Homemade Lightsaber Doubles As A Bug Zapper
Ever since they first appeared in 1977′s Star Wars, lightsabers have been the dream toy of fanboys and girls everywhere. Sure, none of us would likely have the blade skills of Obi-Wan or Darth Maul, but who hasn’t fantasized about leaping around carving shit up with a laser sword? And while actual, functional lightsabers are still AWOL with no arrival in sight, creative fans keep trying to find ways to inch us ever closer. Now Caleb Kraft, senior editor of the tech blog Hack a Day has modified a toy lightsaber to function as a bug zapper, and it’s both incredibly awesome and a reminder that giving us all actual, functional lightsabers would be a terrible idea.
Kraft includes brief instructions of how he built the lightsaber bug zapper on his blog, along with fervent reminders that this thing is really dangerous, and strong suggestions not to try this at home. The short version, for those of you who don’t have speakers or headphones handy to watch the embedded video, is that Kraft disassembled several portable bug zappers, wrapped the plastic saber blade with the electrified mesh from the zappers, then wired it for power. Frankly it’s a lot of work for a glorified bug zapper, but then again maybe you can’t put a price on the feeling of striking down an irritating fly with the power of the Force.
Although if you could put a price on that, I’m guessing it would be roughly equivalent to the price of rebuilding your house after you accidentally set it on fire with a homemade bug zapper.
