Nice, like the look a lot.
Happy to finally see the project light. Nice work and features.
Are all the usual X6 triple parts, optics and spacers used without mods?
Amazing mod pd. The way you make this work is black magic to me but what black magic it is. :+1:
Mostly.
Tom E compared the X6 and X6R for me because I didn’t have the X6R yet and apparently the reflector on the X6R is slightly longer. I used an aluminium spacer from Nitro which is in middle of the two sizes kiriba(?) offers. When I got it it was too tall to fit both the lens and optic, and too short to fit without the lens. So I used arctic alumina to epoxy a stripped 20mm mcpcb to the bottom of the heatsink, then sanded it down a bit so the stack fits perfectly with just the optic, no lens. The stack has arctic ceramique between spacer and shelf, then I wrapped some copper sheet around the spacer to make it a tight press-fit into the light. The head pocket of the X6R still had to be opened up a bit at the top edge to fit the big Noctigon.
Thanks.
Guess the shorter X6 spacer from kiriba would be optimal to start with for using glass over optic.
Noctigon XP32 needs to filed and reduce diameter in the EE X6 but it is a perfect fit into the Astro SS.
Since the X2R I have been looking for some others in the R and BD family. Thanks for opening the door to possibilities on this light.
If you build your own drivers don’t forget to order some of my X6R boards. They’re the best pcb I’ve ever designed, and I’m a bit proud of them if you couldn’t tell 
Very cool! I’ll be watching to see how the beam turns out after the partial sanding.
nice mod.
did it took to long in the process stripping anodize and is the chemical dangerous?
Fantastic work, bud! I'm digging it! :beer:
Very nice. Innovative and great attention to detail.
Great mod, pd! It is using many skills to get to an amazing light!
Awesome build mate! Do you think there would much difference with heat sinking now you took the anodizing of? Wouldn’t mind to take the anodizing of a EE X6.
Great flashlight, I love your builds. Very innovative :+1: and completely beyond my knowledge level.
VERY nice mod!
thanks for sharing :)
It took me a couple hours to get all pieces done, but it is much faster for other people. I’m not sure what I did differently. You don’t want to get lye on your skin, so wear gloves. To be safe, you also want to be sure to only add lye to water, not water to lye.
I am assuming you are referring to emissivity ratings, which is a bit of an argument starter here at BLF. My opinion based on my knowledge of the matter is that those figures and rating are used completely out of context. In short, no I don’t think it makes any reasonable difference.
And your copper mods are completely beyond my skill level. I have a JM20 sitting here that I wish I could make as beautiful as yours.
Look'n Good! You are ahead of me for sure, but really want to do something like this. I got all/most of the parts.Texas_ace tipped me off that Arrow has great pricing on XP-G3's, so just ordered some yesterday, and another bunch today. They got free shipping this month, so only extra fee was NY sales tax, unfortunately...
I ordered these 5700K R3 bin 90+ CRI: https://www.arrow.com/en/products/xpgdwt-u1-0000-00fe2/cree
and these 5000K S5 bin 70 CRI: https://www.arrow.com/en/products/xpgdwt-01-0000-00me3/cree
For like $1.60 each, seems like a pretty good deal.
Hmm I’ll have to check out their site, I haven’t looked at arrow before.
You may already know, but ledsupply always has free shipping under a certain weight. They don’t have the newest emitters, but that’s where I get all my carclo optics and the photo red xp-e’s.
Ok - Arrow's site is a PIA, not organized well at all - can't search by CREE LED model for example. Also they got tons of listings with no stock and some with min 1,000 qty. I tried look'n for XHP50's and XPL's, but it's hard. Arrow Electronics has been around a long time. We've had the reps in at work, and buy from them time to time. They are similar to DigiKey and Mouser.
Ya got that right… PITA.
just spent 45 min on there and reducing the Cree selection. None of the G3 were in my list with obvious filters used. Got frustrated and just searched “XPGDWT” and 281 items showed up none of which were on there before. There is a lack of information on the G3, none have a color temp listed. Guess you need to know what you want before you go to Arrow.
Ohh, I went strictly by the CREE code and the CREE spec. Actually what I did was use the CREE datasheet, copied the P/N of one I was interested in, then searched Arrow for the P/N - that worked ok. Yes, the Arrow listing is pretty poor. They just don't know how to list LED's.