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

@teacher, check relampago’s message.

Thank you Tally-ho, I had missed that. :+1:

For that price I can get a spool of glow in the dark filament. hmmm…

Yeah, I am wondering if that price is “each” or for an assortment pack of 10 or 15. If it is “each”, I can’t imagine that guy would sell very many. :wink:

Yep. I’m already planning to get some GITD tape for various projects. I was just thinking if Neal ends up offering something custom-cut, especially in different colors that I could swap out easily as the mood suits me, for a reasonable price, I’d likely get a few when I order my FW3A (waiting for the SST-20).

The gaskets are super cool, assuming they don’t block any of the light. I hope Neal can source them and sell them on his site.

I think it’s $25 each for the gaskets.

I Googled ‘Turboglow’ and found the material in 1/4” thick for sale on Carbon Waves website. It’s a lot of money for not a lot of material!

Wow…. That leaves me out. :frowning:

Couldn’t a few with a 3D printer get the GITD filament and print these for the wider team? Say, charge a few bucks per turboglow + shipping?

Or are there any 3D printing services that would do it if we deliver the 3D data (not sure what this data is called, sorry)?

Any thoughts related to shipping for ordering only the light vs the light+battery?

Since you can’t ship batteries by normal slow services, would shipping be faster if I order with batteries?

(I was going to place 2 orders, one for the light then one for some batteries. My intention was to prevent being out the lump of money while waiting for the light to come in stock and get the batteries before the light)

The light is not much more than $25, so that would be pretty expensive for a gasket. I bet we can get them cheaper

I can hear CRX voice saying “do it yourself : glow powder, epoxy, drill bits, sandpaper, done”. :smiley:

I’ve used these inserts in my D4. The same seller has inserts for Carclo triples that look like they’ll work in the FW3A.

:+1: … That could be done. :beer:

You know me too well!
I was trying to refrain :smiley:

You can make very cheap versions from the tape.

I’m planning on trying some thicker silicone versions.

Yeah, the price for that gasket is a bit ridiculous.
You can get a 1kg spool of GITD filament for 20-40$. Time is the real cost obviously but that’s a tiny piece.

Let’s see, what’s the volume of that thing…multiply by this, carry to three, deduct that…uhm fuck all is the answer.
In case you’re wondering, we’re talking about less than half a cubic centimeter.
So a spool would net you, idk, 1500pcs or more.

I got curious how much material it would take and how long it would take so…

…I slapped together a representative model of that thing (~20x20x3mm with appropriate holes) and fed it to Cura.
Looks like you could print 56 of them at a time in an Ultimaker 3 and Cura estimates it would take a hair over 3 hours with the default “Fast” profile while using a whopping 32g of material (generic PLA AA 0.8).
And that’s at 0.2mm layer height, with a part like this I would bump it to 0.3mm layer height and have it only take ~2hrs15mins. Or roughly ~2½ minutes a piece.
Dropping the thickness to 2.5mm means it would take only 1hr50mins and use 26g of material.
Sure you can tune it further to save even more time but that’s fast enough.

There are 3D printing factories in China with a room full of printers so you could have a load of these made in no time at all.
Just for the giggles I looked on 3dhubs, punching in Shenzhen and some factory would charge ~800 USD for 999pcs and you could get them by next tuesday.
If some chinese flashlight company would do the ordering, handling, storage, shipping side of things, how much would they charge?
Could they do it for 5$ a piece incl. slow boat shipping?

On the other hand, Neal might be a few steps ahead of us. *checks his store just in case. Oh well let’s hope that FW3A pic is a sign of things to come!

For my Emisar D4, I just cut two small strips of GITD tape and put in under the optics in the shape of an X. Seems to work fine. I like the aux led of the D4S. I wish the FW3A had an aux led. GITD doesn’t last all that long.

From observations of a light with aux LED’s that are probably as bright or brighter than the glow tape:

Probably yes, but only at firefly levels and close ranges, since tape or aux LED’s are not focused by an optic and therefore have minimal throw.

The glow tape isn’t that green under normal lighting, its usually an “off-white” when I’ve seen it, just like watch lume.

I doubt it would change the tint much, especially when its placed under the business end of the optics where not very much light should be shining at it.