how to make fake laser beams?

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kpoff
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how to make fake laser beams?

Post by kpoff »

Hi all,

Newbie here. Searched the forums but no luck. Trying to make a phaser battle or at least a ship firing phasers. Looking for a way to transmit an apparent phaser beam(s) from my 1:350 Refit or other ship with the beam lit up the whole way (a few feet) basically looking like a mini neon tube. The closest thing I've figured from reading around the net and here is some sort of bright LEDs plus some small tubes. No problem with the LEDs but really have no idea what or where to find the tubes. I've seen the clear acrylic ones but would the light simply pass through them without lighting the tube up? Would I use colored LEDs or colored material. Or is this even the way to approach this? Thanks in advance and don't be too mean if Ithis has been addressed and I'm just an idiot :wink:
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Post by Scott Hasty »

WELCOME to the board (and insanity). I recall, seeing somewhere, someone took acrylic rod and lit it with a laser diode. I cannot seem to find it, but if it exists, someone here will. The effect was quite striking...
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Stu Pidasso
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Post by Stu Pidasso »

Lego/K'nex/Duplo selld flourescent tubes just for that purpose. Depends on the size you need.
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Post by Grumpy Popeye »

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Post by Sparky »

there are also colored plastic/acrylic rod I picked some up for use as laser beams. Just light with a bright white LED. As long as there aren't big bubbles in the rod it wont' look too obvious.

I did also get the el flex wire, but its hard to see that in full light of a contest room, also the inverter produces high voltages to drive the el wire. you will need good electrical wire to feed the el wire less there is leakage. Got a shook off a generator once or twice when hooking it up after re assembling the model through the cheep connector I used.
<a href="http://www.kc6sye.com/2_wheresaneatpart.jpg" target="_Sparky">Is this plastic thingy on the counter a neat part?</a> <a href="http://www.kc6sye.com/1_casting_inprogress.jpg" target="_Sparky">Let's cast it.</a>
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tetsujin
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Post by tetsujin »

Another possibility might be to use a fluorescent rod and illuminate it with a blacklight. The advantage is that it would be easier to uniformly light the "beam", since you could just flood the whole area with the light - though it might be hard to get exactly the color you want.
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ChrisQ
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Post by ChrisQ »

Those look really promising for nacelle lighting in smaller lengths. I will definitely be trying out some 5mm for my next project that requires it.
kpoff
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Post by kpoff »

Hi all and thanks much for the help!! I just got in a 5' section of the 5mm side glow from the Fiber Optic Store to play with. I have not been able to locate the tubes that Lego/K'nex/Duplo make- maybe I'm using the wrong search terms- any ideas there? The colored acrylic rods with an LED sound promising. I checked Hobby Lobby but no luck. Where might I locate those? Again, thanks for letting me pick your brains!!
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Post by en'til Zog »

Google "fluorescent plastic rod" and you should get lots of suppliers. Then try a UV light to illuminate the rods.

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Bellerophon
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Post by Bellerophon »

What! Nobody is suggesting a REAL laser beam?!

They're cheap and come in lots of colors. You just need something to make the beam visible, like mist.

Just sayin'...
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