How would you ream out the tube?
Don’t put words in my mouth. I never said anything was “junk”. The person I was replying to (not you), lives in Pennsylvania where Liionwholesale is also located, and commented he could save 4 weeks of shipping time by buying them locally. But if he wants to save a couple dollars and wait 4 weeks, go for it.
I would say most are made in China for sure. But since none of us can buy directly from any manufacturer, we have to buy from a retailer. My point being, if you are from the US where every type and brand battery is readily available, and shipping is only a couple days away, why buy from a Chinese retailer, wait 4 weeks, risk getting fakes, risk not getting them at all, only to save 2 dollars. Case in point was the 30Q button top group buy for the BLF Q8 not too long ago.
Thanks Robert, yes Liion already is currently my #1 place I buy batteries. As you pointed out I get them really fast, (about 2 days!) and I can rest assured I’m not getting fakes, plus their prices are usually as low or within a few dollars of buying them from China. And Jon from LiionWholesale is helpful member here as well. http://budgetlightforum.com/user/23542
I recently received an order from Liion of Button top 30Q’s Aspire 18350’s Efest 18500’s, and an Imren 14500
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I do however occasionally buy batteries from China for these reasons and under these conditions:
1. Special deal pricing on a particular cell from a known supplier along with positive feedback for the cell on BLF.
2. A particular cell that’s unavailable at USA shops (Liion, IMR, MTN, Illumn etc.) from a known supplier along with positive feedback on BLF.
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There’s still some risk with it, but I’ve had great luck so far following the conditions above, as was the case with the Lii-50A’s I bought from Gearbest; a great “special deal” price, and great reviews and feedback on BLF, and the cells I received tested favorably.
Apparently you misread his statement. Robert was referring to buying Chinese made batteries from USA suppliers, to avoid getting fakes and long shipping times. He wasn’t saying the batteries were made in USA or that Chinese made batteries are junk. Pretty much all of the lights we buy are made in China, so the “specific region” line of thought you alluded to wouldn’t even make sense.
It’s well documented here on BLF that buying cells from suppliers in China can sometimes be a crapshoot as far as getting fake cells (re-wrapped / re-labeled / mis-labeled) It’s a fairly common practice among unscrupulous sellers anywhere, but more prevalent from Chinese sellers. After all China is the worlds leader in fake / counterfeit goods, and that is also a well documented fact, and pretty much common knowledge (unless you’ve been living under a rock)
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I’m always more than happy paying a few bucks more to get my cells from a reputable US supplier such as LiionWholesale. They take extra steps to ensure their cells are genuine, such as buying directly from the manufacture and random testing. The prices can be the same or sometimes even less than ordering from Chinese based shops.
I only mentioned the I-joy’s and Aspire’s were kind of expensive compared to what I paid for the Lii-50A’s, not that they were overpriced. I do agree totally with your statement “Lii-50A’s are pretty good batteries at a fraction of the price of others”
Haven’t ever actually tried it yet but here’s my idea’s:
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1. A 30mm Flap sanding wheel and a bit extender:
I think the 30mm flap wheel would have enough slack to stuff into the nearly 27mm tube, then working it with the drill back and forth evenly through the tube (tube mounted in a vise) we’re talking about a very small amount of material to be removed here, about 1/4 ~ 1/2 mm.
The bit extender may not be necessary if you honed from each end separately but it would be better to ensure a more even surface, especially if you already have one to use. Also probably need a drill with good torque or a (plug in) electric drill.
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2. A 1 1/16” (26.99mm) or 27mm drill bit:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Morse-1-1-16-Drill-Bit-1-1-16-Silver-Deming-Bit-High-Speed-Steel-USA-Made/312078219428?hash=item48a94fb8a4:g:q6oAAOSwg3NamFd1
Expensive to go out and buy a bit for this purpose but I’m pretty sure I already happen to have one.
It would be hard to use a regular drill bit like this if it was anything more than a very small amount of material to be removed. I have a drill press and drill-press vise to use for this, which would be the safest way to go this route.
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3. A small brake cylinder hone: Again only may be possible because of the very small amount of material that needs removed, these aren’t made to remove metal, only to break the “glaze”. The brake cylinders might be a harder alloy than a flashlight tube, so my thought was with coarse stones it could possibly work to actually remove a small amount of material from a soft aluminum tube, this method’s been mentioned here on the forum before.
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There’s also the “wrapping the dowel with sandpaper or emery” method.
I think method #1 above would be easiest/cheapest, or #2 if you already have the drill bit. Maybe someone else has some ideas?
Yeah I misunderstood what he was saying. Completely thought he was saying Chinese stuff was junk. I agree with both of his and your replies.
Sorry for the confusion.
No problem, no harm done. I’m guilty myself of sometimes reading a post too quickly and misunderstanding! Thanks for the reply and BTW welcome to BLF!
I just double checked my I.D. Measurement with another caliper and it’s showing same 26.5mm
So perhaps there’s a slight manufacturing difference/allowable tolerances. I don’t want anyone to be heartbroken if their cells don’t fit. As far as the cells I had on hand to try fitment, they are this Basen Cell from Liionwholesale: Basen IMR 26650 4500mAh 60A Flat Top Battery
And also some MNKE 26650 IMR 3500mAh Flat Top Battery from Mountain Electronics last year I think, no longer in stock.
I had this light here
Ramp was way too short like half a second from min to max., likely wrong programming fuse
LED board screws hit the shelf rim before the LED board, one screw glued and head broke off
Reflector does not touch the LED board
Black centering ring pretty high
Driver cavity too shallow for boost driver
Switch board loose as it is not held by the press fit switch cover
The first version takes about 6 second ramping and people complaining so they change the ramping but I guess they got it wrong.
3 seconds ramping is perfect from low to high
Thanks, the Basen sounds perfect for this light width and length, 40A continuous and a good price too.
Wow half second! Most the other stuff I maybe can work around or fix, but that fast ramping isn’t going to work, especially since there’s no regular L-M-H group.
When did you get yours and from where?
When does this $29.99 code expire?
Banggood previously showed the arrival date for the green version on Mar 31, however it’s now pushed back to April 11. 
Will the $29.99 code will work on the green one when it arrives after April 11?
I hope I can score the green one with a deal too. I’m on the “notify me” thing.
They got a couple in a few weeks ago but they were gone too quick….
Dirty Pierre, is it possible to disassemble the switch from the body or is it permanently glued? Is it a standard clicky switch?
A few weeks ago? Really? Dang. They notified you they were in??
I never saw any in, I’ve been checking every few days. Just kept showing “Arrival date: March 31” Now it’s April 11
I just signed up for the “Arrival Notice” notification, totally forgot about that.
Sorry I just noticed your post.
It’s a side switch and I don’t see any glue. It’s held in by a ring from outside of light.
I’m tearing it down right now to see if the ring is pressed in or threaded. I’ll update with a pic to your post shortly.
Here’s a few more pics of the switch area from inside and out. I wouldn’t call it a clicky switch, it’s a tactile e-switch.
I don’t see any kind of glue on it and it might be held in by threaded ring. It really didn’t want to unscrew for me with quite a bit of force. It’s either pressed in or cross threaded, note how it’s sitting slightly raised on one side in the picture. I can sort of feel a thread maybe with my fingernail. The ring is sitting slightly higher on one side than the other and I’m not wanting to break anything just yet…
Hope the pics help. Cheers!
Did anyone try to insert the Soshine 26650 5500 mA into the flashlight?
And why insist on this flashlight and spend money adjusting it when you can buy the excellent Utorch UT02. He has a better switch in my opinion with steps. It has 60% better battery life than Convoy BD06 and 30% better than the Eagle Eye X7R.
Did someone check how long the Maeerxu M8 worked when it was at its maximum?
And why not ask the Chinese to make a small change. Change the thickness slightly. Not a big deal. Anyone who has an idea on CNC knows that it’s less than a minute to re-configure the machine.
Finally, it is not a good idea to rub the tube from the inside because you rub the anodize that protects the aluminum and will have corrosion on the bare aluminum.
Hi, my observations on the 4 lights mentioned above are, that they are totally different- BD06 is the least throw and has click switch, X7R is very compact and feels smaller from the group, UT02 and M8 are kind of same size and profile, but 3v vs. 12v. In stock form UT02 is very throwy profile, on the lower levels I feel M8 with xpl more usable, though for general use I would take X7R may be. UT02 feels very underpowered and I am still looking for an option to boost up the power without loosing the charging.