Maximum sustainable lumens? (build)

A while ago I asked for help with shipping and DavidEF was kind enough to lend a hand. I appreciated it so I offered my services in return. Shortly after doing so the ebay seller I was trying to buy from contacted me and said they could ship direct to me. I didn’t want to renege on my deal with DavidEF and what he wanted kind of lined up with something I wanted to do anyway but hadn’t got around to it yet. So we agreed on a little bird price (cheap cheap).

From memory the goal was “an srk that can sustain 6k lumens from 4* sst-40 (or direct drive without thermal kick-in until the batteries run down)”. Now I have my reservations as to whether this is possible. I looked up other lights that sustain that kind of power and they are pretty much all actively cooled lights. Be that as it may I won’t let it stand in the way of this build :smiling_imp:

I don’t have an srk but I do have a Trustfire df009 which has a nice 4* 18650 body. The battery setup is 2s2p but for some reason I had it in my head that it was 4s. DavidEF will supply the electrical gizzards and I have a reflector on hand that’s suitable but doesn’t fit the df009 head so I need to conjure up some kind of custom head.

Side note - just recently Dale mentioned his 458 Ham’r which I had to revisit. Kind of similar idea - srk style with custom head.

I drew on the power of the gods to rise above the chicken scratches that I normally do :crown:

Start with one big lump of aluminium and hope and pray it doesn’t slip in the chuck :confounded:



To make sure the head was bored to the correct depth to suit the reflector I had to make up some centering rings and do a test fit. These were a bit of a pita so I only made 2 of them to get me past this point. Later I try to make them again… and again…. you’ll see :wink:

Phase 1 complete. More to come tomorrow :smiley:

As someone who enjoys seeing things get built or repaired and trying to get a degree in electrical engineering, how did you get all the skills and knowledge to do everything you are doing in the photos?

Nice work, looking forward to the incoming phases.

I am very much like you, I like the creation of stuff. I took the plunge a few years back. I screwed up a wad of cash and threw it at a lathe. Then spent lots of time learning hands on and internet searching. I even asked here on blf .

Machining is a wide subject with lots to learn and there is usually more than one way to achieve something. There are numerous other guys here on blf with lathes and even 1-2 with CNC machines. I am just a hobbyist.

Next I made the bezel

Release the bezel from the chuck and mount the head again with bezel in place ready for shaping

To mount the head so I could work the other end of it I had to make a mandrel.

Great project, is it basically a beefed up Q8 with SSt40?

Great machining skills and pics as well :+1:

Nice pp. what is the reflector / glass or are they srk?

you’ve definitely got the hang of that lathe… :+1:

Subscribed with interest in this project.

I guess you could think of it as a beefed up Q8, though this reflector might have a bit more throw. Thanks mate :beer:

The reflector is bigger than srk. It’s from kaidomain and the lens is from banggood . I’m glad I stepped up in lathe size. This one suits me better :slight_smile: Thanks mate :beer:

Orsm machining pp. What driver are you using?

I won’t be using any driver :disguised_face: DavidEF will is making the stuffing :smiley: We talked about a LD-M2 so I have made allowance for that to be fitted.

Milling out a flat spot for the switch was a challenge.

It looks good in the pics above but in reality I didn’t have the setup done perfect and didn’t realize because I couldn’t see well enough. The next 2 pics are the actual view angles I had.

As a result the milling was not central. I don’t think the part slipped (which was possible because of the way I set it up) , I think it was the initial alignment of the setup.

I tried to make it right but again I couldn’t see much so it’s still not perfect :person_facepalming: I moved onto cutting out a hole for the switch. That also didn’t turn out as good as I hoped. I went a fraction too deep and cut into the internal threads :person_facepalming: This is not such a big deal since it will be covered but I still didn’t like making the mistake. People make mistakes but when they come one after the other… :rage:

I didn’t fit the switch assembly until I was pretty much done with the rest of it. When I did fit it… yup I had issue with it :weary:

This looks amazing. Please consider making more and selling for profit if it’s successful. Btw the Imalent DX80 and the Olight X9R can sustain those lumens and are not actively cooled. But they are much larger.

Thanks for the positive comment though. For some reason I thought both of those lights were actively cooled. However they do both have thermal ramping. I wonder what lumens they can actually hold after thermal has kicked in?

7 to 8k lumens fir the DX80 and 6.5K lumens for the Olight

The build looks awesome mate!
Its good to see some scratch made lights and lathe work back on BLF :smiley:

Could you measure the base of the reflector for me?

Looking good so far! That button assembly looks good!

That sounds promising. We might hit the target with this build :partying_face:
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It’s not 100% scratch made but I agree, it’s always good to see pics of lights in the making on blf :beer:
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Lucky for you I didn’t get to the post office on Friday to send it to DavidEF.

Thank you! That’s even better! (didn’t dare to ask you to make such drawing :innocent: )

I don’t know what you need the measurement for but just one dimension usually isn’t enough to work with.