A Perfect Dedome?

Think'n for those type of chemicals, might be best to get the names right.

Really didn't think we could get MEK in NY - thought it would have been banned. NY and Cal are pretty tough on these things...

Long Island used to be known for potatoes, now it's breast cancer - good rule on LI: don't ever buy a home built on an old potato farm, and don't drink the local water. Sometimes there's good reasons for bans. So off to buy some MEK . It's at my local homedepot here.

Just thought i would add this in about dedoming the new style Cree LED’s. They will dedome completely with MEK, however be careful not to aggravate the phosphor. It becomes very soft and I’ve just ruined one by smudging it. If you slice about half the dome off before you soak it, it should only take 20-30 minutes until it swells, at the point it will pop off with the slightest nudge, unfortunately when I did one today I pushed the dome across the phosphor slightly and it ruined it. I’d recommend giving it about an hour to harden again before trying to scrape the excess of the surface.

How is the tint shift after this method?

It’ll warm up the tint a bit. If I know I’m going to dedome, I’ll start with a 1A tint or so and it usually comes out pretty neutral. But then again, I’m colorblind so I may not be the best judge :frowning:

Thanks! So you can’t tell if it shifts to green?

The Lowes near RFM (just off the Meadowbrook and OCR) has gallon cans of MEK, xylene, toluene, acetone, whatever your chemical-craving heart desires. Lots of contractors use that stuff as solvents and for cleaning, and for good reason, because they work.

The problem is irresponsible companies and illegal dumping, that made half of LI one big Superfund site. All that stuff leached into the top-level aquifers, to the point where they’re polluted coming out of the ground. You gotta drill past those into the deeper aquifers to get any kind of potable water.

I’m in Queens, but haunt Nassau and Suffolk fairly regularly.

Yeah, just what I need… another green flashlight. :stuck_out_tongue:

I used to work at a plating, anodizing, and testing/inspection factory in Farmingdale, which later became a super fund site . Those old leaking vats were nasty... Was fun in my young days, glowing green under the black lights at the disco bars (I worked with spraying Zyglo for testing for cracks in aircraft parts, struts, etc. - black lights used to find where it bleeds out from the cracks).

Thom2022 - I'll have to try the MEK then on the new LED's - thanks for the tips though! Does anyone have #'s for the fully dedomed XP-G3's compared to the XP-G2's? If I can get one dedomed, would love to try it in my BOSS1.

Interesting about how the phosphor softens up. That was my impression from saabluster's picture - phosphor looked softer than normal.

Nope. That’s usually a bad thing, but I guess it’s good for flashlights - if I happen to get a green tint I’ll probably never know (and therefore, care).

Want a brandy-new Zanflare F1? :smiley:

This is just an observation and I have de-domed a few emitter’s. I like to do the hard ones, the XHP35-50-70’s. I run them up on the heat sink cycle them, getting them HOT, then chemically de-dome them, the phosphorus seems to harden up, I can usually (gently) back scrape with the edge of a razor blade,pick off silicone and eveb rub with a soaked in thinner/pure alcohol Q-tip (again gently) and not disturb the phosphorus. I also hit it pretty close with a couple blast of canned air. All ways being aware of the bond wires.

edit: I also cycle the emitter on the heat sink after de-doming, to burn off any residual chemical or even silicone on the big emitters, saves you from smoking up a reflector! :wink:

Wouldn’t they just cool off once they hit the dedoming solution? Or do you prewarm the solution as well?

I’ve thought of running the emitter while in the solution but then I wised up. I don’t really know if a live emitter could ignite an mek solution but it sure seems like a bad idea…

I think with a new emitter, the phosphorus is wet/mushy “FRESH” if you will and once they are heated up the phosphorus gets hard. Only seen this on the big quad die emitters, normally the single die emitter except for a few XPL’s I never had to remove left over silicone, a blast of canned air takes care of it.

If I’m not going to use any of the emitters I do de-dome immediately I store them in a (plastic) film can, with the fluid I use, till I need them. The phosphorus remains harden, the fluid does nothing to soften it back up. Again just an observation from my personal experience.

Hmmmm, so it anneals somewhat after heating? Interesting…

I was gonna DD an XP-G2 I just got, right out of the tin. Should cook it a while, I guess…

G2’s are simple, 20-30 minutes in Imron Thinner quick blast of air, done!

Sounds easy enough. I’m just cheap enough to not want to ruin any “practicing”. :smiley:

No kidding! You store them in MEK indefinitely? Can I ask why?

Never used MEK, :smiley: Been wanting to try it though? I use three different chemicals, no heat, agitation.I store them Imron Thinner. Just something I pieced together, thru trial and error, most of the clues coming from MEM! (slower process)
The XHP35-50-70’s are quite expensive, slow and steady works best for me!

Ah. Ok… so you have another throw-juice brew as well… but why store them in thinner?

Does gas dedoming work with terpentine or white spirit? Has anybody tried this yet?