In another thread I asked if I should rip the guts out of this HID host with an ice pick.
I've included a few pictures from that thread for continuity of this build.
That nylon/plastic bushing wouldn't come out, and the whole guts seem to be encased in epoxy.
I tried drilling, but there was no way it was coming out. Comfychair pointed out that heat softens plastic.
Soften...hell...I set it on fire. Whatever it is, it burned like a can of sterno for thirty five minutes.
After yanking out carbon and crusty components, the whole plug of epoxy came out.
This HID light doesn't have any heat sinking, just the thin aluminum battery tube.
This copper fitting looked about right, so I cut in two.
It's a tad too big, so I cut it lengthwise so it could compress.
I really had to sledge hammer to get it in. It's not coming back out...ever.
You can see where the gap reunited.
Now for some heat sinking
I just about wore my arm off cutting through this copper bar stock.
Lots of hand filing.
Before I pounded in the copper slug, I coated the edges and the inside with solder paste. With all that copper, I thought my torch was going to run out of gas before the solder melted.
Nice and shiny.
I used a step bit to widen the reflector hole so it would fit over a 20mm MTG Noctigon.
Of course now I have to add more copper to reach the height of the reflector. More cutting and filing and soldering.
There's over 5oz. Of copper in there.
I broke one bit trying to drill wire holes through all that copper. It was taking me ages. I was even throwing it in the freezer.
I PM'd Old Lumens, and he suggested lubricating with WD40. That did the trick.
Okay. Here's where I feel really stupid.
Next I wanted to fit a battery carrier and figure out how to add a switch to the back end.
What the hell! Did this host shrink?
Fully compressed I can only get the cap to come within a couple mm of the threads. What's going on here. I never checked the tube length before I started. What for? Custom cells? I dropped the cells inside with no carrier, and the cap just screws down.
If I don't figure this mess out, this build will be a great big FAIL.
I'm too tired and hungry to think about this anymore. I'm going to have nightmares.
