rolled layers, or smooth layers. Just no lines that look like lightning bolts 
Malta, and I hate to pay for shipping, but I hate to pay for out of EU import taxes even more. 
I might order from a French store (they have a whole lightsaber “tournament” national championship there), or a German company (but too many webpages are just in German - or you get some English but the pictures or descriptions are still in German)
to put it into context the hasbro lightsabers with the beaded 5mm led string lights those are acrylic blades. they have warnings not to hit it with each other, I don’t recommend acrylic at all. as for polycarbonate tubing, there’s a few people that have them, My recommendations are (depending on your location) KR sabers has a in hilt LED 1" blade. he’s in the UK but I can check to see if there’s other people I would also check in facebook groups if anyone is selling a lightsaber blade
Unfortunately, that is what I could get so I will “run with it”. If it breaks, it breaks, and I’ll get another one.
I am looking for a thick walled (3mm-combat ready-polycarbonate or better) and 1 meter long tube, I am a tall guy (1,94m/6 foot 3 to 4) and my “wing span” is slightly over 2 meters/6 foot 5 to 6. I need to have the reach to keep both my boys at bay when they run (I don’t run) around me to “hit” me with their sabers.
So far, I have been using a red fluorescent (with a few layers of glow in the dark) spray painted pvc pipe. But I want to upgrade to LED’s (my kids have baselit).
So, if I understand correctly, my 3mm acrylic blade might break if I (or the boys) hit their 2mm polycarbonate (at least that’s what I think they are) blades from China (via Amazon) 
Yeah, that could happen. You could get cracks in the acrylic. I don’t think that means you shouldn’t try it though. As a DIY builder, I’m in full support of anything that will get you close to what you want. Maybe there are some limits to what you can do…like light taps only. I don’t know if acrylic might shatter though, which is dangerous for your eyes.
You can always test a tube without any LEDS in it and very little work. Smack it on some stuff. If it looks usable for how hard the boys hit, proceed.
I will shrink wrap the outside, that will give some “eye” protection in case of shatter.
My wife suggested oven parchment paper for diffuser material: no need to waste a huge sheet of A0 paper, or try to find a 1 meter long sheet of tracing paper, comes in a long roll, is relatively cheap, we already have it at home (and if we don’t, we will need to buy some soon for the Christmas cake and other stuff she makes).
What do you guys think ?
Before foam tubes were available from TCSS and thesaberarmory, I used to make blades using packing material. Basically, you go to the post office, UPS store, or your local equivalent and find the thinnest, finest roll of foam packing material you can find, then you roll your LED strip up in that, seal hold it together with clear packing tape and shove it into a tube of some sort. A layer of platic, or patchment might be good too, because the packing material will have a seam, and if you’re not careful the packing material bunches up when you put it into the tube. Having shell of plastic or paper will make that part easier.
Here is an example of the kind of packing material I’m talking about:
Nowadays I just buy the foam tubes. They make the process easier and better.
My technique for pulling the tube through when it’s tight is to use packing tape at the top with extra length that can be pulled through the tube like a string, go slowly, and pull the guts at the same time as I push.
That is what I forgot, but when I moved last summer, I had quite a bit of it and saved some to make a few blades. I came across it not long ago but I couldn’t remember why I saved some nice sheets, I knew it was for something important so I had to hide it from my wife or it would have been on it’s way to the recycling center already.