Hey guys this is Make it Real, the show on Youtube that takes fictional ideas from movies and video games
And makes real working prototypes
We've made Batman's grappling hook gun
Captain America's shields
Thor's hammers
Han's blaster
A James Bond spycar
And even Zarya's particle cannon
In fact we have over 70 videos in the series and you can check them out by clicking on the link in the description below
But one of our most popular projects this year was our attempt at building a real life lightsaber
It worked but could have used some improvements
Now we realized that his blade design isn't quite as durable as we had hoped
So we've already come up with a much better design
that's going to be hotter, stronger and much easier to cut through things
but something like that is going to take quite a bit of time and money to produce
so make sure you subscribe to the channel and enjoy our other content while we develop the world's first real lightsaber
That's right we've been working on this new design for almost a year and invested thousands of dollars into it
It's actually fully reproducible but I don't think we're willing to sell it just yet
So I'm pretty excited to show you guys
And channel members do get access to our CAD files if you dare to try making it yourself
Now just to recap this is actually our 3rd attempt at building a real life protosaber
If you remember the first time the power supply exploded
and the fire department got called on us
now the second lightsaber design did work but it ad some issues
the heating wire wasn't very robust
and sometimes would actually fail quite violently
plus when it was on for too long the whole blade would actually get quite floppy
So the question is, how are we going to solve this?
Well heating wire is never going to be robust enough and I don't want a red hot spiral
I want a red hot lightsaber blade
So I think we need to make some sort of solid blade in order for this to work
Now some of you guys suggested using titanium which is an interesting idea
Now I happen to have some titanium right here, so let's try running a whole bunch of electricity through it
And see what happens
We have a lithium ion battery pack over here
Capable of putting out over 2000 AMPS at 12 volts
Alright so we've connected the battery pack negative terminal to the table
which means if we connect anything between the positive terminal and the table it's going to spark like crazy
And get red hot
You guys ready to see some sparks?
Well let's see if it goes on forever. Maybe we just created perpetual motion
It's done
That was cool
Alright as you can see the titanium is getting red hot
It actually glows quite nicely on the camera screen but the problem is once the titanium is this red hot
It's actually pretty soft
As you can see that's not quite going to work for the lightsaber blade because if we were to hit something
it would just flop around
So titanium might be a great element for heating the lightsaber but it's not going to be strong enough
For it to do anything fun, as you can see
So why don't we try a different material
Got a piece of tungsten here
Now tungsten is an interesting material because it has one of the highest melting points
of any metal on earth that's safe to use
around 3600 Celsius
but it's also going to draw a lot more current
And the reason tungsten will draw much more power is because it's actually much more conductive
About 10x as conductive as titanium
So let's see what happens if I short it out
we're maxing out our current meter
So it's drawing a ton of power right now
It's getting super red hot but look it's also smoking like crazy
That's because tungsten actually oxidizes rapidly with heat like this
which also makes it not great for the light saber
So can't use tungsten, can't use titanium
What if we use a hybrid of both materials?
What if we use a tungsten core with a titanium pipe over top
I have a piece of titanium pipe here and a tungsten rod
And if I put it inside
Now we have a titanium blade with a tungsten core
Now the tungsten should be able to keep the lightsaber nice and rigid
While the titanium is red hot
Here's some footage from one of our first tests a few months ago
Elena!
What is this?
Bogdan!
What is this?
Hey I'm not the project manager on this
So as you can see the tungsten titanium blade looks like it's going to work
So let's go back to Solidworks and start designing this new blade architecture.
Alright so this is our original Solidworks design for our lightsaber mark 2
Let's just delete some of the things we don't need
Like this, and this, and that
And now we can start designing the new blade
If you want to download the 3D models become a Hacksmith member today
By clicking the join button right next to the subscribe button below this video
we also post our videos early for you to watch before anyone else
Alright so there you go we've got the design finished in Solidworks
and I gotta say it looks pretty awesome
We kind of went all out there with the handle design and I think it looks pretty sweet
Now a few of you might be wondering how is this actually going to work
How can we have electricity flow up and down a single blade
Well how we're actually going that is
this is the piece of tungsten
and the tungsten is actually going to be covered in a ceramic insulation
which means the current will actually flow up the tungsten to the tip
and then back down the titanium
that means the titanium will get red hot while the tungsten does not
and then that means we've got a lightsaber that's both rigid and super hot
this is actually going to be a lot hotter than the last version we made because
titanium has a higher melting point than Nitinol
now the only issue is we kind of got a bit carried away with the design
See this beautiful handle?
We don't actually have the tools or resources to make that in house
but luckily our industry partner Tormach offered to make it for us themselves
on one of their larger machines with a fourth axis
Alright big thank you to Tormach for helping us machine the hilt to the lightsaber
luckily all the other pieces we need to manufacture we can make right here in house using our CNC Lathe
and our CNC mill
Let's get started
We're going to wrap the wire in high temperature fiber glass so that it doesn't burn if you hit it with the lightsaber
this video has been sponsored by Frame.io
We first started using Frame.io after Grant Thompson, the King of Random
recommended it to us about 6 months ago
since then we've been using it daily
we liked it so much that we actually reached out to Frame.io and got them to sponsor this video
Frame.io is an amazing tool that let's you collaborate on video
you can comment with specific time stamps, draw right on the screen, manage versions,
share cuts and even bring all your feedback right into the editing software
support the channel by clicking my link in the description below
you can sign up for a free account or try out the pro plan for 30 days
Now I'd like to tell you guys about channel memberships
It's a new feature on youtube that allows you to support your favorite creator
and gain access to exclusive benefits
it's kind of like patreon but it's built right here into Youtube
by clicking the join button under this video you get access to our members only community posts
which includes 3D project design files in Solidworks, merch discounts
and you get to collaborate with us on our videos using Frame.io
it costs $5 a month which is basically like buying me a coffee
and if everyone bought me coffee I'd never sleep and I'd get way more work done
It's a win win situation
So this is lgihtsaber mark 3 and we're finally ready to test
We've got our battery pack here, we got some volt meters measuring both the voltage and the current draw
and we're just about ready to turn it on but I wanna just show you guys this handle up close
so Tormach actually machined this for us and they did a fantastic job
it's a one of a kind Hacksmith lightsaber hilt
So Ian is going to stand over here to pull the wires in case of another fire, Elena!
So hopefully it doesn't happen this time
I'm scared, it's going to draw like over 1000 AMPS
24 volts
1000 AMPS, that's 24 Kilo watts
that's half the supply of electricity that goes into most north American homes
You confident Ian?
600, 500
350
It's hot there, it's smoking
oh ya
That's beautiful
look at that!
love it
280
You can feel the heat
Ya this is warm
that's perfect though
Even the tip is red hot
The tungsten is hot, that's what's smoking
So I've turned it off
It's just cooling down now
When you're not close and you don't feel the heat it just looks like orange metal
and then you bring it closer to your face and you're like oh
It just looks normal but now it's still really really hot
It's pretty solid, it's not flopping around or anything
bring me a head!
look at that hole
what a clean cut
alright so we filmed this cringy reenactment from Star Wars episode 4 that no one should ever watch for any reason
but if you want to watch it than head on over to the Vlog channel or click this video here
Alright so that wraps up this part of the lightsaber build
we still have to build a protosaber battery backpack before we can completely finish this
but we have some awesome tests lined up that are coming out very soon
so make sure you subscribe and hit that notification bell
plus you know we're going to have to make a second lightsaber so we can actually have a lightsaber dual