What did you mod today?

Kewl, umm, so to speak. ;D

I forgot who pointed me (and blf in general) at the NexTorches, but he mentioned that it’s nice for camping, etc., when you’d want something that wouldn’t be cold metal in your hand in the middle of winter, etc., so I figured why not? And also to maybe keep one in the car or something and not have it wear off the ano by bouncing around. Just enough light to be useful changing a tire, poking around underneath things, etc.

But I left a 2.8A S2+ tailstanding for just a few minutes on high, and it pretty much turned into a curling iron. I grabbed’n’dropped it so fast, and couldn’t even turn it off! Had to grab a shirt or whatever (been a while) just to grab hold of one end so I could bap the switch off on the other, and even after air-cooling a few minutes, it still was too hot to pick up, even two-fingers on the tailswitch, farthest away from the LED.

And that’s a pretty solid tube wicking away heat and spreading it around. So when I saw you were using a 3A driver in a drop-in in a plastic-tube light… well, I could visualise the plastic light melting like a Dali painting. :open_mouth:

I can see Dali’s painting is aesthetic but not for a melting plastic from a flashlight :person_facepalming:

I made a full round battery tube for my Quad M1 yesterday….“The GRATER” :heart_eyes:


EDC Tip…. Lightly shred some Romano cheese for your Chef Boyardee MEAT Ravioli’s when in the field! :wink:

(Love them bad boy’s straight out of the can) :+1:

Nice job Kawi, that looks great!

Could it be bored out to 20700 since it’s full round?

2x20700 + xhp70.2?

My 2x 18350 M1 is drooling just thinking about it.

Thanks V77! Looks better in person, when the light/sun hits those diamonds at a certain angle, wow! I cut the o-ring grooves today and put a slight polish to it too. I got a 26650 and a 32650 tubes I’m doing next. When I get the time, I did this in 1hr 15 minutes, so 2 1/2 hr. lunch breaks and a 15 minute morning break, I used the old lathe at work. :wink:

Yeah, I tried to make it for a 21700, I should of gone 20700, it might have worked. But seeing I had 2-30T’s I had to try. I actually cut the thread, but it was Tin Foil thick. The M1 is the biggest tube/head diameter wise I have come across for a 18650 light, I gave it a shot, but failed, well in that aspect! I might try the 20700, I have plenty of stock just not the time…… yet! :wink:

I love your grater. That is some really nice machining.

Hey Steve, coming from one of the best Tool Makers I have seen in a long time, that’s a heck of a compliment! Thank you very much! :beer:

I’m wanting to get back into it, tired of building CNC’s and Special machines, I really love turning handles, so for now small, simple and quick mech/mods keep me some what sane. :smiley:

Somewhat? :person_facepalming:

Ok, so that looks like you got your practice in, when is my grater X6 20700 tube coming? :wink:

Nice Kawi, really nice, glad to see you doing retrowork… :smiley:

Oh, and for the record, you also need to make us some 21700 tubes for the GT mini, it’ll do 1711 lumens on the 30T straight out of the box. :smiley: :smiley: :smiley: (measured, not speculation)

I got a spare piece of GRATER just in case I find something with a larger inside diameter. The M1 head I.D. measures 23mm so something around 25-26mm should be doable. I have a GT incoming, when…… who the heck knows??

Did you use some sort of formula with the knurling or just go for it?

Looks real neat kawi :+1: :+1:

Made a Nitecore TIP cover design and 3D printed it. It has raised edge around buttons to prevent accidental activation in pocket. It covers the micro USB port from dust. And it has a place for two magnets. Actually one enough to hold it in place.




TIP cover
STLSTLSTLSTL
I hope the link works.

No going for it didn’t work, those single post swivel head knurling tools wouldn’t get it for me either, here is a vid I found a couple years ago. I have the same set-up and tool post. It still took a couple tries before all was good! :person_facepalming:

Great, thank you :slight_smile:

18650 extension tube for that dreadful Astrolux E01. It’s a E02 now. Almost.


pic

Cutting square threads isn’t that much of a nightmare actually.


pic

Since I wanted to make this light usable, I cooked up an an attiny85 driver with [1x7135][1x7136@2.5A]*
(* instead of a FET since I wanted to have _some _regulation on turbo; plus no room for stacking 7135s)
and put Anduril (in FW3A config) on it.
Some tweaking required , now it’s fantastic. 1A is plenty for my EDC tasks and that should stay in regulation down to ~3.2V.
Lowest usable moon draws 2.4mA, quiescent current is 15µA. Not bad.

It still has the stock XP-L @4000k in it. I got a few LH351D’s and Luxeon V’s on the way to see how they compare ( (both 4000K, CRI ~70 vs 90+…. choices…. :expressionless: … any ideas?)

No knurling yet (as I don’t have the proper tools) but I kind of like it this simple. Maybe I’ll pattern etch it, maybe it gets a rubber cover.
We’ll see how this holds up anyway, it’s only AW-2007 aluminium which isn’t very corrosion resistant.

@kikkoman what tool did you use for the square threads? …and why is the EO1 dreadful?

Nice mod anyway :beer: