Homemade lightsaber features a thin blade of fire
Just in case you haven't had enough Star Wars-related news this week, here's something else to commemorate this special day among sci-fi movie fans. YouTube user Sufficiently Advanced managed to engineer a homemade lightsaber that produces a thin blue flame for a "blade," as opposed to, well, glowing light. But it goes far beyond just being a small handheld flamethrower, as it features an authentic looking lightsaber hilt that even makes sound effects.
Sufficiently Advanced — actually electrical engineer Allen Pan — reveals that the flaming lightsaber relies on a nichrome ignition in order to shoot the flame straight out from the hilt. It runs on fuel mixture of methanol and acetone, with butane serving as a propellant. That's basically a complicated way of saying this thing is no toy, and could be seriously dangerous.
Along with a valve control, the hilt also includes a microphone that emits traditional lightsaber sound effects when being turned on. In the video above, Pan admits that swinging it around is a bit scary, which is what any reasonable person would say when holding a 3-foot long stream of fire.
Pan is no stranger to impressive homemade geek-related devices. Back in October he revealed a life-size replica of Thor's hammer that only he could pick up, with his video even challenging people on the street to try lifting the mythical weapon. In actuality it had an electromagnet inside, which was connected to a fingerprint reader on the handle.