Manker E14 Mods

Hmm… after seeing the innards of yours I’m inclined to follow suit and do some tweaking. Nice looking head, too. Did you rub off the coating and will it patina now?

Thanks for posting this up :slight_smile:

Thanks for posting this very nice pictorial of the build and tweaks!

Is this copper?

Please, I need confirmation.

my S41 is glued so i can’t open it without damaging the head :person_facepalming:

It looks like we are looking at nickel. All Noctigons are very thin coated gold on the outside, nickel underneath to help the with the gold bonding, and then the solid copper under the nickel. Around the indentations, you can see all 3 layers.

The gold can be removed practically waving super fine grit sandpaper over it, while the nickel takes a little bit of rubbing. I've sanded down many a Noctigons over the years.

Thanks! It seemed aluminum.

X2

Looks awesome.

Bob

Q: is the bluing conductive, and can it be soldered to?

great job

thanks for your time to document it and share with us

btw your collection looks great

Great thread crx! that looks stunning with the black stripes.

Great job, it looks super.

CRX, what battery are you using? It must be 16340 or cr123? I just took about .005” off of each end of the battery tube to square it up and improve contact. I don’t think I can go any shorter and still take a 18350. Also mine is a S41 but I doubt there’s any difference.

V2 looks georgous!

Yes the coating came off mostly with acetone, should patina nicely now

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Yeah i think Toms explanation is right there

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C’mon, give it a shot like i showed, you can do it :wink:

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It’s just a thin layer of oxidised copper so would imagine it’s only slighly less conductive and would need cleaned before soldering

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Thanks :slight_smile:

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Yeah i think it does look better now

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That’s why i trimmed down the driver retaining ring and replaced the spring with a copper stud so as to leave plenty of space in the battery compartment.

Here’s mine with a flat top purple Efest 18350, still space for a button top

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V2, i like that

Amazing work!!! What’s your address, I want to send you mine :slight_smile:

(joking…kinda….not really)

Nice work sorting out the details - that’s where the devil is, & something we’ll probably never see coming off a production line in a budget light.

I’m thinking about changing mine to a forward clicky. Besides the switch, do i need any other parts? Just wanted to know before i tackle this.

thanks!

It’s a fairly simple swap, i think i just cut the nub off the rubber boot and used a slightly thinner washer.

Thanks for the tip. I was able to reuse the plastic washer and installed a forward clicky with spring bypassed. Much brighter!(and more useless as it heats up even quicker)

I was wondering if XP-L will fit under the optics? Or you think I should stick with XP-L HI?

I was wondering the same, the new XP-L2’s might fit but i haven’t looked at it properly yet.
I did buy an extra optic so will probably install some higher powered emitters even if the optic needs modified a little :smiling_imp: