help removing carclo optics from p60 dropin

I tried this before and I couldn’t pull it off without damaging the optic. I mean it’s pretty tight between the optic and shell, you can’t really stick something in between it without damaging either the optic or shell.

I’ve tried this as well, not sticky enough… The only time I’ve been able to cleanly remove the optic is when the optic loosely fits in the shell (depending on the make of the shell) and it comes out due to gravity from having the dropin upside down.

In the future, I was thinking about putting slots on the edge of the optics so that I can use the slots to pull out the optics. I’m not sure if that will effect the beam but I’m guessing it won’t since I won’t touch the TIRs.

Dunno if you have access to ’em, but if you pinch each leg (2 simultaneously) between thumb and forefinger, the sides of your fingers can spread ’em apart like a soft wedge. Rotate 1-2, 1-3, 2-3, etc. a few times each ’til it pops off.

OK did you try Gorilla Tape? What P60 Triple is this? Can you post a pic of it?

Double side 3M tape, thin version, not the one with foam between sticky layers.

If you have access to the internal volume — compressed air.

OK did you try Gorilla Tape? What P60 Triple is this? Can you post a pic of it?
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Here’s one of them and I don’t have gorilla tape. Gorilla tape will cost me like $8-9 which is more than the cost of a new optic.

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I’ve tried double sided tape, foam and thin. The tape comes off of the optic and won’t stick. Has anyone had the same problem and have a tried and true method of taking out optics that are hard to pull out? I have tried a bunch of different sticky tapes and suction items to pull off the optic but to no avail.

The tried and true method is Don’t press fit your optic into your P60 shell jeez!

Buy a new optic, rip this one out and fit it right!

my personal method may not work and has been mentioned by Lightbringer but differently.

I used a small knife and rotate around the seams. Slowly going through the perimeter hoping it will come off

There is plety of room inside legs. Can drill&tap holes, drive screws inside and pull it out.
After you will have optics almost ready for tritium (or ruined one).
P.S. Most 10507s have pin going out of main radius border. Probably it is too tight because of this pin. Try to cut this edge with razor blade.

Yeah, I was trying to see if anyone had any other special tricks. I don’t have another optic lying around but I guess I’ll just have to order some.

I wanted to point out, if I don’t press fit the optic into the shell then there will be a gap between the optic and leds, and the beam will be affected. Also, by the pressure of the head/bezel of the flashlight, the main spring, and battery the optic will be pushed into the p60 shell. So there’s no real way to avoid it.

I don’t have the skills to drill the legs without messing it up. However, in the future I’ll try cutting the pin you are referring to but I think I’ll just cut a slots at the edge of the optic so I can use tweezers/small flat head to pull the optic.

Drilling the legs seems easy so i wonder if you’ve misunderstood the instruction? You gently drill down into the leg (or all three legs) a couple of millimetres with a thin drill bit then screw in a similar sized self-tapping screw. It only needs to go in a couple of turns to give you something to pull on.

I know drilling seems easy but when it comes to smaller components I can be klutzy. So easy to some, not necessarily easy to me. I can probably use a triple mcpb as a guide to help and I might actually try this but it’s definitely not “easy” to me and I have a high chance of screwing it up. However, I might end up trying this if I can’t figure any other way to remove the optic.

That’s fair enough, we all have different abilities (and tools :D), i picked up on the fact that you’re comfortable cutting a slot in the side of the optic which i wouldn’t have a clue how to do so just wanted to check you understood the suggestion, which you do :slight_smile:

Drilling into a 2 mm plastic leg sounds easy until you try to do it manually, because not everyone has a drill press…

Stoopit-Gloo, then. Teenytiny dot on the end of a wire, touched to the edge of the optic. Just enough to grab without needing to break it off when done.

Cyanoacrylate dissolves in AcMe, but careful not to get anywhere near the actual lens part, in case it might cloud the plastic. Or just shave off any residue vs chemical “cleaning”.

To remove Carclo triple optics I do the following:

  • I use a small pick tool. Looks sorta like a dental pick with an angle and a point
  • Insert the tool into the edge of the optic and lift. You won’t be able to get it underneath. That’s fine. The goal is to just dig the point into the side edge and lift. If it only goes up 1/4 of 1 mm that’s good enough.
  • rotate the light a half cm and repeat. Walk the tool around the edges of the optic lifting each time.

Initially the optic will barely move. But once you walk it sufficiently far around the edge it should pop right out.

If that doesn’t work, try 3M rubber stairway grip tape. The rubber tape, not the silica tape. Works great for adding grip to just about anything and removes cleanly.

I don’t recommend using super glue. Super-glue is a form of acrylic and so are the optics. Any kind of contact with super-glue remover may damage or destroy them.