Hilarious! I waited a few moments for the picture to load before I realized what you did… 
Working on it, yesterday, knucklehead II 
800lm 10250 powered this time
I will not wait for the battery tube replacement of the Astrolux S42 that came in today, so I created enough space with the current battery tube for an Aspire 18350 battery to fit: Upcoming Astrolux S42 18350/18650 quad w side button and usb charging - #200 by djozz
Finally was able to crack open a few stubborn lights with thread lock on them. The pine board method worked great. Lights I opened were:
- original glued bezel Astrolux S41
- Nitecore MH20 bezel
- Lumintop SD26 bezel
- 3 K2's, FandyFire and SolarStorm
Some with pics, not all. SD26:
Older FandyFire K2:
The full K2 family:
Those springs were a source of lots of lost amps on a DD FET mod.
Weapons of choice. I got two of those Husky strap wrenches, think I got them online a while back. The board is 2 1/2" by 3/4" pine. The hole is 1 1/2" for the SD26 and K2 tailcaps. The clamps are pretty decent ones, 5" and 6" size. You really have to crank down on the C clamps, otherwise the light will still rotate in the hole. Doing the 3 K2 tailcaps, it got harder and harder. First two were done with the battery tube in the hole and the strap wrench on the tailcap. Last one was slipping bad, so put the knurled tailcap in the hole and strap wrench on the battery tube.
The S41 used a smaller hole, than the MH20 slightly larger - same technique but different board/hole from what's shown below. I knew these husky strap wrenches were good, but was always really hard to use two simultaneously. By using the clamped board, it gives you a rock slid foundation you can easily hold, then the strap wrench can produce a huge amount of torque. For the old FF K2, a couple of years ago I tried everything - strap wrenches, torch, even boiled it in a bag for 30 mins - nothing worked. The main reason to get the K2 tailcap off is to add a bypass wire on that super long spring - way too much lose's there.
This went not so bad, but it's all in the prep work. If I were to do it again, I'd use a slightly wider board at 3.5" or so. The hole has to be a pretty tight fit as well, and you use the cut slits as compression points. The great thing about this method is no damage whatsoever. At first I thought there were marks, but then easily rubbed off with isop. alcohol. Also the trick to the strap wrench is make the loop loose, then when you start twisting, that metal swivel flips over and creates incredible pressure while pinching the strap, so no need to hold it tight. Only thing I should have used was some steel pipe to help tightening those C clamps, and might have helped over the handle of the strap wrench as well.
Copying from the buck and Boost thread, its been quite a fun week. Finished up 3 builds today, all using the new KD H1-A Boost driver in places it shouldn’t fit. Well, I made it fit. I like this driver a lot, it allows me to put 2S+ emitters in more places just using a single cell, with around 90% efficiency to boot.
1st up is the light engine I made for the new Desert Tan S2+ when I get it. MTG2 4000K at 3.5A. In a Green S2+ for a test bed. Really cool to have an MTG2 on a single cell in an S2+. Pill is a stock pill with the driver pocket machined out. Reflector is stock reflector with the emitter hole enlarged by hand with a hobby knife.
Next up is my new XHP50.2 Convoy C8. Running an H2 30G 80+ CRI emitter at 3.5 amps. I love this light, super bright and even on full blast the C8 host can take the heat. I had to machine out the driver pocket and file the driver ground ring to the vias, but the stock retaining ring allows a near 20mm driver in the hole.
Finally we have a Blue S2+ triple with 3x XP-G3 S4 E1 (6500K) emitters in series, running about 1.2A. This light is a gift for my fiance, so I chose a current that can be run on high continuously without overheating so she can set it down and use it for area lighting without worry. She also likes cold white, hence the 6500K emitters. The triple series setup works fantastic, and I really like the mode spacing on this driver. Low really is nice and low, while high is crazy bright for only 1.2A. Copper pill is one from kiriba-ru which I modified for 20mm driver. Very nice pill.
Nice mods Jensen567. Your fiance is a lucky girl.
Thanks for the tips and pictures Tom. They will come in handy.
Thanks for explaining the pine board method Tom E. If I run across this issue, I would stick the boards into a vice since I only have 1 c-clamp. Those springs do look pretty cool despite the loss of current.
How did you mad it fit? Did you reduced the diameter a bit or did you only soldered it to the pill?
Hoy did you do it on the convoy C8? There is only room for 17mm driver, isn’t it?
I was sceptical about this idea, but he done it well. He bored driver place and underdriver place.
Yes, for the S2+ pills I bored out the driver pocket to fit the 20mm board, then soldered it to the pill. For the C8 I was lucky that the stock retaining ring is almost 20mm, so I expanded the pocket, then shaved the edges of the driver until it just cleared so I could use the retaining ring. If that didn’t work it would have been harder, since I can’t just solder it to aluminum.
This is my first mod today on a Convoy L6 today.
Decided to follow through with my second mod on my F13 immediately after.
Cree XP-L HI V3 1B led on a Noctigon XP32 mcpcb with an MTN 22mm FET driver with a copper spacer and optics from kiriba-ru.
Used Arctic Silver 5 thermal paste on the mcpcb and glued the spacer with some heatsink plaster. :weary:
It’s not a clean professional work and my photos need improving too.
But both the flashlight works and I am really happy.
And I will get better at my soldering skills and hopefully will improve with time.
Looks good to me! Everyone has to start somewhere with soldering, and the best way to get better is just to keep doing it.
2s emitters with 3s cells? Nice. I bet it pulls 45A or so.
Yep 2s emitters with 3s cells. I was a little hesitant to do it this way so I started with longer wires 12 gauge I think. Crossed my fingers and tested it first without the tailcap. Nothing fried so I took it out and played with it. Not a problem at all and ran it down to where the batteries needed charging. Last night I shortened half the wires and no problem, then I shortened them all down to really short and still fine. I might try 10 gauge wires next and see how that goes. Although I think I might already be where the batteries are maxing themselves out. The batteries were getting hot already so it’s probably about where it’s getting iffy to push it more. It’s interesting for sure. The high is about as bright as any of the super flooders I’ve made in the past. Then the Turbo kicks it up to whole other level.
I’ve got an 18xXML / 5x32650 light that I might try next. Maybe see what five batteries into 9 sets of 2x XHP-50’s does. I’d have to sell some more stuff to finance it though. So it might be a while.
Dedomed a 219C 4000K today, using “wasbenzine”. (gas dedome)
Results are pretty satisfactory: Dome popped of when I lifted the whole thing pincing the dome, no phosphor was taken and the die is silicone free!
Not the cleanest around the die, but hey, who cares? 
Tint seems to have gone warmer, but not by a lot and not as yellow
Did I say this was my first dedome?
(sorry for awful cellphone pic)
Nice work Jensen!
That driver is seriously interesting, your post made me think i have to buy it and mod something which is held impossible before
Today I added green and cool white mixed lighted tailcap to my S41
And got a really used Nitecore P12 for repair. It has broken solderswhich peeled off the pads, some water ingress signs, broken capacitor, so it’s pretty much dead. It was really hard to loosen the glued bezel. It has some scratches before but when the pipe wrench cutted through the bike inner tube It made some big marks.
So they will buy a new one and I got the whole light to do with it what I want. Maybe I try to resurrect the driver. But if not I will put in something with Narsil maybe.
Good job on the dedome doubleone44!
fixed up an eveready “junior captain” 1aa for a neighbor kid.
since i didnt have any #112 bulbs and the family already uses 18650 stuff i put a 5mm ebay hi cri and 4.7 ohm resistor in an empty base.
got the switch stuff cleaned up and working right and dropped the conversion bulb and a 14500 li-ion in it.
probably 10x the light of the original bulb and 100% reversible.
light was his grandfathers and one of the few surviving items he has from him.
another restomod.
Modded some more pipes
