Tractor Supply JobSmart Light Mods - ZOOMIE now has a T6 in it!

Flashlight Modding and DIY Parts
1

I picked up two JobSmart Brand lights at Tractor Supply today. $9.95@ One is a 3AA light with a fairly decent reflector (plastic of course) and the other is a 3AAA Zoomie. Both lights are Aluminum and "appear" to be polished looking. I know they aren't bare aluminum, so I imagine it's anodized. Overall the lights are cheapie. Scratches and scuffs on the outside and fairly poor threads on the inside, but the guts have been done fairly well. Emitters centered and they work! Single Mode On/Off.

They really are bright Aluminum, but the camera tints them from my incandescent bulbs at the work bench.

js1

js2

I kind of like the Zoomie and I will work on it first. I plan to put an XML-T6 in it, direct drive with the 3AAA batteries. I happen to have a gifted Deft lens that I am going to try to put in. 28mm fits right in this light.

js3

The other one will probably also get a T6, but I will do an OP finish on the reflector and both lights will be dressed up to "meet their maker".

More to come.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ok, I have replaced the emitter with a T6 and made a heatsink for it. The light is back together and I thought I would show you a few photos.

z1

The Light

z2

In Hand for Size

z4

Tail Cap

z3

Emitter is centered, I just didn't hold it right

z5

DEFT Lens

z6

emitter & copper pill inside the aluminum original hollow pill

z7

One of the boards from CNQG - just a plain board for a pathway.

z8

I Guess it's on

z9

My walls are Yellow, but this is still very bright.

z91

Zoomed out. Couldn't focus the camera, but I can see the lines clearly running across the die. Perfect!

Well, this one worked out fairly well. I did a tail cap reading on fresh eneloop AAA NiMH batts and read 3.16 amp from it. I love direct drive. No modes and pure power from AAA batts.

The other light will be a while, as I sold off all my emitters. I didn't figure to get these lights.......

2

in your opinion, is the saik sa-305 worth the extra $5?

3

O-L, that 3AA one does look similar to the SAIK SA-305, is it very similar? That heatsink looks identical. Seems the body is a little smoother, esp. the head. Might have to check this out.

-Garry

4

They look similar, but there are several differences. Overall, I think quality wise, the Saik is more hefty (thicker Aluminum), but other than that, they are about par. I wouldn't hesitate buying this one over the Saik, except for the fact that it is shiny, instead of black. I will be painting this one. The pill is hollow here, but it looks just like the Saik in most respects. The head is two piece and you have to remove the lower section to get the retaining ring out of the head, in order to get the reflector & lens out. For the money, I would buy the Saik, but for the 3-4 week lead time, I would buy several of these and either paint them, or try the RIT dye Ano process, to make them what you wanted.

5

Thanks for the info O-L. Guess I'll have to pick one up for myself and check it out. At least I should be able to get a "quick fix" since TSC is just 5 minutes away from my office!

dthrckt, you looked for these yet in your local TSC? Found them? I was just at TSC a couple weeks ago and they had nothing like this.

-Garry

6

no but I'll probably go today. I'm hoping to find the 3xAA but in black ;)

thanks for the info. if you think '33% off' this seems the better deal, but if you think 'just $5 more' the saik does :)

7

As I said, I think it's not the money, but the long wait time to get a Saik.

I am wondering if all the stores have this, or only soem. There are about 9 different lights in this bright aluminum group. They were all put up just the other day and many of them are gone, plus there has been no restocking, so it might be some kind of one shot deal that only went to some stores. There were no black ones, snd you could tell this whole line was done in bright only.

8

Well remember the SAIK branded as an Ampro is available on Amazon (assume it's coming from within the U.S.).

-Garry

9

The Zoomie now has an XML-T6 in it and there are new photos in the first post.

10

Well I didn’t know that. I haven’t looked for one in a long time. I prefer the polished, I think. I never did like that rough texture ano on that Saik. I don’t care for the odd sized plastic reflector in any of these variations. I like aluminum reflectors and glass lenses, but I will use the stock stuff to get this one done, because I don’t want to waste the money on it.

11

Nice job on that zoomie! I wonder what runtime would be like. Those AAA's can't be putting out 3A for long, eh? (Heck, I didn't expect you could get 3A from any AAA's.)

-Garry

12

You can get 5A from them, but not for long. I will do a runtime test tonight at work and let y’all know.

13

Nice job, as usual !!

14

Very confusing Technical Details and description from the Manufacturer on the Amazon site for that light!

15

Nice work. You should do the RIT process for sure if you can figure out how to make it work.

16

I did a lot of research on it, a while back and I was serious, but in the end, I just don’t want any of that acid at home. (other than in the car battery that is). I gave up on it and I still wish I could do it, but it’s not safe to me and that’s it. I’ve seen the results of Sulfuric Acid and neither of the people involved fared well. They lived, but you couldn’t tell that by looking at them.

17

I’m with you there! I was just looking at the recent thread on here where RIT was used and it appears that it only involved a little lye and RIT.
I’ve never used lye either but my impression was that it wasn’t that hard to handle. Didn’t people used to make soap out of it?

18

Lye is the deanodizer, surface prep.

Sulfuric Acid is the anodizer, with electrical current. Here's a fairly good link, there's lots of others.

Caswell makes expensive kits, but they've been doing all this stuff for a long time.

19

hope i'm not thread crapping...

lots of new lights

4xAA (non-showerhead) is easily the best deal imo. Too bad the 3D isn't zoomie :(

3xAA (physical serial) is interesting - 11 green leds, 1 xpe

camo/orange blood tracker on top left

2C silver is a zoomie, too bad it isn't 3c (easy to convert to nanjg)

big 4xaa showerhead looks to have screw on bezel (ie convertible to reflector or aspheric) but is more expensive than HF 109led showerhead...

20

Yes, and you can make soap from people out of it too; it will saponify your flesh.