What did you mod today?

If youā€™re not real familiar with a Maglite and itā€™s inner workings, they build in a LOT of resistance!

Where the solid 12ga wire is coiled in at the base of the switch there was what appeared to be a small low profile spring. Itā€™s far longer than it looks and of course itā€™s steel, residing in a chrome plated steel cup. They donā€™t make them like this anymore, this is an older light. Nowadayā€™s they have a simpler switch assembly.

Oh, and thatā€™s not 12 AWG, itā€™s a solid piece of 12ga Romex house wire. :wink:

Wow. Thatā€™s a lot of resistance!

I personally get my wire from power cords.

Dumpster diving behind Staples is really helpful to find 18650s and power cords, and even a power tool once :smiley: :smiley:

Could someone explain to a newbie where in that picture is the resistance?

I understand what has been said about the spring. But I got an impression that the picture was supposed to show other significant sources of resistance and I fail to see themā€¦.

The spring which is hard to see is long and probably made from steel. This is a point of high resistance. By running a wire from the top of the spring to the bottom of the spring the spring resistance is bypassed.

Where to get this host?
I have seen it months/years ago, but I did not found it yet.

OK, thank you. :slight_smile:

The beauty came from my private reserve sir. Post a WTB here, they sucked in stock form and Iā€™m sure they can be found in other peopleā€™s junk drawers too lol.

Agro, hereā€™s how the Maglite D cell switch and springs are laid outā€¦

Thereā€™s a rather long path for both negative and positive to travel, with the switch breaking the positive path for on/off. The bi-pin Xenon bulb is modern, used to be a drop in with ground in the housing and a lead positive cap. They at least did away with the very long flat style coil spring at the base of the switch assembly, thereā€™s still plenty of resistance in the long travels through steel.

This brass bearing is what allows the beveled lead in to the reflector to push the bulb assembly up and down for focus, by simply rotating the lights head (screw it on/off)

Look at this monster of a tail spring! They changed that for modern lights too, not nearly as many coils but still the very thick steel constructionā€¦

The inside of the light is anodized so they use a needle point on the set screw to break through the ano for ground to enter the switch assembly. Steel set screw of course. And this is the key to disassembly of the lightā€¦ you remove the cells, click the light to on then pinch the rubber switch boot to remove it. A Torx 8 (with skinny shoulder) is inserted through the push button actuator into the set screw and itā€™s backed out like 6 full revolutions, then the assembly will drop out the bottom of the tube. Tricky, if you donā€™t know this!

There is a steel split ring in the upper section of the tube that the switch assembly keys off of. This steel ring is very difficult to remove (and completely unnecessary to do so)

My bad, I left out the black plastic insulator sleeve that surrounds the long spring that resides in the tower. This is necessary to separate the spring from the housing where ground is conducted, as the spring carries positive to the bulb. I took all these parts out of the Mag kit I got from Justin (Old Lumens) He loved these lights and did a lot of mods on them, taught me how to get inside actuallyā€¦ I played havoc removing the split ring the first time I attempted this! lol (Actually on this red chopped light, the scars reside inside the tube to this day!)

Thanks DBC. :slight_smile:

It lives !!!

Now it only misses the glass lens to replace the stock ones which is already scratchedā€¦

The beam is not to my taste however, I might try to apply some varnish on the reflector to blend it a littleā€¦

Nice work on the Mags :+1:

Still waiting on boards for the rook driver but in the mean time I decided to find a way to put BLF-A6 FW on some more old lights and what do you know, cut one trace, solder one bodge wire and youā€™re G2G!

Cut trace (done on bare board for the pic)

Run jumper from star 2

Its good to see your back in action Ck. Nice work. :beer:

I got my 351ds in today, and had time to finish up my Manta Ray quad build. In my rush I didnā€™t notice the mcpcb was off center a tad bit and itā€™s eventually going to bother me so I will center it again when I have time. Hereā€™s some pics:

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Cool.

MecArmy SGN3 with lighted switch.

Those last two lights look awesome ^

The other week I cut the back end of the body on my swm and threaded on a new blank tail piece. Today I fitted a pocket clip. I didnā€™t thread the Ti for the screws as I feared breaking the tap off in the hole, so it there is a couple of small nuts on the other side. Have more plannedā€¦ slowly slowlyā€¦

Take a torch to that clip!

For a blue colourā€¦??