its really sad too see so many report that the lights dont work out of the box. specially that its the more expensive versions they bought… 
u shouldnt have to fiddle with cleaning the ports with alcohol and dissasemble light etc to even make it work just… I hope this doesnt show their QA rush out lights and charge big $$$ for it.
Even though most people can fix their lights in no time we shouldn’t allow this to become the norm on group buy lights.
After all the years it took to develop, organize and manufacture, its amazing how they cannot spend 30 seconds into verifying the working order of each light before shipping. This is a $80 flashlight, there is no excuse for so many of them being DOA. Typical Chinese way to do things, rushed products as soon as there’s demand, and always money first.
Are the copper and titanium version still being made by lumintop? I have never heard of such poor QC from them.
The best part is, I received a light with a message that the seller had done the temp calibration. BUT, it still did not work out of the box. So how exactly did they even do that?
Got my Titanium-one yesterday. To my surprise it didn’t work… Thankfully the problem was solved with a bit of alcohol.
…on the threads. 
My previous standard and copper models worked just fine out of the box.
Both my FW3A and FW3T worked perfectly out of the box. Crazy soo many people are having “issues”.
[quote=antoninuspius] I received my FW3T today, here is my hot take. Out of the box it did not work, the light would ramp up as soon as it was closed with a battery inside it. I half expected this and tried to take tailcap off, that's where the fun started. Mine seemed to ship without any lube on the tailcap threads and I could. not. get. it. off. The poorly cut titanium threads were galled right out of the box. I managed to get it apart with strap wrenches, but it was an absolute ordeal, I half expected it to break. My strap wrenches did a number on the beautiful stonewashed finish too. None of my lockring pliers could get at the tailcap lockring (kind of curious what everyone else it using to get these out), but that didn't matter because the switch worked after I cleaned the tailcap contacts. Then I went to swap out the optic for the one with more throw. Of course, the bezel was just as galled as the tailcap. More struggling and more marring of the beautiful finish and it was off. The bezel and tailcap threads are very poorly cut, even compared to other titanium lights that I have, they suck. I lubed them with Cu-Al and I do not expect them to gall again, but I was pretty irritated that they were so difficult to loosen in the first place. Interestingly, the squarecut threads on the other end of the battery tube are very good. Now that I have it in good order, I really like this light, it's definitely one of my favorites of all time. The stonewashed finish is so nice, and the SST20's must be a great bin because they have the perfect tint. The new switch is a huge improvement over the one on my early model aluminum FW3A. For a light that cost as much as it did, I am pretty disappointed in the state that the threads shipped in, but other than that I have no bones. [/quote]
[quote=will34]
Even though most people can fix their lights in no time we shouldn’t allow this to become the norm on group buy lights. After all the years it took to develop, organize and manufacture, its amazing how they cannot spend 30 seconds into verifying the working order of each light before shipping. This is a $80 flashlight, there is no excuse for so many of them being DOA. Typical Chinese way to do things, rushed products as soon as there’s demand, and always money first. Are the copper and titanium version still being made by lumintop? I have never heard of such poor QC from them.
[/quote]
I got mine today. I really like the stone washed finish. It hides snail trails the best.
I was able to remove the head to get an IMR cell into it. The Heads threads were smooth and well lubed for this type of purchase.
I immediately got ramping once the cell was inserted. I traced this back to the tailcap.
I tried unscrewing the tailcap as You would use a tap, 1/4 turn off and followed by partial screw on to clear debris. I got it about halfway by hand
before it locked itself up tight.
Luckily I have some plastic wrenches for working on lights. I was able to screw/unscrew the tailcap completely with the wrenches. Once off I
noticed the debris in the threads that caused it, and noticed a large Ti chip fell out that was galling between the tailcap and body. I added some
Munkey Spunk Ti lube and the tailcap got easier each time screwed on and off. Tried turning it on again, and constant ramping. I slightly loosened
the tailcap and it went away.
I'm guessing excessive force tightening the tailcap can short the inner contact with the body causing the switch to appear as if it's pressed constant.
The light functioned normal from there without cleaning the contact surfaces as others stated they needed to do. I then went and tried to remove the
bezel ring to change the optics. No GO. Bound up solid. Pulled the plastic wrenches out and went to work with them. After much aggravation, the
bezel finally unscrewed from the head. I added some Munkey Spunk, and it cleared the galling up immediately. Screw bezel On and off with no
troubles now. Albiet originally I thought the driver retaining ring and driver needed to come out to get to the optics. After I got the ring removed there
was resistance trying to unscrew it, and I knew it was the LED's leads attached to the driver, so I stopped. I then went and got the bezel ring off.
The optics are very easily changed/Removed with the bezel ring off. Working as intended now.
I like the Turbo mode. It does appear slightly brighter than a 1147lm triple 319A I have. The tint on these SST-20's is phenomenal, spot on I like it.
I only have one IMR cell that put's out >10A. I will need to get a few more in the future. I'm going to do some further testing on this and draft up my
review.
I am satisfied with this light. I think if the price were a bit more, than these problems could taken care of at the factory by extra steps before reaching
the consumer. This is the first Lumnitop Light I have had these troubles with. This makes me wonder if they left out steps for the production of the
FW3x's that normally get done with their other production lights. More soon ).
GL
Is no-ox-id fine for Ti threads?
No-OX is fine.
It will lubricate, but You will need to wipe the Ti grey goop from threads more often.
It will not help correct the galling like other lubricants can.
I swear by Monkey Spunk, and second is Nano-oil for titanium threads.
I use No-Oxid Red/Gold on the ends of the inner and outer body tubes, and the contact surface within the head.
No-Oxid is great for cleaning oxidation off the bare aluminum contact surfaces.
No Ox ID A Special is great for smoothing threads.
I have found from personal experience, that after sitting a good while untouched, tail caps & heads can feel quite snug as the No Ox tends to gel over time.
My Ti FW3A tail cap is stuck and Neal never reply my PM
Neal please reply
Put it in the freezer for 10 minutes. Take it out, tap around the edges on a piece of hard plastic like a cutting board.
Use a rubber glove for grip. It will spin right off.
Well,
I tried to remove the pocket clip. Unscrewed tailcap removed it, then Nada, the lights dead.
Cleaned retightened loosened retightened. They only thing I got was constant ramping, or nothing.
OK, I was able to take the tailcap apart. There is a bad connection between the switch board and the tailcap.
I had to loosen and retighten it several times, now it seems to be working again.
Taking the tailcap apart is difficult. Once apart, there is a rubber between the metal switch cover and the switch.
Caution! There is a little tiny piece of rubber that sits in the middle of the rubber cover. This tiny cylindrical piece
of rubber is very easy to lose and very difficult to reassemble properly. I was able to use a small pair of facial
scissors to loosen and retighten the retaining ring. Fingers crossed it won't act up further.
Edit: Let the light sit for a few, then nothing. Bumped the tail and it started working again. This tells me I need to
disassemble the tail again and rough up the contact surfaces between the Ti and gold switch ring contact and then
apply some Deoxit Gold to keep oxidation off. It's difficult to resecure the switch ring as it too is galling against the
switch body :(.
Tbh I don’t think the switch ring is necessary if you aren’t constantly opening the tail. It may even be worse in your case. Ymmv though
That little plastic piece is call the “nub” plenty have already posted about its minute size. Some have even replaced it longer pieces of plastic to make the button have a different feel to it.
Hi scosgt. Thanks for the tips and I appreciate it. 
The thread is very rough super tight. I afraid forcing it will further damage the threads. I am waiting for Neal reply.
Do the freezer trick. Both pieces of metal will contract and you will be able to get it apart without any tools. I have done this like 4 times lately on lights, has not failed me.
Without this ring, proper pressure between the tailcap body and switch board contact ring can’t be maintained. I think the major problem is the titanium galling of the retaining ring. The inner switching tube would then be what is holding the switches board in place. I will try a proven solution on hiro’s by taking sandapaper and roughing up the mating surfaces between the switch boards gold ring and tailcap body. Currently I have high resistance open between the two. I need to bump the tail to get it to work intermittently. This condition has caused the light to dimmy blink like it has an over discharged cell. I think the Titanium is less forgiving than it’s Aluminum brothers.
Up until very recently the FW3 did not come with a tail ring, so no, you do not need it. It only serves to stop the assembly from coming apart if you take the tail off.
You might be better off trying a shorter battery, as silly as that sounds. The inner tube is not Ti, and the contact points are not Ti, so none of that should matter. The electrical connection is through the threads, if there was no power than there would be a thread issue. But it sounds like a switch issue. The inner tube and contacts have to line up and touch. Nothing about it being Ti should make that an issue, unless the outer tube itself is too long, or the threads do no mate far enough.
There is a rubber part between the button and the switch. If that is not properly aligned, the switch won’t work right. And of course check the nub, in one of mine it was sideways.
I don't think the nub is in play with my trouble. The switch works fine. For many activations/use. Let the light sit and sometimes it stops working.
I'm getting a very low fast strobe mostly when trying to access Turbo from a low output, and when ramping up to ceiling. This tells me it is not
switch activation, but continuity causing a resistance preventing Turbo and high levels, from drawing power properly. My cell is at 4.0,
and at that charge should have no trouble entering turbo, or ramping up to ceiling. I'm charging the cell up to full to see if it makes any noticeable
difference.
Thanks out to Scosgt for your helpful suggestions :D