FW3A colors and FW3C sandblasted,FW3T start to preorder

Buttons should be available separately imo, not many people want a purple light.

Yeah, well, they DO advise to leave the tail cap in place and not tamper with it… so replacing the tail cap en masse would be an invitation to catastrophe. Those un-enlightened that have tampered with the tail cap have had a high rate of glitches because of it.

I thought I asked Neal to be sure my copper variant had this button but maybe I forgot.

Maybe if we ask nicely and promise to be careful with our FW3Xs, Uncle Neal will procure metal buttons for us to buy? I’d like one with the LuminTop rabbit. And after all, Neal already sells accessory glow buttons.

FW3Ti (stonewashed finish) ready to ship:

Well, I got to thinking (not always a good thing) and decided to try a different battery than the one Neal shipped with the light…. (it was marked as a Murata). I removed the Samsung 30Q from my original Gray FW3A and tried it in the FW3T+Cu…. and it works perfectly. There is nothing wrong with the light, but it really does not like the green battery Neal shipped. That same battery does NOT work in my original FW3A, but it DOES work in my Emisar D4 and a Sofrin SPA32v2.0 I had laying on the bench.

Again, there appears to be nothing wrong with the FW3T+Cu that Neal shipped… it just does not like the battery.

Nothing is simple

Received my ti light, happy with it.

Wanted to swap in the xpl hi board I had laying around from an fw3a, but the boards in the ti lights are much thicker. So I went with a sst20 3000k reflow.

Added a blue glowring with 3 orange trits.

Wow! I don’t think I’ve ever seen an MCPCB so thick! Good that they did that as the Titanium is so poor at transferring heat…

Is the light full ti (not cu/Ti)? How is the weight? I love the xl board. Great idea.

Full ti indeed. I like the extra weight in combination with the titanium. Feels like a real tool now. I think more weight of the ti/cu would make it to heavy me.

Old trick for unscrewing the head or tail if it is really tight.
Put the light in your freezer for 5 or 10 minutes.
The parts will come right off.

Woo! If my ti ever ships I will be pleased!

MRL when copper patina takes blue-ish/purple-ish accents :


FW3-4 Family…and a distant cousin… :smiley: FW3NovaTac…


Added the clip that’s been hanging around…

Thank you Neal for the beautiful clip….I REALLY need to check out more of these! :+1:

That truly is a beaut, would look awesome on the new gen Sinners

Probably gonna have issues with the wife over this one but I need an FW3T. Any suggestions on which LED choice (3D, SST, or 219D) would be the most efficient (least heat) for the Ti light?

Here’s my 1A FW3A from Neal. PM with order number sent.

General info including LEDs can be found here . . .

I use white light flashlights at work for inspection and forensic examination. In general, I’ve found that warmer color temperatures give truer color rendition and cooler temps show details and flaws better.

My wife knows lights are tools. I’m getting several FW3Xs for multiple dedicated uses: first aid kit, door safety, work, and personal use. My wife is totally on board with that plan. We don’t have a lot of disposable income, but we agree that some things are worth the expense.

If it works out, maybe a way to get your wife to work with you is for you to have her pick out a FW3X for herself while you are getting your Ti version?

Again from my experience, try not to be disappointed if your spouse doesn’t want her own flashlight. But, she will probably appreciate you having one in time of need.

I think the xpl-hi is going to be the most efficient (lumens/heat) of the bunch…

I could be wrong… I’m thinking that since it has the highest output of the bunch, it puts out more lumens at the same power level. Following that logic, you’d be able to use less power to achieve the same amount of light.

In my regular (or “EDC”) use, it doesn’t matter too much as I don’t leave these smaller flashlights on turbo for very long or very often. I typically use them for a few minutes at a time and usually in the low - mid range of what they are capable of. When I’ve needed them for longer, I didn’t need them set at their brightest anyway. I usually go for higher CRI with good tint (the SST20 option in this light has pretty decent tint and high CRI from what I hear) for this type of light because that is more important to me than heat generated at higher levels. That said, I do like the xpl-hi 3Ds I have in my first one. Not really a bad option here no matter which way you go.

Received two more today:
Grey and TK edition.
So the bad:
The grey one worked out of the box, the TK did not.
Had to do some swapping of the heads and tails to figure out the issues.
TK had issues front and back:
The brass lock ring on the head was not installed properly, it would not go flush with the board. Had to take it off completely, with it off the light worked (with the grey tail). Put it back on properly, success.
Had to take apart the TK tail and clean the big round contact with alcohol.
Success.
It came with the lock ring.
Then the grey would not work, it did not have the tail lock ring and had to reset the setup.
Ended up leaving the tail lock ring off!

Now, this is important. Discovered that these lights do not like the Samsung 30Q!
I have been using an Orbitronics 18650 in my copper edition. That battery (also button top) worked in the new lights. The Samsung was too tall, and caused an issue with the switch!
I also tried some Efest high drain flat tops. They worked great. Highly recommended.
So again had to spend some time messing around to get them to work. They need to do better assembly.
Hope this helps someone.

Both had the old style inner and outer tubes.
Both had the two piece lenses.

Really! My first gen lights are running perfectly on 30Qs. And both worked right out of the box, fortunately since I break more things than I fix. My Ti/Cu has not shipped yet, but hope it has no issues. Thanks for the heads up.