5th Annual BLF OL Comp Build. Can A Flashlight Flash? The Naked Truth. Update post 151. Night shots added. 16.12.171

I don’t know how smooth the inside of the copper pipes are but if they are smooth you could be suffering from stratification, run a tap through them to create disturbance in the airflow to reduce the effects and improve cooling :smiley:
This will also increase the surface area more than drilling the hole bigger.

Cheers David

Really interesting to see what you end up doing with the cooling, Steve. Hope you can sort it out.

Oh - that would have been great to see that. Sorry you thought it was too similar to my build.

A mod and lots of testing was carried out today. l’ll post the results up when I get some more built.
Bathurst is getting in the way this weekend.

Some more heat testing was carried out after drilling the copper heat tubes out from 5.1mm to 6.35mm.
with an ambient temp of 11 degrees C and 21 watts of heat generated the head temp reached 51 degrees C. With the fan running of 8 volts temp dropped to 34 degrees C.
Raising the wattage to 43, two leds running at 5.5 amps, the temp of the head stabilised at 68.5 degrees C. With the fan switched on temp dropped to 43 degrees C.

Machining wise a lot of repeats have been happening. I’ll explain as we travel through this post.
New ends for the battery holders were machined up at three mm in thickness. I was not happy with the way they worked with the springs so they were remade five mm in thickness and new springs soldered to the opposite ends of the battery tubes.

A comparison with the new end against the OEM end.

The head was drawn up napkin style shown here with all the components going into the head.

And the head machined to what was drawn.

The battery tube was threaded on the head end.

Here are all the machined components sat on top of each other. The tailcap is missing as its not made yet.

The tailcap is shown here being machined from an old off cut.

And with the inside after machining had been finished.

A button was made up to solder onto the plate that will deliver the power to the driver. Its shown here with the threaded retainer.

The button here is shown soldered to the adaptor plate, an unused SkyRay king driver. This button was later removed and another soldered on a different thickness after the second lot of mods to the battery tubes.

The battery tube was then placed back into the lathe and parted of to length. This was a little nerve racking because if care is not taken a broken parting of tool will result along with a damaged work piece.

The end was then machined down to the correct diameter and threaded to suit the tailcap.

The battery tube with the head and tailcap assembled onto it.

The battery tube in the mill at the start of the machining. Some may not like what I planned for this but it is part of the naked them.

After breakfast I asked the sacked assistants if they would give me a helping hand. Do you think they would even raise an ear? No.

The flats being machined.

Yes, this part had to be re machined again as I did not realise at the time but the tube was rotating backwards and forwards when the 16mm grooves were being machined across the tube.

And finally the see through slots, larger than first planned :slight_smile: , were machined.

And the see through tube after a little cleaning up with some wet and dry emery paper.

And the final part of this update is the tailcap with the machining nearly finished. The very end is threaded 1/4’’ Whitworth so it may be screwed to a plate and the light used as a lantern when camping.

I’m having a serious case of lathe envy…

Totally off the topic question. You stated ” …drilling the copper heat tubes out from 5.1mm to 6.35mm.” That brings to my mind the question… do you, in modern day metric Australia have an actual 6.35 mm drill bit or is that actually a good old 1/4 inch bit? As someone who ardently wishes the USA switched to metric I am just curious.

And also totally off topic, if you know, what are the common building materials measured in in Australia? For example in the USA a sheet of plywood comes in a 4 foot x 8 foot sheet. It is also sold in Canada, a “metric”country, as a 4 foot x 8 foot sheet. What would the std. plywood sheet size be in the Land of Oz? Thanks, and pardon me for the digression.

Presently it is 60 F, or about 15.5 Celcius outside. Beginning to get somewhat chilly overnight. :slight_smile:

…. and then I see mention of 1/4” Whitworth, which totally confuses me. I haven’t seen Whitworth since the old ’48 Triumph motorcycle I once owned, many many years ago. (I used to ride it in the winter. I would stick a soldering iron in the oil tank to warm the oil before starting the engine. :person_facepalming: Line the front of my pant legs and jacket with newspapers to help keepwarm. :open_mouth:

To try and answer your questions Don.
I own very few metric drills I do have two drill sets starting at 1/16’’ to 1/2’’ with 1/64’’ spacing. Yes you have caught me out. I should of put 13/64’’ to 1/4’‘.
I was in primary school when metric was brought in here but for some reason use both imperial and metric in all sorts of things. :person_facepalming:
I’m not a chippy but a plywood sheet does comes in 2440 x 1220 which is pretty close to 8’ x 4’. My thumb hates bench saws. :frowning:
I dont have a 1/4 UNC tap but do have a 1/4 Whitworth. The only difference is 5 degrees in the thread angle and with the tolerance in threads they interchange nicely.
Have you any pictures of the 48 Triumph? You can revive this old thread if you do have any pictures. I love motorbikes but rarely ride these days. My only transport for many years was bikes and yes the cold could be very cold some days and nights. I never had to warm the oil though. :laughing: It was around 1988 when I bought a Dryrider jacket and pants that I found out you dont have to be cold and wet to ride on cold wet days.
lostheplot and I have ridden many miles together. He’s currently riding a Victory and I have a semi retired 850 Yammie in the shed.

Wow - what a weapon!

I thought the tube looked nice like this;

...then I saw the flats after that, where it had cut through, & thought "damn it!"

..then I realized it was the makings of a see-through tube.... which looks great! :D

Those sacked assistants should really be sacked... ;)

Cool :+1:

Where do you find the time…keep up the good work

Cheers David

MRsDNF, thanks for the metric/inch/whitworth saga. I moved from Canada to the US in ’85. Metrification had been underway in Canada and then I found myself “back in time” and fully re-immersed in inches, pounds and so on.

No pictures of the Triumph, sadly. Pretty much all pre 2000 photos burnt in a fire. The Triumph was an ex-military side valve 500 cc. IMy rear end still remember the spring hubrear “suspension”. I haven’t ridden 2 wheels for years. I became a huge thumper fan for some reason; one each of AJS, Matchless and a Manx plus a couple of BSA a long time ago. My first new bike was a 250 Ducati Diana. I never owned an American or Japanese bike. The last a Ducati 450 Mach 3D (desmo). I kept that one until ’95 when I was offered a tub of money for it. I have a memento of it still, one of the Silentium branded mufflers, everything but silent.

I do like the peek-a-boo tube :slight_smile:

The sacked assistants are nothing but flea bitten freeloaders that do nothing for their keep except make you take them for walks, look at you with puppy dog eyes, roll over and expect belly scratches when they do and give you lots of licks as they think you are dirty. I wont mention how many times a day they expect to be fed. :stuck_out_tongue:

I did also like the tube was looking FmC with the cross grooves in them and nearly followed that theme but common sense prevailed and kept going with the original thought. :+1:

The wife and family are being neglected while I’m out in the shed every spare minute ltp. I’m thinking they wish I was building more lights. :smiling_imp:

We seem to have a lot in common MD. You have had quite a few bikes I’d love to have ridden. Its a real shame about the fire. I hope all is well now.
One day we’ll have to have a drink together. :slight_smile:

WOW !

What a nice work there mrsdnf !!! I can’t pick something to say , everything in this light is precisely thought and made of course !!!

I've been avoiding these comp build threads because I'm always rushed and they take serious reading time to understand and appreciate. I couldn't resist and took a quick peek. Phenomenal. Your creations are always both inspiring and intimidating for me. Best wishes on the remainder of this build. Looking forward to really reading this thread at some point.

Thanks for the comments guys and taking the time to follow the build.
About being precisely thought out, well some parts may be but other bits are blindly stumbled through. :slight_smile:
Thanks for taking the time to peek in ImA4Wheelr. Your always welcome here. :sunglasses:

Its unfortunate l will not complete this build before the comps over. I’m heading off on holidays tomorrow and wont be back until next month. I will continue with the build then.

Apologies to all.

Have a great time! Time with a Dad has priority over nearly everything else like making another flashlight.

Have some Gong Bao chicken for me. :slight_smile: Maybe some egg tarts for dessert.

Thanks Don and l agree but will add mum is just as important. :slight_smile:

You have my mouth watering with your request. :+1:

:wink: As that is why I said ‘nearly everything else’. They’re equal but sometimes dealt with separately… Like me and my son going to an F1 (or other) race. Austin, TX today!!

No finish for Ricciardo today. I hope you both had a terrific time.
I’ve also been to the F1 race here in Melbourne with the old man a few times. The speed they go is to me incomprehensible. I reckon they would leave a cats reflexes for dead.

I’ve managed to sneak a few hours out in the shed today so have got a little more of the light finished.

The head was placed back in the mill and the hole for the switch assembly bored.

Four holes were drilled to screw the switch retain on. The drill bit here is 1.7mm or just over 1/16’’.

The swich retainer was machined up in the lathe and then placed in the mill to drill the four holes to match the ones in the head.

And here are the two pieces assembled together with four 2mm screws. No snapped taps this time. :slight_smile:

The top of the head was slimmed down to 7mm in width.

And a few pictures of a far from completed torch dummied up.

I’ll say it again; This thing is a weapon.

Swaps for a boat??