Hey folks so this is my entry to this year scratch made contest. I am all for handies if you know what i mean
I am bit out classed but i will see what i can come up with. I feels i am a bit better prepared then last years attempt. I have picked up a few more skills in the time since last years effort! Well at least this is what i like to think.
My theme is recycling i am trying to use as many second hand parts as i can. Not to give a sob story but money is a tad tight right now. I would love to build a 20k lumen light but no chance right now with my budget. So i will do what i can with parts i have and buy as little as needed.
I have no solid plan yet as of what i want to build only a few ideas in my head. I am more of a practical person design is not my strong point but i like pushing my self to try new things.
We have a slight start of some thing i guess lol. Brass and steel fittings.
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Hahaha i do not have a drill press but i have a drill vice i use as my standard vice (bench to small). Trying to drill a 10mm hole here and the drill bit got caught on a chip and spun around the vice and flung every thing of my work bench. This is what i am dealing with so far. Yes i should have drilled a pilot hole first but i was being lazy.
made it flat and pretty on the threads took of heaps of stock
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20mm partition board
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This was meant to have a wooden outside but i dont think i will have time to complete.
Angle grinder makes such a difference much better then using my reciprocating saw on smaller stock easier to handle besides the sparks going every where. I cut some M8 bolts with the reciprocating saw it works like a charm on bigger item plus no sparks.
Thanks for the tip! I ended up going .5mm bigger in size i was having trouble getting the wires through but they are 22 gauge lol. All that is left is the tail cap but it does work all be it dodgy lol
I glued the optics in place only way i knew how to make it work and be water resistant.
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Hahahaha don’t ask! This needs some TLC.
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Tested with a safer cell first lol
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Tested with a 18650 this time so much brighter.
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So i had to shave down a 20mm board i have no 16mm MCPCBs so i done this lattice bright first. I could not do this to BLF so i shaved down an alloy board XPL-HI even though it pained me lol
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The optics are random ones from Fasttech Ultrafire brand i think. So throw heavy!
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I really wanted to add some wood but i have none and i know nothing about wood so i will see what happens. I want to make this look prettier i will polish it up a tad but i like the rough look of the brass fittings.
Buy some toothpicks, the tapered flat kind would be best I think. Glue them around the pipe, alternating pointy end direction. Predation or dye them different colors or TRY to find colored ones.
Thanks don that is an awesome idea! I just bought a glue gun the other day lol.
I just cleaned up and 5 mins later it looks like this
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Needed to use my good soldering iron to get enough heat into the brass for the driver. 450 degrees Celsius
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Making the switch retaining ring from 1mm aluminum its easier then the 3mm pill i made.
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That is done i just have to widen the middle a tad bit
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This XPL-HI has seen better days lol. I am not sure where i got it from?
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So the light powers on so technically all that is left is aesthetic work. I want to add some tape here and there and maybe some plastic in case of shorts.
I think its to late for wood but i may add wood in the future or another scratch build coming up maybe?
We need beam shots! I was thinking about running the XPLHI direct drive and just using a partition board but its on an alloy board so it wont last long.
Hahahaha i was fishing on the Haweskbury river at Brooklyn and i went past some ones house and they where throwing out some old tree wood and i was like on the way back its mine. Then when i was back in Sydney i remembered about the wood. It had a sign and all saying free wood that was my one shot lol.
Might as well add some fishing pics. This is Brooklyn NSW. These pics are a tad older when i went the other week it was raining but fishing time is fishing time rain hail or shine lol.
So mine is done for now! Its not what i wanted but it works and functions as a torch.
I stuffed up the tail cap kinda i could not decide what i wanted so i went for a more classic look. I think the rubber boot doesn’t suit the light. So i made another tail cap ending from scratch but didn’t like that so i cut out PVC instead of an aluminium gasket.
I painted the battery tube in and out so its none conductive
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I put some plastic around the driver as isolation
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I wanted to paint it red but then didn’t like it so i stuck with the primer but you can still see some red lol
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