What did you mod today?

Fidget Spinners?
Pocket Toys for kids?
Desk Sculptures?

Those are tools for a lathe and milling machine . I am practicing to get good enough to make flashlights , for myself . Can’t seem to get making the small , fine threads I want yet . I’m getting there slowly .

I have found they use 2 different drivers/pills….

This one/style will get you 500+ (580 tested) lumens

The other style just over 200lms using a 16340 or18350….I know the 250 click trick also…

. The stock LED is a real POS…

great info!

some of the reflectors differ also

This model of the reflector has more throw and a tighter hotspot.

This model, has the rings in the reflector, that produces a slightly diffused hotspot, with less throw.

Yep these are Triple Candidates ….with a FW3 driver… :smiley:

Wow Yes!

Looks like you scored a light w black stainless bezel

NovaClips are hard to come by, but I think HDS clips can work if the hole is reamed out a bit

per Henry:
the Novatac clip hole is 0.950”
the HDS clip hole is 0.930”

This is the one I want… :heart_eyes:

Modded an Amutorch AX4 quad to run a FET+1 Anduril driver. Fairly simple mod, stayed with the stock SST-20 4000K's - I thought they look relatively above avg for SST-20 4000K's, smooth tints in the beam, yes - slightly green at low modes, not as much as I've seen from other SST-20's though.

This quad reflector light with SST-20's has a tighter hot spot than triple or quad TIR optics, brighter,maybe wider spill.

AX4 on the right, AX3 on the left, AX2's in the middle. If you didn't know, I'm a fan of the Amutorch lights:

More complete view of my Amutorch collection:

AX4 tear down. Classic driver mounted switch:

Dry style thermal grease - needs to be replaced:

The driver cavity is extremely tight. This quad light is the same length as a FW3A so sacrifices are made. I used the hot air station to removed the ground brass ring off the stock driver. The driver board is CK's design from here: https://budgetlightforum.com/t/-/37376/6600, which turned out to be about perfect fit

Reflowed:

Had to move the switch to the very edge, resulting in the back feet not making contact to the pads. Patched in solder/jumper wire to bridge the gap. tested the switch, then epoxied the switch in place to give it back support, keep from breaking/bending as these switches tend to do:

Didn't end up working reliably. Somewhere between 5-10 clicks, it stops working, the let it cool, get another 5-10 clicks with stopping again. So, got bad solder joint on the patch work, and it's epoxy sealed up now :FACEPALM: (I'm using this moji a lot lately...). Used 36 AWG to patch the patch, taking advantage of the exposed metal tabs near the top of the switch:

All good now! Working well with Anduril, temp calib, voltage calib.

I replaced a low profile driver spring with a brass button, and added a 22 AWG bypass to the tail spring. New 22 AWG LED wires, that are pretty short.

The light does get red hot in a few secs, as expected.

Does about 3000 calibrated lumens at turn on (VTC5D cell), drops quick. I measured 20 kcd throw, taken at 5m. Stock I measured 2500 lumens, 17.5 kcd on the same cell. I'ts not much of a power increase, but getting Anduril on it was the main reason for the mod.

V10r mod to sw45k
pic is a link to teardown

NovaTac 120T Triple XP-L HI - D4UI - 18350 - E-Tail Sw - 2240lm.

Titanium Tool modded for deep pocket clip. Love this light but couldn’t stand the clip that came with it so I made my own. Well Benchmade made the clip, I just made it work with the light lol.

First holes I drilled didn’t work as planned so I just opened the lanyard loop a little(might just remove the loop all together since I’ll never use a lanyard with this one anyway).

It doesn’t tail stand now but this is my work EDC light, tail standing is not in this guy’s requirement.

Simple mod: Modded an old early-model grey Emisar D4.

  • Reflashed the stock firmware to the latest version of Anduril.
  • Replaced the stock 10622 optic with a slightly throwier 10621.

I was hoping to replace the stock SST-20 high CRI with ones of better tint, but turns out I don’t have any with better tint that aren’t already sitting in an FW3A.

Today (when I shouldn’t have been toying with lights)…

Rebuilt my ET G25C2 from a direct drive single mode dedomed XM-L2 making 66kcd >> Convoy 5A driver w/ Bistro and a J5 4000k SST20w from Mouser under a LEDIL IRIS 12077 making 45kcd. I really like it now. The goal for this light was a “foul-weather-pocket-thrower”. Minimal spill and NW/WW. So far, I think I’ve accomplished my goal. Other CCTs will be tried, but this 4k is looking good under the TIR at ~5A.

Retuned the reflector focus/ centering ring in my Convoy M2 running the 5A/Bistro driver and a 1mm White Flat. Got it mostly centered and mostly artifact free. I’ll perfect it some other day but it’s 95% right now. Getting 79kcd at 4.62A. This was a PITA getting this setup tuned in. The M2 reflector/host interface/shelf doesn’t allow it to sit deep enough to focus the WF1. After filing the reflector, I managed to maximize throw, but halos and crescents were everywhere. Then I needed to add an additional o-ring between the glass and the bezel since the stackup height changed….

The 3030 gaskets available today seem to cause a strong halo artifact in the lights that I’ve used them in. I ended up gluing an XP ring in instead, as that yielded a mostly clean beam. I plan on pulling it out and painting it flat black when I get bored again.

18350?
Did you remove the signal spring? What driver are you using?

Yes, you can see a piece of copper that carries the signal. I guess this is what enables 18350 support.

The picture is a link :wink:

Sorry, didn’t notice if the pic is link.
Thanks CRX & Agro :beer:

There have been a few threads pop up lately regarding collars and RLT. Since I’ve been locked down in the house I thought I’d experiment a little with a UF-1504. So, this whole project probably took no longer than 20 minutes. Sanded both ends of a Maglight AA Mini reflector as it was the smallest reflector I was willing to destroy. Obviously not spherical, but it looked pretty close. I didn’t bother smoothing out the sandmarks as you can see. Put a coat of flat black paint on the outside.

I did no tuning or calibrating or anything like that. Just sanded it and guessed it looked about right. Light has a dedomed XPG. Took readings at 10 meters with an HS1010.
Without collar: 308 kcd
With collar: 384 kcd

I swear this light used to put out about 400 kcd when I built it 5 or so years ago. I probably haven’t touched it in as long. I was thinking of replacing the led sometime in the near future. Anyway, I’d say score with the Maglight Mini reflector. Once you Dremel off the outer edge it fits nicely in the 1504 pill.

Nice. :slight_smile:

Nice mod Willy

any artifact rings around the hot spot?