FW3A, a TLF/BLF EDC flashlight - SST-20 available, coupon codes public

Those are some very good & detailed pictures.

It looks very good too.

Thanks to all who put forth the endless hours to get the project this far!!

Thanks TK for your endless effort here on BLF to keep this on track. :beer:

Yeah, much prefer proto4’s clip, but ah well. It’s not a sufficient enough reason to deter me.

its been so long a journey…
will clips be available separately ?

Sorry, but the clip in black just still looks very bad to me. And if it’s not paint, I might not even be able to remove the color(?). Big meh for me.

And it’s not all about the color - a good portion also is about Lumintop’s attitude. This light is all about the design. And Lumintop seems to be like “yeah, let’s just slap whatever clip we have lying around onto that thing”. If that change really was an informed decision and they had the clips just produced for this specific light, the changes are just beyond me.

I am not a fan of the pimple extractor hole at the tip of the clip either, but at least that was already present in the initial 3D renderings.

I am glad to hear the rest works fine though. I just really wish the communication efforts by Lumintop were better and other than “it is fit”.

The only good reason to chose that clip is if they got them for free - I can’t believe they paid to have them made that way on purpose

Sorry, but this had me ROLLING! :rofl:

Didn’t TK say the tailcap isn’t glued?
Whoever doesn’t like the clip can remove and/or replace it.

How about for warts?

simple as dedoming an led :confounded:

Ooooh, I like the change to a lightly frosted optic vs what they had before. That’ll be a good combo with the throwier emitters I think. Just enough diffusion to get a good close range beam with the throwier emitters this will probably ship with.

The 10511 “frosted narrow spot” optics are the ones mentioned/specified in the OP, the prototypes had wider optics, probably because that’s what lumintop had lying around. Wouldn’t surprise me if they just changed the optics to fully clear ones without notice though lol.

The newest photographed one on TLF definitely doesn’t have clear optics, they’re frosted but its not nearly as aggressive as the earlier optics.

It might appear that way, but I don’t think it’s really Lumintop. They’ve mostly just done as their client asked. What’s weird is, the way the project is set up, BLF/TLF are not the client. So Lumintop hasn’t been talking to BLF/TLF about this project, they’ve been talking to their client. This makes things a little frustrating for people on the forums.

Hmmmm…. Who is the “client”… Neil??

Put me down for 2 please

I’m being serious right now, do you think it might be a possibility to overcome the communication issues (which I’m assuming is mostly language barrier?) by getting texts translated “professionally”? Especially in the BLF → Manufacturer direction it might make sense. Now I have no idea how much that’d cost or who’d pay upfront for that (maybe a small non-refundable fee when wanting to be put on the interest list), but I think the translation should be done by someone somewhat experienced in technical translations, maybe could find people like that on sites like fiverr? I noticed how much work you put into making graphics to visualize issues you found with the prototypes, but sometimes you just can’t get around having proper text communication (as witnessed with this and probably some previous projects)…

Teacher, I was wondering the same, but yeah, I think it must be Neal.

’Probably’ so cabfrank. Neal seems to be the common thread between BLF & TLF….

I don’t have a full set of pics yet, but here is a quick peek at the latest sample:

I’ve mostly just been trying to catch up on everything… too much to do lately. Hopefully I can get the interest list updated in the morning though, and get some other things taken care of too.

Thanks for the pic TK.

+1 … In reality we have no idea for the “growth” of the clip.
Mistake or choice… it is what it is. To my way of thinking 0.01181 inch on each side is not that big a deal.

As far as clip color, in the pictures it looks just fine. When compared with the Zebralight clip in the bottom picture you can see the FW3A clip is not black. And thankfully it is not painted either.

The hole in the clip tip…… who knows?? All we can do is guess, & that changes nothing. :wink:
Yeah the clip without the hole (top picture right) would have been just fine… but apparently that is not gonna happen. We will survive…. :wink:

my .02, ymmv

Pictures by Bluzie:

FW3A clip on left / Zebrelight SC 700d clip on right