Buffalo Sabres Beer Sabre

I wanted to share this because I’ve been trying to make a beer Sabre since I don’t live in Buffalo and never had a chance to buy one. I had an interesting time making it, and I wanted to share my steps so other people can make more and possibly give advice to improve upon my design.

The first part I made was the handle. I 3D printed the handle and designed it in Fusion 360. I tried to keep it true to the original design, but I made some changes. My print extends past the guard just to make it easier to print. I modeled it using 2 offset coils and then bonded them together. This was a bit of a challenge just because I tried making it with one coil but fusion didn’t want to let the coil intersect itself so the dual coils was my workaround. I then made a rough trace of the guard and tried to make it look acceptable. I think it looks pretty solid. After that, I added some fillets and was good to go. I can show the steps to model it if anyone’s interested. Was really just a few extrusions and a coil.

The handle was printed using Bambu PLA Gold Silk. I had to play around with the slicing settings to get the seams in a location that didn’t ruin the look.

The hardest thing by far was the sword/tube. I couldn’t find anything reasonably priced or sized that would work with a closed end. I was looking at retail or shipping containers, but the wall thickness was too thin or I needed to buy them in packs of 50. I also tried my best to make sure everything was food safe. I even reached out to small companies and asked if they could make my size and really didn’t have much luck.

I ended up going with a McMaster-Carr acrylic tube that has a 1.5” OD and 1.25” ID. I had to buy it in a minimum length of 6 feet, so keep that in mind. The exact part I bought was:

Clear Scratch and UV-Resistant Acrylic Round Tube 
1/8" Wall Thickness, 1-1/2" OD, 1-1/4" ID, 6 Feet Long 
McMaster-Carr 8532K44

It was $31.26 each, and with one 6 ft tube I was able to make 3 swords since each sword was cut to about 2 ft long. Also keep in mind McMaster-Carr shipping is usually pricey but quick, so this could increase the price. It’s probably worth stacking up orders or making 2-3 if you’re going to make a lot.

Since I couldn’t find a closed end tube, I decided to 3D print a cap. I modeled it in Fusion and just tried to get something I could press fit in. It wasn’t a perfect design and really could be better, but it works for now. I checked and it holds liquid so honestly that’s good enough for me.

Again, I was really worried about food safety, so I used PETG translucent filament and covered it in food-safe epoxy. I used J-B Weld 50132 PlasticWeld Quick-Setting Epoxy Syringe - Translucent Yellow - 25 ml from Amazon. It was $6.98 a bottle, and you really don’t need much.

Since I live in an apartment and have limited tools, I used a fine-tooth hacksaw and a miter box to make the cuts. I used a very fine-tooth saw, 32 TPI, to make sure I didn’t crack the acrylic while cutting. I used painter’s tape to help mark the lines and clamped the tube on both sides to stop any movement or vibration. This was not easy. Required a lot of effort. I had to clamp and unclamp the tube and rotate it to ensure I was cutting only the OD. I didn’t want to cut all the way through just because I was worried about cracking. I did cut an angled version at the top and it did crack a little bit. It was too tough to cut and rotate so I cut straight through. This ended up requiring about a 1/8" crack that I needed to sand out. 

Boost MeWould appreciate a boost!

For sanding, I bought a sandpaper assortment from Amazon:

45PCS Sandpaper, Atosun Premium Wet Dry Waterproof Sand Paper, 120 to 5000 Assorted Grit Sanding Paper

It only cost about $6, which was way cheaper than anything I could find at Home Depot, and it covers a good assortment of grits. You likely don’t need it all but honestly it’s nice to have. I didn’t have much of a scientific method in this part. Just tried to get it to where the cuts were gone and it felt smooth.

In total, the handle costs about $2.32. The cap costs about $0.15. The plastic sword/tube is the most expensive part at about $10.42 per sword. So the whole thing really only costs about $13 each, not including the tools like sandpaper, plastic epoxy, hacksaw, and miter box.

I don’t think my design is perfect. In reality, I think the diameter should probably be a tiny bit larger. I wanted it to still be holdable by anyone, so I went with a smaller diameter. I did some rough research on diameters which are holdable by most people and found a range of 1.2-1.6” so making the tub OD and the handle got me close to that 1.6” number. Because of that, the sword ended up being about 2 ft long. I think the actual one is wider and shorter. For shorter people, 2 ft might be tough to drink out of. My design holds a max of 16 fluid ounces. So it can easily hold a 12 ounce drink. You could likely cut it at 19 inches if you want it shorter and still hold 12 ounces. You can also cut and angled top. But honestly when doing by hand that was rough. Plus the rotating work of it. That took some effort. Maybe with power tools I’d be more willing to try it.

I also considered getting a plastic polish and scratch remover just to clean it up. I didn't end up using it but it was considered. Something like the NOVUS plastic polish kit from Amazon would probably work:

NOVUS-PK1-8 Plastic Clean & Shine #1, Fine Scratch Remover #2, Heavy Scratch Remover #3, and Polish Mates Pack

Overall, this was a fun project and I’m pretty happy with how it turned out. It definitely could be improved, especially the cap design and maybe the tube diameter/length, but I wanted to share what I did in case anyone else wants to make one or has ideas to improve it.

Use your own judgment with food safety, cleaning, epoxy, and alcohol use. I’m just sharing what I made, not saying this is the perfect or safest design.