BLF recoil über-thrower

So I found out that parcan bulbs use parabolic reflectors (hence the “par” :stuck_out_tongue: ) and there are a bunch of burnt out bulbs at my old highschool.
Hopefully some time soon I can go there and pick up a few and crack the front lens off.
The reflector is glass and should be a very good parabola, and iirc it’s also a pretty shallow reflector.

If I can crack the front lens off without breaking the reflector I will be sure to post some pics of testing here :slight_smile:

Hey, yeah, i’ve been considering pars lately too.
Discouraged by the fact that the lens is one with the reflector though…

Two separate pieces of glass but melted together. I would think the weld is the weak spot.
There’s at least 5 dead bulbs though so I will have multiple shots at it, I can try smashing, cutting, all kinds of stuff xD
It might take a few weeks for me to find time though, so let’s see how that solar reflector works out first :slight_smile:

I’d say cutting is your best bet, unless you have a heat source capable of melting the glass off. Just make sure you use eye protection and breathing protection of some kind.

Found this in a vintage shop, russian, fifties, with a 35cm parabolic glass mirror in good condition.
LOL, it is labeled as a ‘flood light’, which is correct where the bulb is mounted now . Minor set-back: €795,- did not buy it.

lol those vintage lights so overprice for their capabilities…

Say Djozz emailed about a recoil thrower before the GT was started
I really hope you guys are going to make this a reality
If you ask Thijsco it’ll be an all Dutch team!

Is there a topic he made? When I was researching this a few years ago I found no LED recoil flashlight builds on any forum or website…

No, I never made one before. And I was bragging about building one two weeks ago, but with my extreme short attention span I skipped it for the moment in favour of other mods and experiments. I is on the list though, and of a few other folks as well.

The idea seems to be at the moment to do some experiments with existing cheap mirrors to see if a good quality recoil thrower is possible. If yes, it would be awesome to have it made in China. But I have little illusions about the process: having something made that is mostly a copy of what already exists (the Q8) is already very tedious, this one will be a new design from scratch!

The best that may happen is that with a prototype (well: contraption) we prove that a great compact 500+ kcd recoil thrower is possible, and that one of the flashlight manufacturers is reading this thread and picks it up and brings it to the market (Thrunite?)

Tbh I don’t care about prototypes or manufacturers, if it throws I will build one from scratch.
The problem is I don’t want to drop $200+ on a custom reflector not knowing how well it will work.
It needs to at least match my 1Mcd aspheric thrower…otherwise it will not be worth the cost.

Here is one small mirror. https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1PC-68mm-Diameter-Optical-Glass-Focal-Length-40mm-Reflector-Lens-Spherical-Surface-Parabolic-Reflector-Bow/32730903798.html

Something like that would be awesome, but unfortunately they’re spherical, not parabolic…

I’m considering shaping a sheet of aluminium and then polish it.
But it will be a ghastly endeavour getting it in the proper shape…

…but it says, Reflector Lens Spherical Surface+ Parabolic Reflector +Bow

They’re used for HID lamps in projectors, so that 2 sides of the light are collimated by an aspherical lens.
Slide projectors have them too (but with a halogen incandescent lamp)

Don’t bother, no chance of getting even close to that cigarette lighter thing.

That same aliexpress store has this, but it is glass so a bit fragile to put in a flashlight. And for the price I do not expect it to be optical quality.

There’s not enough enthusiasm either so that we could have a thousand pieces made in China for a reasonable price.
Plus i have no idea how to deal with manufacturers, let alone Chinese.
Maybe rename the topic to “DIY über thrower”.

Have you received that ‘solar lighter’ already?

Yes,i have seen those too.
Didn’t look too good to me
I wouldn’t mind it being made of glass though.

Awesome ‘host’ :smiley: :smiley:
But they just stuck a E27 fitting in there making the whole thing pointless (hey, that’s a pun!)
Love the wooden tripod too.
Ridiculous price though.

I did some quick test on the fly with the cigarette lighter
just had the camera in one hand and the reflector in the other
its not perfectly focused but shows how it is, good hotspot and some lighter area around it, which is in my opinion not bad at all

XP-G2 R5 with dome at 0.5A
laser range meter says 11m