Aluminium Twisty

Aluminium Twisty Custom Build

An attempt at a compact 18650 pocket rocket - Its a pocket R5-A3 sized torch, but with 2.8A drive current that lasts almost an hour (cumulative)!!

  • 18650 (67mm compatibility)
  • Twisty (for minimum length)
  • Aluminium 2010 alloy (for machinability)
  • Triple XP-G Neutral with carclo triple optics (minimum length, max power)
  • Maximum 10 Watt power draw (gets too hot too quick)
  • 105C Driver, 3 mode setup, Memory (don't like memory, sigh..)

This was built with the purpose of being a compact high output torch. The body is 92mmx 23.5mm, and houses triple XP-G neutrals of 4B tint with the 20mm triple TIR optic providing a medium beam, currently driven with a simple linear 3 mode driver.

Light output is as per the 20mm triple XP-G TIR - HUGE wide hotspot (so minimal throw) and a light spill. Walking around the house indoors however, this light is really awesome. The super big even hotspot makes this super nice for lighting up areas or close quarters. Throw is there with brute force on max, but its not really what this was designed for.

Because of the build specifications, Thermal limitations do exist and I would not be comfortable running this torch longer than a 30 secs to a minute on high. Theoretical runtime is 0.7h, 2.2h, 20h, however the behaviour of the linear driver will not maintain full output for the quoted duration, but will instead produce lower light outputs for much longer.

I don't really like the UI, and that gap between the head and the body really annoys me (part of being a twisty) Especially after I built this with a perfectly matched head/body joint. EDIT - this gap has been removed after some more machine work, and its now Perfect! (see first pic)

I believe that the UI makes or breaks a light, and although I love the body, the UI annoys me. Its a 3 mode low/med/high with memory (the simple "on" time memory) Nanjg 105C. Will think about changing this in the future, or at least consider a clicky switch based version some time down the line.

(following pictures were taken under a 3000K light, the tint is about 4500k, which is a neutral white)

Beam Shot of D10 on Max - 130 lumens? - same as the nitecore EX10 SP - your standard AA torch output. VS. Alum Twisty - Just a really fat hotspot, with enough ambient bounce to create "spill" indoors

Nice one!

Did you match make this by yourself?

I want!

I think we are going to need some more info here

Nice light okwchin.

lol...took me a sec to catch that! Though Okwchin has got great skills in his own right. I love the mod, but agree about running it too long on high. That pill looks mighty thin, but that's the price to pay for such a compact light.

What host is that?

It looks really nice.

I think it's killer looking. Love the aluminum finish.

Foy

Really, really nice! 8)

Pretty da*n cool! Nice work.

The host came from a bar of 2020 Aluminium, 10 hours on sketchup and about 20 hours in the workshop. So if this torch was to sell for $100, that would be about $5 an hour. HAHAHA seriously dont know how budget torches can make money, shipped at $20 each.

So, real unique custom work! Very impressive!!!

@ Match: That's what I meant by "matching", the next level after modding ;)

Im really liking this beam indoors. You can completely fill an A4 sheet with totally hotspot free light from 2 feet, so its great for reading. Thread wear is higher though, for this alloy? and the fact that its a twisty on an alum body. threads go black within a couple turns!

Are there any switches that are rated for 3A though? Im considering fixing the head on, and installing a tailcap switch (adds at least 10mm though!)

Very purdy!

I've worked on it for a little bit more, and I've fixed the issue with the gap.

I thinned out the pill on the emitter side. Reduced it from 4mm to 3mm thickness (still double what most budget torches have). This has effectively closed the gap between the head and the body when in operation, and having a very small line in the off state. I have also added anti-rotation locks for the driver board, stopped the driver rotating within the pill which is peace of mind for me.

I've also added a GITD o-ring which looks awesome!

Ill try to get some pics later

ninjas are circling your house as we speak..hanko and kuku have a hit out on you . i chipped in too cuz I had a few bucks in my paypal .one less D-10 guy is a good thing .....run lola run

did you say lotus was made in america ?..that's why i love ya .

Lotus in america...? Never said that... Especially if its was a british company now owned by malaysians.

Yay, a low quality low light picture from my phone, but you can see *FINGERPRINTS!*, and you can also see that the gap between the body and the head is effectively reduced to a minimum now. It was achieved by thinning out the pill. My first attempt at end milling! The actual metal behind the emitter is sitll 3mm thick, so plently of material behind it still.

In addition to thinning out the pill slightly, I also added anti-rotation grooves in the driver side of the pill with which the driver can now lock into.

Thats a very nice looking light okwchin! I really like big hot spot/floody lights for indoors.

Now those of us without such skills can only dream about having a unique light like that.

That's one seriously lovely light.

Its a nice light, until one fries an emitter... :(

See if you can spot why the emitter is dead? .... wrong computer. Dont have the pics on this computer.. Will post pics later. but

I can say that I suspect its related to excess solder, and a possible "semi-cold solder" joint.

We can see the burnt die....

Can you spot the problem LED? I obviously didn't see it till it started dying...

Just a little too much solder under that emitter... that 0.1mm of possibly cold solder meant soo much thermally!

Im definitely going to push the emitters harder onto the base when re-flowing my emitters in future