What you will need for this step are the Hasbro saber, a hacksaw, a Dremel, screwdrivers, a small file, and pliers.



My biggest fear when taking the Hasbro lightsaber apart was damaging the circuit. I'll show you exactly where to cut in order to minimize the risk of damage. By the way, when you open everything up, you might consider marking the wires before cutting them. In my experience messing with the board, the polarity didn't seem to matter for the speaker and swing sensor, but it may be better to be cautious.



1) Remove all screws



Are you ready to void the warranty? Great. There were only a few screws on the outside of the Anakin saber. Take em all out.



2) Cut off the base of the hilt



You won't have to worry about damaging anything if you just cut straight through the hilt at the head of this base section. You can use either the hacksaw or the Dremel. You will probably sever the wires, but we'll need to do that anyway. Keep this part of the lightsaber handy because in a moment we will retrieve the speaker and the swing sensor.





3) CAREFULLY cut at the base of the blade



I SAID CAREFULLY! This is where the main circuit lives, but unfortunately this is also the best place to cut and separate the shell. Check the photo carefully before cutting so you don't accidentally cut the board.

I didn't know what it would look like when I opened it up, so I spent several minutes with a flashlight and a couple sets of pliers trying to figure out the best way to get in there without messing anything up. At this point, you will have noticed that the shell of the hilt is cast in two halves and glued/screwed together. Once you cut off half the hilt like in the last step, you can begin to pry it apart and see inside.

You can take your hacksaw and make a series of careful cuts along the ridge here. You really only need to cut into one half and then you can pull it apart. I chose to cut the half that has the battery case and the activator switch, which turned out to be the same side the circuit was attached to. Because of this, you might consider cutting the other side, but nothing bad happened because I was careful so maybe it doesn't matter. Gradually cut deeper and deeper along the ridge and keep testing to see if you can pry it apart. Eventually, you will be able to separate the half with the circuit screwed into it from the other.

If you are using a Dremel, at this point I would urge you to be extremely careful with how deep you make your cuts. Check my photos to see how deep the shell goes.







4) Retrieve the speaker



For this step I was convinced that I could just pry it apart, but in the end I went to the hacksaw again. You can start to pry apart the base of the hilt that we severed a few steps ago, but you may not be able to snap it apart yet. I just did the same thing I did with the last step: using the seam between the base cap and the rest of the hilt, I took my hacksaw and made a cut around the circumference of the handle. I was being cautious just in case the speaker was in a weird position, but as it turns out it is completely recessed into the end-cap, so you can really cut as deeply as needed here. At some point, you'll still need to pry the two halves apart, but after making your cuts this will be quite easy. Once separated, take the speaker, the swing sensor (the little canister that feels like it has a ball-bearing inside) and the end-cap and set them aside.





5) Free the circuit



Easy enough. Remove the screws and claim your prize. If you cut the four wires already that lead to the speaker and sensor, you can easily pull the rest of the wires through the molded holder on the battery pack. Cut whatever you need to at this point - we'll be soldering extensions onto the wires anyway.

I've seen someone actually desolder all the original wiring and sensors on the board because of how flimsy they are. If you want to do this, great; but unless you're planning on using it for combat, I don't think this is necessary.







6) The battery pack



This part may be optional if you have a better way to get a battery pack into your hilt. I thought I would be able to find a better way until I tried this.

Take your Dremel and carve the battery holder away from the shell. Try to cut a bigger piece than what will fit your custom hilt. Then trim away the shell until the battery pack fits snuggly (but not too much) into your hilt. You want to be able to pull it out without much fuss, but it still needs to sit firmly.





7) Circuit channels



As long as we've got the tools out, let's do one quick modification to your new custom hilt. In order to make the circuit fit at the tip, we'll need to make a couple of channels in the inside so it can slide in and out. I took a small file and made straight channels on opposite sides of the inner pipe. How far they need to go depends on how deep you want the LEDs. I wanted mine to be far enough back so that some light would bleed through the sides of the emitter. It will take some time, but eventually you will be able to slide the circuit into place and thread the wires through the bottom.





8) Checkpoint



Okay, so at this point you should have a smoldering pile of a former lightsaber and lots of electronic goodies at your disposal. Make sure you've got:

-The main circuit with LED board attached

-The speaker

-The swing sensor

-The end-cap (where the speaker was housed)

-(possibly) The battery holder



