āFor a lot of us mere mortals, seeing the cool things machinists make on their lathe is just a dream.
Hence the finish of the FW3A will be clear anodisation, no sanding/beadblasting before anodisation.
The idea is to give all the chance to have a light looking like it came of a lathe with the protection of anodisation.ā
Iām sorry but I am rather disappointed with the new photos, I donāt think the taper from the head works, it doesnāt blend with the more industrial look of the tailcap and clip etc, I prefer the original design which I think is more honest, and minimalist.
I am particularly disappointed with the beadblast finish, which ISTM is simply a cheap way to cover up surface imperfections. Iād far prefer a raw āaerospaceā machined finish, ideally with a true thick un-dyed HA-3 anodisation (which is naturally a dull gray-ish finish, and immensely durable).
This would require fine machining and careful handling of the parts. Some of the best machined and anodised torches I have are MAG-LITEs so I see no reason why this one couldnāt have a similarly good finish.
I will buy this, but Iām sad that it isnāt quite what I was hoping for.
Itās looking great.
Lets not spend more time debating the exact look of the flashlight body. This project is taking too long already. Many of us are liking the new look better. I guess it is impossible to satisfy everybody. LOL
If you created the ultimate light, capable of producing an infinite amount of your preferred light quality in the perfect beam pattern for your intended use, at will, out of thin air, with the whole mechanism stored in another dimension so it has no volume or weight, we wouldnāt like it, because there would be nothing to look at or collect, only results.
What use are results?!! We want collectibles, and we want them in a rigidly defined schedule of unpredictability.
The prototypeās pretty much the same size as the last one. Nealās just got a talent to find unflattering angles As soon as we get it in our hands weāll post some more pictures and details.
I think that is just an optical illusion. I thought the same thing when I first saw that picture above.
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The below is taken from the first post & gives a very good size comparison photo.
The FW3A
Small elegant EDC triple flashlight designed by Fritz15
Runs on a single 18650 battery.
94.8 Ć 25.5 mm
First prototype:
Size reference:
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. Proto 1 (post 1) vs Proto 2 (M4DM4X picture above)
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It looks like the main external design difference between 1 & 2 is the addition of a small taper in front of the tailcap on #2.
The person holding the light has small hands, so the light appears bigger than it really is.
M4D M4X doesnāt have a prototypeā¦ or tiny hands. Neal got excited and sent pics to several people.
The photos seem to be taken from up close where there is a lot of perspective distortion, which makes it look weird.
The finish looks pretty odd in the photos, so weāre waiting to see it in person. Maybe the final product wonāt be anodized, or maybe itāll have more traditional anodizing, but ā¦ hopefully it wonāt look like todayās unflattering photos.
With any luck, proto2 should show up soon for testing, hopefully with the internal changes completed as requested.
Iām not bothered by the taper; I just donāt like this sort of finish. In an ideal world, itād be the same sort of finish as the blf 348; of course this is a different thing.