Mod - Sipik 58 with LED Lenser optic (picture heavy)

My 16500 cells arrived from Batteryjunction today! :sunglasses:

When I finished grinding yesterday I concluded there was enough room for either a 16500 cell, or the conductive and insulating sleeves needed to provide electrical connection for the e-switch … but not both.

Now I’m wondering if maybe I can do both. Both should be the best possible mod for this light: (1) the increased capacity of a 16500, combined with (2) the enhanced UI and quiet switching only possible with an e-switch.

Perhaps instead of a sleeve wrapping all the way around the inside of the tube, how about a thin strip that runs down the tube. If I can dig a slot for this strip without destroying the tube, it might work. Even the slot penetrates the o-ring slot in the neck of the tube, the light might still work ok. Like all push-pull zoomies, this light isn’t waterproof. If it were, the zoom wouldn’t function properly. As such, hermetically sealing all the o-rings isn’t necessary or desired.

The Osh in San Rafael had around 8 of the lights plus 3AAA and 2C versions with successively larger optics. The AAA was $20 and the 2C about $30, both too much to pay for a host with mostly cheap parts. I picked up just one of the 2AA units. There’s not much travel in the zoom, only 3-4 mm.

Depending on the host and your needs the Efest 14650 has about the same capacity.

Great mod. I’m a fan of LED Lenser optics, just a shame that their lights are usually under-powered and over-priced.

Spent all evening working on this light.

I tried, but unfortunately there just isn’t enough room in the tube for me fit both the e-switch connection and a 16500 in the tube. Maybe with some additional grinding, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to risk that. At this point I opted against doing that. I might try that later with a spare battery tube.

On the upside, the tailcap e-switch is now fully functional with 14500s. It has very short travel distance and a soft touch. Moppydrv firmware so there are shortcuts to moon and turbo.

I have an sk68 on the way and I’m curious to find out how much it can be reamed. It seems the limitation is mainly the tail cap threads though I suppose a 5/8 compression fitting mod could allow bigger cells and sleeves allow longer ones too.

I think the battery tube on the SK68 is narrower at its narrowest point than on the SK58. This may mean less room on the inside to widen the tube.

On the other hand, the limiting point is often the threads, and both lights have identical tailcap threads. The tailcaps are interchangeable.

Since the od between the fins is larger than the OD of the narrow portion of the tube I figure I can lose everything back of the fins except the clip ring and ream under the fins and clip ring for at least a 16650 sleeve. A 5/8” compression fitting without the compression ring makes a nice tail cap and is ideal for up to 18650 and the sleeve tubing itself can just barely accommodate 18xxx after a bunch more reaming. After that it’s just a matter of what I choose to cover the sleeve with between the clip ring and the fins. Definitely silk purse/sows’ ear mod but I prefer hacking away at cheaper lights over expensive ones.

Nice! I look forward to seeing what you do with it. I love hacking up cheap lights. :smiley:

Last night I added an e-switch to this SK58.

Reassembled the bezel. Made a few changes this time:

  • Bezel is composed of 3 pieces: underlying aluminum bezel, optic, and an aluminum ring on the top to help protect the edge of the bezel.
  • First step is to glue the bezel in (I used Grey Stuff epoxy putty). While the epoxy is hardening, test it to make sure it is properly oriented and not tilted. Rotate the bezel around while testing to check the beam looks good no matter the bezel rotation.
  • Once that is cured, then attach the cover ring on the top edge of the bezel with more grey stuff.
  • Filed the edges for a clean smooth appearance that feels great in the hand.
  • Before assembly, I applied Birchwood Armory aluminum black to both pieces. I wasn’t too impressed with the result… the finish it produced was black, but not durable at all. I ended up filing it off the exterior portion of the bezel. It did work well for the interior however, where it helps to remove artifacts in the spillbeam.

Here is a picture of the new bezel:

Picture inside the business end:

Note that I removed some of the white epoxy I had on the sides of the pillar. This makes the view down the bezel look a bit uglier when the light is off but has no effect on the beam out the front.

Another picture down the business end this time in spot mode:

Beam pattern in flood mode. Beam is a perfect circle with little or no artifacts (note that these beamshots were taken on a cream-colored wall and do not accurately reflect the tint which is a clean 5000K 3D with no hint of yellow):

Beam pattern in spot mode from the same distance:

Not the tighest spot mode, but the pattern looks great and it sill has good throw. Ceiling bounce test reveals no noticeable loss of lumens when cycling between flood and throw.

Still to do on this light:

  • Polish the bezel
  • Consider removing the anodizing on the remainder of the light and polishing it.
  • Consider attempting to bore out the tube again to try to fit a 16500. This would require further work on the battery compartment and then widening the contact rings at the head and switch. Risky…

Hey firelight, making the pictures large doesn’t make them any bigger than the screen it just makes the text tiny. If you set size to 100% in the drop down box then the pictures only go to the same right side border as the text and both are legible.

How much zoom travel with that light. The Osh host only had ~1/8” and didn’t go all the way tight or all the way flood.

How do I do that? Where is this drop down box? Pretty much all I’ve been doing is emailing 10% size pictures from my phone, putting them in Photobucket and linking them directly. I’d be happy to adjust the formatting to make the thread look better if I knew how.

Zoom travel is 1/4”.

I’ll see about measuring the zoom angle.

My other bezel gets a slightly tighter spot mode where you can clearly see the image of the die, but I’m not sure it’s actually getting any more throw as there is a noticeable reduction in lumens if I let it go that far (as seen with a ceiling bounce test). Perhaps I should do some tests with my lux meter to see if there is a better position for max throw.

For the flood beam, it’s close, but probably not at the absolute max width. I didn’t want the top of the LED actually hitting the lens. I eyeballed it rather than taking precise measurements.

When you make a post there’s a row of icons just above the input window. The one of a sunset is used to import links to pictures. You tap the icon to bring up the window, then bring up photobucket(which is what I use as well and copy paste the direct link from PB to the first line in the window. The second line is size relative width, type “100%” there and click ok. The film clip is for linking video and the globe/chain link is for linking other web pages or posts.

It makes an image this size instead.

Thanks for the tip Rufusbduck.

All pictures in this thread have been updated. :smiley:

Thank you very much. Was the explanation clear enough? I use my phone sometimes but usually the iPad mini.

Very clear thanks.

Previously I was just copy-pasting the html link in Photobucket directly into my post. I’ve now learned the best way to do it is to copy-paste the direct link into the window with the icon into the window with the little button on it. Very helpful.

Tomorrow I’ll update the photos in my related e-switch thread.

The main difference is this is added at the beginning of the link. “{width100%}”

I removed the anodizing on my LED Lenser optic Sipik 58. Here it is polished up (right), next to my older aspheric lens with reflector sipik 58 (left)

Firelight2, would you be able to re-upload the pics?