It will be interesting to make a glowing sword from ordinary plastic with your own hands not only for children, but also for adults. Actually, adults will have to do something, and kids just have to watch the process.
However, this is also very exciting. However, most of all I want to take home-made "weapons" in my hands and feel like a hero of cinema fiction, so we will not waste time in vain, but immediately proceed to the process of making a lightsaber.
To make a glowing sword out of plastic, you will need, in fact, the plastic itself and two wooden planks for the handle. Electronic "stuffing" can be inexpensively ordered on AliExpress or bought on the radio market.
The following materials will be required for work:
- 5V flexible LED strip;
- lithium battery;
- toggle switch or on / off button;
- Boost converter based on MT3608 chip;
- protection lithium battery charge board;
- LED mode switches;
- simple current-controlled RGB controller.
The main stages of work
First of all, you need to cut out the base for the sword from the plastic on a circular saw, but before that, with the help of a hand milling cutter, you need to make a groove for the LED strip along the entire length.
We cut off the LED tape of the required length, and then put it in the “groove”, covering it with a strip of opaque matte “paper” made of polyester. The same strip must be glued on the other side of the sword.
Then we make a handle from two boards and connect electronic components to each other.
For a detailed process of manufacturing and assembling a homemade glowing plastic sword, see this video.