The kids have long been fond of swinging any sorts of sticks at each other for, well, pretty much as long as they could hold them in their tiny little hands. The most recent incarnation has been pseudo-martial arts and fencing using broom and mop sticks. After a few too many stray whacks and the resulting dramas, I decided we needed something softer. I had seen swords and such made out of pool noodles at some of our homeschool park days and we set to work. Since my troop is clearly made up of space geeks and not swashbuckling pirates or professional fencers, the obvious route was lightsabers.
They each selected their favorite color from the pool noodle selection at a discount store ($0.99 each), we stopped at the hardware store for a 3/4” PVC pipe ($2.79) and PVC end caps for the pipe ($0.49 each). From our personal stash, we contributed silver duct tape for the handles and bits from red and black duct tape sheets for the buttons. For an extra $0.39, we added a PVC pipe coupler and used the last little bit of leftover PVC so we can convert one of the lightsabers into a double ended lightsaber a la Darth Maul in Episode I.
Total project budget for three lightsabers: $7.23 or $2.41 apiece and $0.39 plus leftovers to make the other end of the double lightsaber.
