The 6th Annual BLF / Old Lumens Scratch Made Light Contest - People's Choice Award - Please vote!

Yep, I changed it up trying to find one I liked. Probably stick with this one a while. :wink:

I understand that, but I guess I thought we had more than our fair share around here. And really, I guess my thought was you don’t have to be interested in building lights in order to just vote on which of the finished works you like best. I don’t have to be interested in the whole process of the Miss USA pageant in order to tell you which girl I think is the prettiest.

Lol, good analogy David :slight_smile:

Great job everyone!

So true. I like to sit on the ground so I can interact and play with puppies to try to discover the best match. I guess I’ll need to play with all the lights :smiley:

I finally settled on FmC’s “Jack’s Survival Sack!” :confounded:
It’s pretty close to exactly what I have been wanting to build for the past 12 months.

Bump. Last day to cast a vote is the 27th of February

I am in NO way worthy of judging any of the builds, they are all inspiring and beyond my talents and if i was an official judge everyone would win, so it’s lucky i’m not!
But i want to show my support for everyone involved so i voted :smiley:

I have read through all the build threads and appreciate not only the skills that have gone into producing a working light but also the creative and practical thoughts and decisions that result in a build. I wouldn’t know how to make a decision based on all that so i didn’t. There was one build that spoke to me emotionally in a way that the others didn’t, there’s just something about Everydaysurvivalgear’s hardwood twin light build that moves me. Had it been a single light build, had the box been a different colour or had different dimesions, had it lacked the handle it wouldn’’t have moved me as it did. There’s just something about that exact form factor with that exact look that hits me so it got my vote.

Also worth mentioning that i have been on this site at least once a day since the 13th and have only just now seen this thread, so a lack of voting numbers might be more due to a lack of awareness than interest. I navigate mainly by glancing through the homepage which lists the most recently updated threads, it’s easy to miss stuff on there, i only got to this thread because the ‘final results’ thread was top of the homepage list.
If there was a way to stick this to the top of the recent threads list until voting is over i’m sure it would get more interest. I also think that saying ‘Voting still open’ would give it more immediacy. (I think that’s a real word…)

Coincidentally i have only just seen the poll on the left hand side of the screen, i only ever scroll down far enough to see that bit of the page when i’m properly reading a thread so would generally be too focused on the thread to notice it.

Finally made my mind and voted too!!

You folks are really inspiring! And what you’ve done is worth showing to enthusiasts and others!
I wish some manufacturers had some of the skills and ideas shown here! Our flashlight world would be much better :wink:

Thanks to all that voted in the People’s Choice Award! I felt a bit let down when i placed last after all the work i put in, With the peoples votes its good to see some people understood my concept.

Thanks to all contestants all the build are top notch but if you want to sit this years comp out i can understand (makes it easier for me) :stuck_out_tongue:

Thanks to the for putting this all together and last but not least the sponsors and there generosity.

Agreed, the OL comp is always fun to take part in. Thanks to the for organising and behind the scenes judges and, of course, thanks to the sponsors.

Congrats CRX. No one comes close to your skills :person_with_crown:

Thanks to everyone who voted the CRX Rotary best light in the competition, you are sage,
and :P to the rest of ya! :D

But seriously, this does mean something to me with the time & effort I put into my favorite hobby & build.
Well done to the other contestants too, you have been worthy opponents ;)

Thank you also to the competition founder Old Lumens, the organisers, prize providers, people who supported the build threads and of course the BLF forum owner sb.

Teemu, if you feel you need someone to take some of the load off yourself to help run the competition results procedure a little more efficiently from now on, then let me know :THUMBS-UP:

Three first place wins in a row, I think I will retire for a time now O:)

Congrats again, CRX, & all of the other builders.

The voting here is closer to what I expected the main contest results to be.

Or try making the tubes instead of buying them.

What? Is that an insult?
Is that really all you have to say about all the work I’ve put into these?
Maybe I should mine & smelt the bare materials too?
Personally grown the tree from seed for the wood I used in the SL?

Not an insult, just a challenge.
I like them I’d just like to see more fabrication of parts. Everything looks like what it started out as. The detail work is amazing but everyone who enters puts a ton of work into their build. You bought nesting tubes, try making your own from flat stock and tell me how much work it is. I congratulate you on your skill and dare you to expand your efforts to put more diy into the parts. Make something from something it isn’t. You have tremendous skill and I want to see it challenged, so I’m challenging you to make it harder.

Well I challenge you or anyone else with any doubts to replicate these creations and see how hard it really is already.
Pre-fabricated tube & ready grown trees or not.

I can see your point but don’t think your only comment about my build was necessary here.

You know that I only use small hand tools such as files & hand saws so making my own interlocking tubes from 1.5mm titanium sheet would not be practical at all and soldered copper tube made from sheet is not as good or strong.

The Rotary took over one hundred hours to fabricate as is, making my own tubes from flat sheet? Maybe double that time?
Sorry, can’t do that.

Remember it is a rotary tail switch light, did you read my thread with all the bits I made by hand?
Yes I am skilled but even I don’t have the time or will to be making such precision tubes by hand from flat stock.

Since you are back I will look forward to you showing me again how it is done though.

Nice to see you RBD :wink:

Yup, fabricating things instead of buying ready made is both time consuming and not as strong nor as precise. It’s a hand made contest. I made my first using exactly the same ready made parts along with some fabrication taking hundreds of hours making over a hundred separate pieces and also won. I took pride in the imagination of it all and just plain finishing. After that I tried to use as little ready made as possible to better follow the spirit of the contest. It forced me to get better at things I’d only begun to learn. You seem capable of such a step but if you hear critcism where I see potential so be it. It’s ok if not everyone genuflects, you’ll get over it.

Savvy what you savvy friend.

Hum, I guess that there are 2 categories in this contest for one reason: to allow people to show different ideas and skills, one with machine made pieces, and other with handmade pieces. In this last category, knowing that the tools will be a bit different to make something “from scratch”, I guess people will have to get other kind of materials, namely pre-made stuff! And that doesn’t take off the ingenuity applied in the work/piece done!
Even if the imagination and the skills are there, maybe the possibility to use some kind of tools isn’t!

If I ever enter this contest, following the “true spirit” of making something from scratch with the available materials and tools, I’ll never be able to do tubes, myself, as I don’t have a lathe or whatever machines are used to do tubes and threads. Nor will I pay to have access to one [and if I did, it would worth nothing, as I wouldn’t know what to do…].

Many people here can go to the backyard and use their carpentry or machines available to do any kind of stuff in wood, metal, stone…but I guess that there are a lot of us that don’t have them, that live in apartments and not in “country” houses, that don’t work in factories or have access to heavy machinery. Therefore, we’ll need to make resort of what we can!

That too must be considered and respected!
That’s the spirit! And is still a challenge!