Update! Heatsink/spacer from coins? How to make a spacer for s2+?(updated with pictures!)

I tried to make it with 2 coins first which is 4,5mm kd triple with included optic! Seems like there is no 'play" space seems nice and tight! lol! 3 coins is roughly 6mm fits fine still! Should I use the 6mm eventho 4,5mm works too?

For pilled flashlights you can make spacers not so precision because you can compensate wrong height just by screwing/unscrewing pill.

I made different heights with coins depending on the light I wanted to put this in. protected vs. unprotected battery.
One S2+ has 8+mm spacer for shorter, really tight batteries. Another only 5mm because I sanded away a bit too much.
Also depends on the springs you are using, which driver, what tail cap, etc

I used 10 cent euro coins!

Ok pics coming soon, too tired now for that lol!

Anyways 3 coins is needed for proper fit! I sanded them smooth and solder them together aswell as solder the top of the pill, where it's about 1mm recessed, flush and sanded it smooth! Now the top of the pill is smooth like a hotplate!

I have done two spacers with coins and it all went well, but then I thankfully found kiriba-ru and his selection!

While making coin spacers is a ton of fun (“I did it on my own”) - you would also have to account for sanding time, soldering, drilling the whole thing and then cleaning. All in all, it is fun to do and a great workout but an actual copper spacer for a few dollars is probably the more economic solution.
Coins however also allow to alter the size of the coin and make different spacers easily - you could combine 16, 20, 15, 20 (and so on) and it looks like more like a heatsink rather than a spacer.

Yea but some time you want some thing done now not in a week or two. Or is that only me? lol

I agree, if someone is pressed for time or has enough free time on their hands… it is the way to go!

yeah finished them just now , lots of sanding, soldering, cleaning and drilling but fun! However I never sanded them down for soldering, only the contact surfice to pillband led board! Should I sand the solder surfice aswell? And redo them? I mean the coins sit perfectly on top of eachother but dont know? Maybe the solder filled the gaps lol?

I would leave it and see how it handles the heat.

I did this a while back with some old pennies. I sanded them all flat first, it was a pain in the ass but I was actually able to turn the stack on the lathe afterward.

Yeah I filled the top of the pill with solder and sanded it smooth aswell to get a bigger surfice for the spacer to sit on and aid cooling aswelI! Hope solder works well for heat dissapation? The coins were a bit uneven but I think it will be fine, migh just aswell try it! I soldered the recessed top of the pill and holes shut!

The Euro coins that look like copper (1 cent, 2 cents and 5 cents) are not copper but an alloy with a lot of iron (they stick to magnets).
I wouldn’t advise anyone to use them as heat sinks.

The coin is 10cent euro "nordic gold mix" which is 89% copper, 5% aluminium, 5% zink and 1% thin, so should be pretty good right?

Sounds good. :+1:

But i would suggest to get some 20 × 20 mm copper shims.
You can find them cheap on Ebay and AliExpress and they’re available in 1 mm and 1.5 mm thickness.

I used the gold colored 10cent ones, 89% copper,5% aluminum,5%zink,1%tin

I assumed they were brass, didn’t know they had so much copper in them.
Good to know. :+1:

Yeah I thought so too, but found a page about euro coins and they use a nordic gold named mix! Seems good to me don't know! How would I know if the cooling is good or not other than it gets hot? Measure temp somehow?

Yeah, wanted it done now, since my leds came in today, so decided to make my own, and it's hard to find these spacers in europe and kaidomain don't sell any and they're expensive too, more fun to make your own rather than buying imo! Question is how good will it cool?

I checked temp with an infrared thermometer, coins vs copper spacer (from kiruba). there was almost no difference with a FET driven S2+ (XML2 U4). Could also not feel a difference while the light was in my hand (subjective).
I have not done the test with a triple or quad setup yet, but can do it once I build them.