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

I think the opposite , but that’s taste for you lol! I love it - trouble is every time I think, ‘oh, I’ll have that one’, they bring out another! I hope it’s a 21700 quad :wink:
Maybe the ‘XXX’ around the front part is a bit yucky, better off with knurling.

Here’s another look at the F3Wa Titanium prototype: (this is not the final copy as of yet and subject to change without notice)

it looks cool that design but probably will cost an arm and leg…

Probably… And there goes a TLF / Budget LightForum design into an expensive light …

More than that…it won’t have a 18350 body :expressionless:

Pity that tail wasn’t redesigned for manual lockout :neutral_face:

You can still do this, just use the head.

Keep in mind it’s a switch lockout, head and or tail, not a fully mechanical, no parasitic drain lockout.

The clips look happy

I’d like to run a lexel aux board but don’t have the know how / skill to reflash the driver so bypassing the driver is what I did. Unscrewing the head doesn’t cut power to the aux board until the springs lose contact with the battery.

Hence a tail lockout would’ve been preferable to me.

Unscrewing the tail does the same thing. Both head and tail use bare threads, no anodization.

Maybe it’s cheap enough to mail the driver to someone who can flash it?

You’d still have to take the battery out to stop all parasitic drain, though.

Wonder if it will include a clip?

would be weird if has to buy clip separate.

I guess it would depend on the cost. If the clip where to cost $30 to $40 then I could see them offering it separately.

The prototypes for the FW3T v2 look incredible. I like them a lot more than the basic FW3T.

I got my FW3A TK edition in the mail today and went to work on it! I swapped in some LH351D, one each in 2700K/3500K/5000K. I have about a half-dozen FWxx variants that I’ve done some emitter swaps on but I wanted to do something different with this one. (Sorry for pic-heavy post!)

I picked up a SS bezel from Neal’s and tried my hand at heating it with a torch to get some color. It’s a bit inconsistent and I heated it too much in some spots but overall I’m satisfied with the result! I also tried the same with the clip but I had a very hard time getting any color out of it. I assume it’s plated, probably with nickel. I didn’t really feel like sanding and polishing it so I just heated it until it was glowing cherry red and ended up with a nice bronze color. Not too bad! Hopefully I didn’t weaken the steel too much.

I typically like to use drilled optics with trits but I tried it this way and I think I prefer this method. It looks much better from the front. I also swapped out the factory 10511 for a 10507 because I expected the LH351Ds to be quite floody.

Three different color temp 90+ CRI LH351D.
My other FW3x’s have “FW3A” printed on the MCPCB and the hole for the alignment screw is not drilled all the way through like this one. Functionally it makes no difference; it’s just something I noticed.

FW3A TK edition; FW3T Stonewashed; FW3A OG Grey

It’s very difficult to capture the color of the emitters while shooting directly into the head of the light. This is about the best I could do after merging five exposures.

The LH351Ds under the 10507 are very floody. The hotspot is about twice as large as the SST20 with 10511. The LH351D hotspot has a very clearly defined edge where the SST20 blends smoothly into the spill. This might be due to the different optics.

The color temperature has a very cozy warm appearance with a slightly rosy tint. Unfortunately I don’t have a spectrometer, but I do have Cine Meter II and a Luxi sphere (calibrated). I can’t measure CRI but I can measure CCT and tint. Tint values seem to be on some arbitrary scale, but it’s fine for making qualitative comparisons.

Here are the measured CCT and tint values for this light with some others for comparison. Tint values are given in amount of green, so more positive is more green and negative is more magenta. Measurements were taken at about the middle of the ramp, so 1x7135 for the FW3As (I never run my lights on turbo).

FW3A TK LH351D mixed
• CCT: 3700K
• Green: +10

FW3T SST20
• CCT: 4000K
• Green: +12

D4V2 SST20
• CCT: 4000K
• Green: +15

D4sV2 XP-L HI
• CCT: 3800K
• Green: +42

Sofirn SP36 Andúril LH351D
• CCT: 5300K
• Green: +16

Fireflies E07 219b SW45k
• CCT: 4500K
• Green: –3

What size trits did you end up using for that?

1.5X6mm work best

Looking great, it really expose the light out of the trits. :+1:

These are 1.5x6mm.

That looks great! Might have to try combining with a drilled optic next time.

With the short tubes, the clip and the bezel, the FW3A looks like another flashlight :+1: