Color Lightsabers

[CustomSabers]

Hi Everyone,

My name is CustomSabers and I have a 3d printer. And yes, printing stuff is addictive.

This week, one of my co-workers approached me because her son lost his Lego Lightsaber in their sofa. She asked if I could print one to replace the lost one. I printed one and decided to have some fun coloring them. I brought them into work and everyone is saying that i should sell them.

I've been looking around the interweb and have found plenty of injection-molded single color lightsabers, but didn't see any color printed versions. Color printed versions won't ever be perfect. The printer extrudes plastic in layers, and because the items are so small, no two are exactly alike. They are made from PLA, which is basically corn and sugar. The aren't robust enough to make into keychains and won't hold up to any abuse.

These are not for sale yet. I'm just trying to get an idea of whether or not this is worth trying and I figured that you all would be the experts.

Do you guys think people would be interested in purchasing these?

What would you think something like this might be worth?

Thanks for you feedback.

Color lightsaber example

Color lightsaber example

Color lightsaber example

More color lightsaber examples

[TeddytheSpoon]

I couldn't speak to whether there would be a significant market for them, but the technical side is interesting! Are the colours themselves printed, or are they painted?

Since the problem is normally small features at printed resolutions, might it be an idea to print them oversize and then turn them down using a desk lathe (or files or sanding paper if you're patient!)? It miiight help structurally, and might also make it easier to control the tolerance to fit to other LEGO parts.

[CustomSabers]

Hi Teddy,

Each color is a different color of plastic. The printer melts the plastic and extrudes it layer by layer. The printer lays down one color, cuts and retracts the plastic and feeds another color into the extruder. I'm using the bambu x1 carbon. 

It doesn't take much effort once the model is setup. I'm way too lazy to try to turn the parts, although that's an interesting idea.

[Falcrum]

You have a typo in your nickname ;)

The idea is very interesting, however I'm not sure if it has a great potential. Although the samples you have provided us with look indeed amazing (especially compared to 3D printing standards in the industry), I'm not sure if they would meet LEGO bricks standards.

First, you can still see the layer patterns, and for objects as small as LEGO bricks this is a huge problem. One reason why LEGO got so popular in the first place was their strict quality control, and injecting plastic into molds offers just far superior visual quality than 3D printing.

Second, the blade itself - it's not transparent and it stands out too much from original lightsabers.

Third, durability. After all we are talking about long, thin 3D printed rods that come at a fee and are useless once damaged. One appeal of LEGO is how solid it is.

The only way I see this come out as a commercial product is if you sold the hilts only, and applied some polishing/filing/sanding down manually to at least satisfy 2 out of the 3 conditions I mentioned above, but then I don't think it would be a profitable enterprise.

However, having such a powerful tool as your 3D printer (and your modelling skills) opens many possibilities, and I'm sure you'll figure out an idea that will work (LEGO-related or not). Good luck!

Edited August 18, 2023 by Falcrum

[Kage Goomba]

Original Lego is better imho - and these aren't Lego parts even then.

I use them for laser cannon art on my models with LED's.

Not like the genuine parts are that rare or hard to get.

 

Good luck either way.

[Kage Goomba]

58 minutes ago, JaCor653 said:

This is stupid. LEGO doesn't need to be this detailed. Plus the paint looks awful compared to LEGO.

Why would you say that's paint? It's 3D Printed.

Maybe look into the subject matter first?

[Falcrum]

5 hours ago, JaCor653 said:

This is stupid. LEGO doesn't need to be this detailed. Plus the paint looks awful compared to LEGO.

Apologies for this clown. He's not one of us.

Edited August 19, 2023 by Falcrum

[MKJoshA]

I removed JaCor653's comment.

CuastomSabers, you're welcome to share your creations here. But we are not a sellers platform. Just keep that in mind please.

[Mandalorianknight]

First of all, welcome to eurobricks, and very cool printed sabers!
 

That said, unfortunately I'm fairly confident there's not really a market for that. As others have pointed out, 3-D printers have their limitations for making Legos, and I assume you don't have a high-end resin one. Even if you did, molding is generally the way to go with this, and what every custom part company I can think of uses (CAC, brickarms, etc). It's a cool idea to do for yourself, but I don't think anyone who knows about the custom molded part sites will pay for them.

Another thing is 3-D printers are fairly common nowadays. My high school had 4 back in the day, my college has something like 8 Prusas and a couple resin printers, and quite a few public libraries I've been to have one or two of the earlier models now. Generally speaking, if someone wants a 3-D printed item, they can either make one at their school, job, a public place, or ask someone they know who owns one to do it. This is why most sales of 3-D printed stuff are of the part files, unless the item needs paint applications. And unfortunately, I don't know that people would want to buy part files for a 4L bar or lego lightsaber hilt, even if they weren't already out there for free.

Don't let this discourage you, as what you made is really cool. I just don't know that it's something you'd be able to sell.

[Kage Goomba]

OK.....I did a third take - the blades are bad....really bad.

 

THE HANDLES however - I'll confess - a decorated handle would be cool for my Asoka >.>;;;;

 

Lego doesn't really customize little bits to that degree ill confess. So there's THAT at least.

[Kdapt-Preacher]

On 8/19/2023 at 10:21 PM, Mandalorianknight said:

That said, unfortunately I'm fairly confident there's not really a market for that. As others have pointed out, 3-D printers have their limitations for making Legos, and I assume you don't have a high-end resin one. Even if you did, molding is generally the way to go with this, and what every custom part company I can think of uses (CAC, brickarms, etc). It's a cool idea to do for yourself, but I don't think anyone who knows about the custom molded part sites will pay for them.

I think you're right in general, but there are a handful of folks out there that are 3D printing parts commercially. I don't know who manufactures these Darth Wyyrlok figures, but I've seen them in person and the 3D printed headpiece is essentially indistinguishable in quality from an official part. Obviously that's a super high-end resin printer, and they're probably also using chemical smoothing or other more advanced stuff than you'd typically find in a home setup, but the technology does exist. We're not quite at the point where it's more practical than molding for most purposes, but I think we'll be there in not that long.

[CustomSabers]

On 8/19/2023 at 11:54 AM, Kage Goomba said:

OK.....I did a third take - the blades are bad....really bad.

 

THE HANDLES however - I'll confess - a decorated handle would be cool for my Asoka >.>;;;;

 

Lego doesn't really customize little bits to that degree ill confess. So there's THAT at least.

How about these? I had some free time this past weekend... I could clean these up a bit, but these are a quick print. 

 

[Agent Kallus]

I honestly don't mind the pure colour blades, the blades aren't translucent in-universe anyway so arguably solid colour makes as much sense.

Though personally I'm mostly a purist so I wouldn't be in the market for these but they are good.

[Veynom]

Those sabers are nice and could complement a MOC or a collection. However, I would not buy these. When attending exhibitions, those are the kind of details that the public will not see. 

 

But kudos for your initiative of moving 1 step further. If you like your sabers, just keep on making them.