FW3A, a TLF/BLF EDC flashlight - SST-20 available, coupon codes public

Not much help but I like all three versions.

Sounds like a very nice light. Sign me up for one light!

I donā€™t much care for the bead blasted look.

It would be a toss up between dark grey and bare for me. I like the milled horizontal lines on the BLF light pictured above but Iā€™d bet that a bunch of people wouldnā€™t care for the ā€œunfinishedā€ look.

A dark grey would be a nice change over traditional black. I love my Zebralight, although I wonder how many people involved with this thread would want immediate comparisons. Standing out in its own way might be better than appearing to be a knock-off. Maybe people donā€™t think that way but Iā€™d like this to be a bit more of an individual.

Also if there are going to be other materials in the future, an unfinished look would be shared between the different materials which would be pretty cool.

I like bead blasted.
I like anodized.
I like Grey.
I like most anything except bare Aluminum.

What, no green? :wink:

Here is another thought.
Fritz designed this light , let him decide the finish & the rest of us can just deal with it if it happens to not be our particular preference. :+1:

I like dark grey.
I donā€™t like the seams, those would really annoy me.
Bare /clear would be acceptable.
Not too keen on a fake silver shade.

I liked the original intention to try and show the work put into it, and it seems as if the best way to reflect that intention is to leave it mostly bare or maybe polished from bare. In another light, the anodization lets you do mechanical lockout by breaking the connection. Here, would this do the same thing regardless of anodization by keeping the inner tube from reaching far enough? If so, I think that would make a good case for leaving it bare or maybe seeing if they can polish it. Of course most but presumably not all of us may be willing to polish it ourselves, so long as it was just to make it shinier and not because of stains. I think itā€™s too easy to make the clear anodization look cheap, and not all of the prototype versions looked that good, but it might be alright. The seams were different version of the clear process, not accidents, right? I have the gray d4; itā€™s not bad but itā€™s not the look this was originally going for. I think bare makes sense.

I donā€™t understand why there are seams 90Ā° apart.

In the FW3A, current travels through the outer tube, the threads, and the driver retaining ring. Loosening the body from the head does not break the flow of power. However, it does break the connection to the switch, so it canā€™t be turned on/off when loose.

None of that depends on being anodized. The anodizing is a purely aesthetic feature on the FW3A, and not relevant for physical lockout. Plus, the soft lockout is quicker, only takes one hand, and is probably more effective.

TBH, I donā€™t know either.

Both prototypes had it, but itā€™s a lot more noticeable on proto2.

However, Iā€™ve heard that it took Convoy a while to get the clear anodizing right, and even then, it seems to be so thin that it can still conduct electricity sometimes. On my clear C8, I can measure electrical contact between a bunch of different places on the outer surface of the light.

I agree. No need to stretch this out even more.

So you can lock both on and off; which seems fine. Yeah, I thought the anodizing didnā€™t matter, thanks for confirming. Means thatā€™s not a disadvantage of bare.

Just an FYI: the above only applies to lights that donā€™t have a PC board that the spring is soldered to. The PCB is isolated from the tail cap and completes the circuit between the negative terminal and the main body by making contact with the unanodized end of the battery tube.

Was referring to emisar d4

Good example. You can see that the PC board isolates the circuit from the tailcap and you could sand off the anodizing and still have lockout.
Hereā€™s a link to a pic from TKā€™s review. http://toykeeper.net/torches/emisar-d4/full/tailcap-inside.jpg
That ring of copper is what the body touches when you screw it on.

But back to the FW3A, I canā€™t imagine any of us are too worried about the finish as this will be a ā€œuserā€ rather than a shelf queen. :laughing:

Hmm, yeah it does. I do remember hearing that it was not so with another; maybe thereā€™s some difference in the way the titanium one works, and thatā€™s what I was hearing about. But yeah, I donā€™t think for a moment this wonā€™t see some wearā€¦ might look better to not anodize and just polish scratches out as best as possible; regular anodizing isnā€™t immune anyway. I could go either way.

Anything except raw/bare.

The tailcap might be able to do lockout by loosening it, but I wouldnā€™t recommend it. Itā€™s not really meant to be unscrewed. It makes the clip loose, allows the tubes to slide relative to each other, and could still make contact by pushing the button hard enough to pop the rear PCB loose.

Soā€¦ keep the tail end tightened up unless youā€™re swapping the button or clip or something. Change the battery at the front end instead.

+1