Three the Hard Way - another Mini-Mag Mod - Updated - Beam Shots are up.

I wanted to give up on this light, but I just could not do it. I even threw it in the trash, but I retrieved it and went ahead and finished it.

Three the Hard way. Of course in Vegas it would be 4 the hard way, or 6, 8, or 10, but I can call it as I see it.

First a little Vegas music

Now, the mod, or should I say, the brainstorming part, where my brain gets cloudy and the headache booms in the distance, right before I see the white light.

3hw

Guess...

Here's a video to help.

3AA NiMHs in series, but not end to end (long way). More like is in a battery holder, for a shorter and fatter light. The video hopefully explains something. Three 2AA Mags cut down to 1AA. One head. Three NiMHs in series. One XM-L. One Driver. A lot of modding work and hopefully some Las Vegas Luck...

More to come... (don't you hate it when I drag stuff out like this?)Tongue Out

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A few photos of how the jumpers will be made and how they will fit in the tubes.

3thw1a

Two of the plastic bushings are sanded till they will fall in a body tube. Then they are drilled for the small plastic tube crossover. A wire will run from a contact on one bushing to a contact on the other via the small crossover.

3thw1b

I filed the slot with round files till the plastic crossover would fit in.

3thw1c

Here's how the jumper assembly will fit in the bodies.

3thw1d

With the tail cap screwed in. The slot did not affect the tail cap going in.

3thw1e

Of course the other body has to be filed so it can mate up, but you can get the idea.

I will probably use 3/8" flat Nickel Silver rounds for the contacts. Of course two of the four contacts will need springs, due to the fact they will touch negative ends of the batteries. I have some very short gold plated springs for that. This is all just practice. I have not cut the bodies down yet and I am using the original tail ends for practice. I will have to do it all over again when I cut down the bodies.

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04-07-2013

I decided to change things up a little. I am going to go with 4xAA NiMHs, instead of 3. I don't want to cut down the bodies more than I have to, so I will use 2AA in the LED body and 1AA@ in the Incan bodies. I have gotten a little done, mainly getting a groove cut in the second body and making a couple of copper pieces.

3thw2a

I made a tiny copper bushing out of some sheet copper and formed it to fit over the center plastic crossover.

3thw2b

I got both of the slots in the bodies to be the same length and width, so the copper bushing will touch the bottom of both grooves. When the tail caps are tightened down, there is enough pressure on the crossover that it grounds the two bodies. I even metered it.

3thw2c

This will be the end cap (or end caps), for the other ends of the Incan bodies.

3thw2d

Once they are permanantly in place, I will solder them together to keep the bodies from shifting and to ground the bodies together, so all three bodies will be grounded. I will also pin them to have a better ground.

It's been labor intensive so far. Everything is hand work and custom fit, but it is going as planned with no surprises. That scares me...

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04-12-2013

Here's the finished contact assembly that fits in the tail ends of two bodies.

thw1a

battery side

thw1b

tail cap side

thw1c

This is the assembly that had me wanting to throw it all away. This is revision 3. It seems to work. This goes in the cut off ends of two bodies.

thw1d

I used copper couplings to hold the bodies together. Then I filled in between the bodies and the couplings with Epoxy.

thw1e

The headache assembly in place. Now I have ground through all 3 bodies.

thw1f

Testing with Alkalines. I have a complete circuit, so I have a good ground now, finally!

I am doing some painting on the light and stripping the tail caps, to be polished. The head is ready to go, so it should be ready to fire off tomorrow night.

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Glam and Beam shots are in Post #4

Hurry, Grab a Seat, Old Lumens at it AGAIN !!!!

My "Buddy" and I have some snacks and are anticipating ANOTHER Fantastic O.L. Mod.

Yesss Viva Las Vegas. Nice looking O-L. Thank you thank you very much for sharing :wink:

That thing is insane, in the best possible way.

The Finished Light. I painted some areas and polished the tail caps.

t5a

t5b

t5c

t5d

Beam Shots

tb1

Garage Door on High

tb2

Down the side on High

tb3

Side of House on LOW

tb4

Side of House on Medium

tb5

Side of House on High

That's it folks.

Very interesting. Looking forward to more progress pics! 8)

I like these projects. Thinking outside the box…

OP is updated with more photos.

We begin to see how far you will go to avoid liion. I’m waiting to see the light you will build from all the off cuts you have made. I even know the perfect song. An old ditty about a car built from spare parts. “‘56, ’57, 58’ Chevy” or something like that.

Here we go again. Good stuff. By the time I get around to building my original dream light there will be no original ideas left. :wink:

Ain’t nothing like an Old-Lumens bespoke flashlight!

Another really interesting light, wow!

Could you drill a hole instead of a slot? You would need to pre-wire the tube then assemble the tubes with tape and a bead of JB weld to permanently hold the bodies in a bundle.

One other thought, why not use two bodies with four batteries to feed current to a third shortened body that only holds the LEDs and the switch? You could have about three or six volts depending on batteries type and series or parallel connection.

A hole? I don’t know.

As far as batteries, yes, there are lots of diffeent configurations. It all depends on what one wants. 6xAA, 3x14500 in parallel, All kinds of things could be done.

OP is updated. Thanks to Pinetreebbs I decided to go ahead and make it a 4AA light. That way I don't have to cut tubes and cut new threads for the tail caps. I don't like that chore.

wow… going wild on these things lately huh justin? lol
cant wait to see what comes of this one. the 4x one was amazing

I’m just finishing off what I have “in stock”. Once the stock is gone, the modding will shut down and I wanted to finish off with a couple unique lights.

I'm still waiting on the EA8 though. I might actually keep that light, LOL...

good choice! id like one of them myself, but got another light on my mind right now (shadow sl3)
hope you decide to stick around for a while after

O L you have been making some extremely awesome mini mag mods lately - do you take orders for custom jobs?

i pay cash :slight_smile: hehe.

I have not made any custom order lights. It makes me nervous. It’s one thing to mod a light and have it fail, but when you do one for someone else it can’t fail. So I avoid doing orders from people.

Someday that may change, but not in the near future.

Well, to update this, I don't have anything new. Frown I have set this aside and will not touch it for a few days. Other issues have taken the limelight. Hopefully I will finish this mod in the next week or so. Right now I am spending time with my favorite Chiropractor. My "Spring cleaning" just about cleaned my clock, LOL.