And another poor helpless soul bites the dust! 
Mostā¦ All the folks on this forum are somewhat addicts. Those of us that build lights from scratch on machines are ā¦ummmm wellā¦.ummm ā¦ā¦ Anyway, welcome to the dark side! 
TL
Obsessed?
Great light Dale!
Only while Iām awake Frank, only while Iām awake.
That, or frustrated wannabeās. Iāve spent a lot of time documenting how to get by without a lathe along with other more talented getbyers like Comfychair and one by one they are opting for the lathe. Tells me something. No idea what as Iām unusually dense but Iām sure thereās a message there somewhere. Offhand Iād say Iām cheap and lazy, too cheap to buy a lathe and too lazy to do it entirely by hand. And too addicted to stop.
Sometimes I still use the old techniques, itās easier than going out to the shop, uncovering the lathe, setting everything up, for a small job that could already be finished by hand.
I did that with this light, the copper pill was jamming and not sitting all the way down onto the shelf I cut for it. Sure, I could have taken the pill out to the lathe and turned it down a bit, or opened up the area above the shelf, but I chose to file the pill by hand and fit it instead. The risks were far less.
Itās trueā¦I just couldnāt take it any longer. Heās already checking with a few of his retired buddies and is pretty sure there are several unused lathes (lathen, laxen? whatās the plural for lathe anyway) in barns and garages with my name on them.
Lathy? Lathi? Migraine?
FWIW, I ordered 2 different materials for replacing the G10 Optic retaining ring. Should I start a poll? lol
Brass or 7075?
Came so very close to paying $44 for a piece of Beryllium Copper plate in full hard, reputed to be as hard as a tool steel while having the electrical and thermal properties of copper. Thought about making a full cap for the business end of this material, holding in the optic and dressing the output end at the same time. But dang! $44 plus shipping for the end cap? I donāt think thereās $50 worth of stuff in the entire rest of the light! (all told it all comes to ~$44 in materials, then some 26 hours of tinkering.)
Moldmax Hh Beryllium Cu Rod as copied from onlinemetals.com
MOLDMAX HH BERYLLIUM COPPER ROD
MoldMAX HH (High Hard) is the premier copper mold alloy. This alloy has a hardness and strength comparable with standard tool steels but its thermal conductivity is four to six times higher.
MoldMAX HH is used for injection mold cores and cavities and blow mold pinch-offs.
Due to the unique combination of thermal conductivity and strength available in these copper mold alloys, you gain advantages like:
Shorter cycle time
Improved plastic part dimensional control
Better parting line maintenance
Excellent corrosion resistance
The high hardness of MoldMAX HH provides durability in applications where other high conductivity copper alloys fail. The alloy resists galling against other mold alloys, including itself.
It looks like my favorite cell just found a new home inside an AWESOME one-off build! The unprotected TF32650 provides around 6700 mah and resists v-sag like a 26650 imr that continues to pull like a carbon nano-tube freight train. AFAIK, no other enthusiast level cylindrical cell of its size or smaller has yet to match its overall performanceā¦ period. Especially as it serves our hobby.
Sheās a real looker DB. Thanks for posting such mouth watering pics. Pump them out on a CNC and align your expenses, and I bet youād sell them by the hundreds.
NO DALE! NO! For all concerned, Beryllium Copper can be and is highly toxic. They shouldnāt sell this stuff on the open market. Combined with phosphates in some oils, coolants, etcā¦.and the fine particles sometimes produced during machining, this is bad stuff. The action of machining can and does build a toxic layer on the material itself. This can be transferred simply by touching the surface with your bare hand. The list of what makes Beryllium toxic goes on & on. We do some specialized machining for a medical company in Beryllium and after machining, they want the parts vacuum sealed before being shipped to their facilities as they fear the contamination that bad. We use one machine, change the coolant, run a vacuum, everything you can imagine to prevent contamination. Just leave this c**p alone.
TL.
EDITā¦. HEREā¦. READ THISā¦. LEAVE THIS STUFF ALONE!!! This is just a tiny bit of what is known about this metal.
Too late, Iāve been using Tellurium Copper to make heat sinks. It machines so much easier. My SP-03 has a huge one in it, and Iāve been using it for X6 triples, as well as the X5 Quads. Pretty sure my DBC-02 has it on the outside where the fins are as well. I EDC this one.
I donāt normally use any oil or coolant at all, if that makes any difference. Pretty sure Iāve got about 9-10 inches of 1.375ā bar stock left for the triple sinks. (at $100 a 12ā bar, you can bet Iām not throwing it away!) I did do a lot of research before hand and it seemed primarily to be an issue of breathing the dust particles.
Edit: Besides, I kinda like the light glow it produces, helps me find the light in the dark. (this is a joke, it doesnāt glow, man it sucks to have to use disclaimers just to kid around!)
Iāll dig deeper and make sure I understand it better.
Safe Handling Information as taken from the Materion Data Sheet as it pertains to moldMAX, which has ~2% Beryllium which is a higher percentage to attain a higher hardness capability than the bar stock I bought for heat sinks.
SAFE HANDLING OF COPPER BERYLLIUM
Handling copper beryllium in solid form poses no special health risk. Like many industrial materials, beryllium containing
materials may pose a health risk if recommended safe handling practices are not followed. Inhalation of
airborne beryllium may cause a serious lung disorder in susceptible individuals. The Occupational Safety and Health
Administration (OSHA) has set mandatory limits on occupational respiratory exposures. Read and follow the guidance
in the Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) before working with this material. For additional information on safe handling
practices or technical data on copper beryllium, contact Materion Brush Performance Alloys, Technical Service
Department at 1-800-375-4205.
EDIT: MY BAD, I remembered wrong, again, I have been using Tellurium Copper for heat sinks. Sorry. I thought the moldMAX with itās high hardness looked good for an end cap/retaining ring on this DBC-03. Not happening though, as a 1ā piece in 2ā diameter would cost me some $60 shipped. Upon reflection, the majority of such a piece would become curlies in my scrap box. So, No, I am not sacrificing $60 in this manner.
Geesh, this all getās so confusing. Proofreading I see that I did indeed get it right on what I have been using for my heat sinks, and yes, the Beryllium High Hard might would give a nice end cap for this light but is cost prohibitive. Sorry for the confusion, just me being me.
I do have some architectural brass and 7075 Aluminum on the way for making this new end piece, will have to decide which way to go when they get here.
LOL. You just donāt want to breath BeCu dust particles so donāt sand it or grind it. Itās fine otherwise.
Still not sure how something as heavy as copper could have airborne dust particles. Perhaps if someone worked in a machine shop and made lots and lots of parts with it, this could come into play. A key word in the data sheet was āsusceptibleā, so it appears not everyone would be affected by breathing it anyway. I donāt know, but I wonāt be scraping up lines of red-gold dust and inhaling them anytime soon, to be sure.
Sanding, filing, grinding, polishing, scotch brite, all make lots of dust. Machining, generally not much.
I was gonna say the same thing here.TexasLumens is right. That beryllium is bad stuff.
Like others have said, don't ever grind it without a respirator and protective clothes. Keep the dust off your skin and out of your lungs. Use disposable gloves when handling. The stuff will mess you up!
As for handling raw chunks of the stuff it's not as bad but you still should wear gloves.
Because of constant exposure, I've had to endure many hours of safety training in this field of aviation and beryllium, cadmium, zinc chromate, and phenolic, along with many other things, are some heavy hitting carcinogenic materials that should be used with caution.
I'd use it if it were free. It's good stuff, but dang expensive.
There are so many āsafeāā¦ āsemi safeā metals and materials to work with why would anyone want to mess with the Beryllium. ANDā¦ why would one want to put that material on a flashlight that the grand kid might just decide was a pacifier?
The Tellurium as far as I know is quite safe and machines beautifully. Stick with it.
Folks would be totally shocked to see the metal dust fine as talc made when running metals without coolant. Somewhere I have a safety video showing the talc fine particles being generated during a machining process. Iāll post it if I can find it.
As I saidā¦ that PDF I put the link to is just one tiny portion of what Beryllium copper can do. TL
BeCu is unique among metals and has many desirable properties. Designers choose materials based on their properties.
Seriously gave some thought to getting a slim piece of Mokume Gane for the retaining ringā¦
Tweaked the tail end this afternoon for a final fit and finish.
Before:
After:
Should have the final pieces sometime end of week to make the finished optic retaining ringā¦
Nice job, that looks like a very capable light. 14+A is some serious current for a triple xpl. Is your trustfire 32650 different from the one that HKJ tested? That one has a relatively high resistance ~80 mOhm, which seems high to provide 14A to the triple xpl.