What did you learn today?

Sometime we learn new flashlight related tricks and skills. Sometimes these are too small to be worth having a thread of their own.
Let’s have a place to share them…

The day before yesterday I learned that placing a knife at the back of a magnet makes it pull stronger.

Today I learned to use it to save my most precious light.

CRX-modded Thrunite Ti4.
This light is XHP50 driven by a pair of 10250 cells.
Right from the start there was one problem with its use - it was easy to remove the first cell but the other was hard.
I would shake it off, with enough force it would fly in the random direction, if I was lucky it wouldn’t hurt anything.
If I got the forces right (still very fast move) it would barely protrude from the tube and I would remove it safely.

I didn’t charge the light for the last few months. Now I took it out to check the voltage…and the inner cell wouldn’t come out no matter how hard I tried.

As you can guess - the magnets went to the rescue.
I used a single small one that acted as cell contact (and allowed me not to short against the tube), 2 larger ones and a knife on top of it. It worked.
Note: a much larger stack on its own didn’t work. A much larger stack backed by the knife didn’t work either.

I checked too late, the cells are both below 3V :frowning:
Charging now…

Worst case, you can take a wire, screwdriver, anything that’d touch the back of the cell, put a teenytiny drop of Stoopit Gloo (cyanoacrylate) to it, and glue it to the cell, then pull it out.

The glue dissolves with AcMe (acetone), so it’s not permanent.

Same technique can work with stripped torx/allen screws. Ironically, the same bit that stripped the hole could be used to remove the screw. Just soak with AcMe to remove the bit from the hole.

I usually hold the light in one hand and slap it hard into the other, saves flying cells :smiley:
I have two MBI Nuke 10250 cells left for sale, if you want them send me a message :+1:

Today I learned that squeezing 800 lumen out of a copper Maratac for 4 minutes will make the light slightly warmer than my index finger could bear :person_facepalming:

1 Thank

Thanks for the offer CRX but I have 2 spares from you already, that’s enough for me. :slight_smile:
And hitting the other hand was FAR too little in this case. :slight_smile:

:+1:

Maybe you all know this already…

You can solder directly to aluminum if you solder it while slightly submerged in a small container of soldering flux, the trick is to scrape the aluminum and proceed to solder a blob while still submerged and not in contact with the air. works for tail caps when you want to bypass the spring and solder directly to the flat part of the tail cap. Took several attempts but it works!

You can make a part of the flashlight (like the clip or lettering or etc…) align to another (like the button) by lightly sanding using 2000 grit sandpaper on a piece of glass the rim of the battery tube just a small, small bit and checking for proper fit.

Works for aligning the flat portion of the BLF Q8 battery tube to the switch for example that some people find annoying when they are not aligned.

Edit
Maybe you should rename the title to “Tips and Tricks about flashlights you learned today” or something similar for easy search

I like the current name but if there’s more support for your proposal I’m open to changing it.

I received a Nebo Poplite yesterday.
It’s a funny light, it’s magnetically attached to a keychain and when you remove it from the keychain it lights up. Put it back - it shuts down.

It got its fist use before I got time to examine it properly. I was installing a wall outlet, it didn’t fit, the cell in my main light emptied.
Then 2 minutes later a spare did the same (hmm…a bad cell or a short)?
So I took the poplite and proceeded with it.
I needed both hands so the light was in the usual place, in my mouth.

After I was done I put it back on the keychain it only dimmed down somewhat, it didn’t turn off. Uhm…what? I quickly disassembled it - the battery was wet from my saliva.

It turned out that the tail has a huge open hole right to the negative end of the cell.
The switch is just a plastic rod that pushes the battery negative terminal away from the contact in the tailcap.

Lesson learned: don’t put a flashlight in a mouth unless you know it’s OK. :person_facepalming:

Thanks for this topic about flashlight tips that may be too small to have a thread of their own.

I popped over to the Nebo Poplite website, and sure enough, no rating is easily discoverable by me that indicates how resistant it is to liquid dihydrogen monoxide.

I mouthhold Nitewatch NSX53 3 x XHP50.2, Nitecore TM9K, E4K, S2 Baton, EC50, and Four Sevens MMU-X3 modded with 3 x XHP50.2 and so far, no untoward effects noted with the flashlights or my body, yet. I wrap black electrical tape around the tail ends. The only observable effect that this has on my mind is that it makes it much happier.

Currently, the NSX53 3 x XHP50.2 is my favorite EDMHC. I have three more in the mail, to make gifts of. And FW3A and D4V2 are coming, too, after I finally admitted to myself that they must be top rated favs for a few very good reasons. A comprehensive mouthhold test awaits them.

Thanks again!

learned how to pull the spring up to make better battery contact
without disconnecting the spring contact from the endcap.

Agreed… I like the name as is also.

Necrobump!
Okay, this isn’t about flashlights, but I did learn this recently and I didn’t feel like creating a new thread.
I take Sudafed PE on a regular basis for sinus headaches and sinus issues.
There was a thing on the news about how Sudafed PE doesn’t work all that great, which is something that I already knew.
What I didn’t know was that Sudafed PE can cause sleep problems, and it shouldn’t be taken near bedtime.
Last night, I did NOT take Sudafed PE near bedtime (like I usually do), and I got plenty of sleep for a change.
So, if you experience insomnia, and you take Sudafed PE (or anything similar) near bedtime, that might be the problem. :grin: