LED and Helium Neon Laser Props

This is the first SF prop I made. This pistol was pieced together using a small helium-neon laser tube, a pale yellow crackled-glass vase (from Pier1) and some clear plastic furniture skids.

The body of the pistol is made of silver-plated brass and copper, with gold-plated brass accents on the front of the barrel. The lower black tube (below the laser) is the laser power supply. The top dome on the rear of the blaster is made from hammered titanium, ground and annodized to a purple color. A strobe was added to the front of the pistol, with just the flash tube exposed in the plastic skids. The handle is black-lip mother of pearl shell.

In addition to the laser and the strobe, the pistol also generates a fast warble sound effect when the laser is on. The power surge from the strobe firing tends to generate a short "squirt" sound from the keychain sound effects circuit.

This tiny laser pistol uses a red LED laser, fired through the open brass filligree barrel. The barrel is actually a decorative ceiling fan pull-chain attachment. The grip is a copper air trap from some plumbing scrap. The body of the pistol is constructed from various model parts and some aluminum heat sinks hot glued together. Sound is generated by a small timing circuit driven piezio speaker glued to the side of the body. Small rechargeable NiCd batteries provide the power.

This small egg-shaped laser also uses a red LED laser. The double shell is hammered brass, with a black plastic rim around the center. The egg laser uses a keychain sound effect cirucit to generate a warble sound when the laser fires.

Four blue LEDs (not so rare now) are mounted in the rim between the brass shells. A touch sensitive circuit connected to each half of the shell, causes the LEDs to glow when the laser is held.

This pistol is patterened from sketches in the Star Wars® computer game "Dark Forces". The pistol body is made from brass, with a dot-matrix printer aluminum heat sink mounted on the rear of the pistol. The central barrel is made from plexiglas tubing with clear plastic shower curtain rings glued to the outside. There is a helium-neon laser mounted inside the barrel. Power is supplied by a pair of NiCd battery packs that insert into the side of the pistol. I carried this in a holster in my Dark Trooper costume.

An early laser rifle. This is constructed from brass and copper, with a plexiglas tube to hold and protect a large helium-neon laser. A strobe is mounted in the lower barrel, with a small flat lens projecting forward. The Control panel on the rear of the rifle has three push buttons to (top row) control power to the strobe, power to the laser, and power to the sound effects. A Star Trek® Next Generation Sound effects keychain was modified to provide sound when the laser fires. (The timing resistor was changed to spped up the playback sound. The sound of the Enterprise going to warp speed is played when the laser fires. The surge generated when the systems are first powered on conviently causes the transported energizing sound to play - when sped up, this gives a suitable power-up sound.)

Below the buttons, a row of yellow LEDs displays a flashing scan sequence, with two blue LEDs at the bottom left flashing in sequence. The center light conceals a small neon bulb that lights when the strobe has reached fulll charge. The round balls mounted on each side of the body cover a cluster of yellow LEDs that are connected to a flasher circuit, as well as a seperate flashing circuit pulsing orange and green leds.