That ought to be able to sink some heat!
P in this case stands for perfect. 
I realized today that I have been remiss; I have neglected to state what I am trying to build for this project. 
All Iāve done is show an assortment of parts and a little bit of what I have done so far with cutting and soldering some copper bar stock.
So. I walk a lot. I walk in town for short errands. I also walk for exercise. Sometimes I walk in the evening when it is dark. Some of those walks are on roads without any street lighting. Some of those walks place me on or alongside a roadway. There may be vehicular traffic coming from either direction. When traffic is coming towards me I wave the light I carry about a little and am fairly confident they see me or see my light. I have thought that having a tail light would be nice. I even looked into using a bike tail-light.
This years contest build is an attempt to fulfill my desire. This light will have a typical forward white light beam with several levels. It will also have a rearward-facing red tail-light. With a stuttering blinky mode. And built-in USB recharging.
I had mentioned a few sparse details way back. I have already altered some of that. This will have one Panasonic NCR 18650B cell, not two. It will have a 1 amp charger instead of a 2 amp as I have several on hand. Very likely a C-type USB port will be used, although since I am trying to use up parts that have been lying about for a while I might just use a micro. The front LEDs are from the miscellaneous, previously used parts box; a triple XP-L HI and the rear led an XP-E2 red. The red tail will receive one of the same spikey Ledil diffusers that I am using on the other, non-contest, project I have a topic on. Those Ledilās were ordered from DigiKey; Ledil # C15419_ZORYA-MINI, in case anyone is interested.
I did a wee bit of work on this tonight. I made a copper bracket that will be silver soldered to the previously shown copper bar stock. Just some cutting, bending and drilling.
It would be nice to have a sheet metal bending brake, but I make do with a vice, blocks of wood or metal and a hammer. ā¦in processā¦
After bending and cutting and marking for a hole here it isā¦ 18 gauge copperā¦ The charger board to be used is shown.
I drilled a 1/2ā hole, in steps as before. This is for the rear light driver, a simple Nanjg101 (?). It doesnāt have as many smdās as the front light Qlite so it doesnāt need as big a hole to clear the parts.
That will be silver soldered in due course. Before that though I need to make the tab where the mcpcb will mount as flat as possible for best heat conduction. Sandingā¦
Not quite thereā¦
Just about perfect. Good enough for government work, as the saying goes. I did refine it but that image came out a little off focus so there is no proof to show at this time.
Thatās all for today. Thanks for looking in.
Not sure what you used to drill the hole out Don but nice work. Holes like that are not easy to do.
As Dale has mentioned elsewhere. Iāll put my order in for one of these torches. 
Thank you. I was more lucky than usual with that hole.
I did steps, starting with a 1/8ā, then 17/64, 25/64 and 31/64āā; the odd fractions because those bits are not used as much as the 1/4, 3/8 and 1/2ā bits and might be sharper. But still, most of the time a hole drilled in light gauge soft metal often ends up not round. Crazy.
Iāve been kicking around a few ideas on how to implement the USB port and a couple of my ideas have problems. I decided the port will be placed in the bottom. It wonāt be waterproof, but at least IF it rains the port is on the bottom and not likely to allow water to easily enter. Besides we donāt get a lot of rainy nights in NM and I try very hard to stay out of the rain. I do have other lights I can drop in a pail of water.
So, I needed to cut a slot in the bottom copper strap. I started with a pair of drilled holes and switched to small files.
I thought it wise to test the operation of the previously used TP5000 charger board. It was a good thing I did as for some reason it would charge but the indicator led would not work. I tried 4 leds and had no luck. I tried the leds on another board and they lit. So this 1 amp board has been set aside. I have other TP5000 boards but they are slightly larger; still usable but a tighter fit.
OK. Next are some pictures showing a mock up of the parts to be used and how they will be fittedā¦ usb port, charger board, rear led. There is another change with the rear led. I have switched to using a triple XP-E2 red instead of the single. Reasons for the change will become apparent in a later installment.
Next task was to silver solder the copper rear mount to the copper carrier. (I have taken to calling the assembly the carrier.) A spring clamp was used to hold the bracket while the soldering was performed.
The ring that will mount the 17mm driver was then soldered in place.
Iāll take some more pictures after I clean the carrier up.
Looking good Don.
Iām intrigued to see how it all comes together MtnDon! You are very creative with how youāre using that copper.
Some more work today. I located another 1 amp TP5000 board in a box where it did not belong. I tested it and it is fully functional, so it will be used. The NCR18650B cell should not be charged at more than 1.6 amps according to Panasonic so I didnāt really want to use a 2 amp charger and did not feel like changing the resistor on the 2 amp to alter the maximum charge rate. I can hardly see those little smd resistors let alone work with them. The cell is tabbedā¦ tabs are almost invisible in the photo.
Below is a shot to illustrate the fitment of the MCPCB and Carclo optic. Everything is quite square and there is just a smidgen of clearance between the front of the optic and the leading edge of the carrier.
Time to make the port hole in the aluminum tube for the USB-C plug. We start with two 1/8ā holes.
Then I used assorted small files to enlarge and make a rectangle. I sized the hole to clear the USB-C plug on a Samsung supplied cord. It seems a little bigger than some of the other cords I have.
The carrier does slide into the aluminum tube.
This shows the aluminum tube bottom (1ā width) and the carrier.
Next, three shots showing the carrier after I cleaned up the silver soldering residue. There should not be any further need for the messy silver soldering anymore.
I should note that neither the carrier nor the aluminum tube housing will remain at their present lengths. They will be shortened. I have not been certain just how long it will be as I had not finalized the placement of all the components. Plus I have changed things while progressing.
I Love this one, keep the pictures coming
We agree again.
Love this! Nice work Don.
This is how I used to build stuff before I had access to a machine shop, and I really enjoyed it. Now Iām back to hand tools again.
Great work Don Looking forward to seeing it all come together.
Your builds are impressive and classy 
This one is no exception!!!
Progress, I thinkā¦
I cut a piece of Lexan for a clear lens for the front end. The Carclo optic will be pressed up against the inside surface. Attaching the little rectangle of polycarbonate raised the question of āHow?ā.
I have tossed a few ideas around and settled on the direct approach; adhesive. However, that was not so direct as what I preferred would not work because of the material. I wanted to use a few drops of a crystal clear UV cured adhesive but belatedly remembered that polycarbonate is a UV absorber. Clear safety glasses, if made of polycarbonate and if they wrap around, offer protection against UV. I tried an experiment to see if it was so. I took a scrap of the aluminum tube and a piece of the lean, applied a few drops of adhesive and hit it with the light from my UV flashlight. Then I put it out in the sun for several hours. The Lexan seemed to be affixed when I first tried to pull it loose. But a good tap and it fell off. The very outside of the glue line interface between Lexan and aluminum had set hard. But that was just a thin film that was hard. The adhesive further into the joint was still wet; had not cured.
So, onto a variation of using adhesive. Cyanoacrylate. That worked fine. The potential downside is that the cyano is not waterproof. However, the joint survived an hour or so of wet sanding so I think Iām okay.
After the lens glue had set and the test piece I had also glued up at the same time proved to have a durable joint, I got out my wet/dry sandpapers and set about removing some of the fine scratches that came from the aluminum tubing being in the scrap boxes for some time. Tonight I used 120, 220, 320, 400 and 600 grit, using a flat board to work on.
Hereās what I have at the end of my work tonight. The lexan lens and aluminum sanded smooth and with a matte finish.
I have not yet made up my mind how shiny I want to make the aluminum surface. Generally, I do not like glossy finishes. I like smooth matte to satin finishes. I do have sandpaper grits from 800, the next finest, up through1200, 1500, 2000 and 3000. Plus the surfaces are not going to be left as plain aluminum. I have some ideas to try to complement the metal.
Anyhow, there we are. I didnāt time myself but I was sanding, spraying water and sanding more for thousands of strokes. Probably over an hour.
Thanks for looking.
Very nice Don. Just glad its not me.
Well look at this! Wood! I am putting aside the metal work for a little while I make some of the components needed to complete this project.
That is a small scrap of padauk to drill a hole with a brad point bit. For the non-wood folks, the brad point is a wood only bit. That point makes it easier to precisely locate the bit on the desired center. As well the point helps keep the bit centered as it starts. The bit also has sharpened slicing edges around the perimeter of the hole. That cuts the wood fibers more cleanly and makes for a nicer hole.
Since I donāt have an actual countersink bit larger than 1/2ā I used a 7/8ā steel twist bit to countersink the two holes I drilled in the padauk.
Iāll be back later with more that I did today. I just had to get the use of wood pictures into the topic.
This is some of what was left over from my 2017, 5th Annual BLF / Old Lumens Scratch Made Light Contest entry. I do hang onto scraps of the exotic woods for a long time.
This light has a normal white front light as well as the rear-facing red taillight. There are separate switches. The switches will be mounted to a piece of perforated strip PCB. I decided to solder the tabs to the perf strips and had to bend the lugs 90 degrees to do so. The switches will be fitted into silicone boots through the two holes drilled in the padauk.
I am breaking or interrupting, one of the copper strips to isolate the switches. Done with a sharp X-Acto knife. This break will be under one switch body. There will be another break under the second switch.
I pre-tinned the switch tabs and one of the PCB points.
I did not photograph every step. The next photo shows the two switches soldered to the pcb and held in place with small spring clamps to facilitate soldering one common power wire. This joint will be from the battery and sharing the power feed to both switches.
That joint completedā¦
ā¦with the silicone switch bootsā¦
ā¦fitted through the holes in the padaukā¦ (the padauk has yet to be finish sanded; it is rough, just the way it came out of the sawing and drilling.
The next shot shows the other two wires soldered to the pcb. One of these will feed power to the front end driver and the other the rear driver.
A side view with the carrier set in front of the Al tube, positioned inline with the position the carrier will be when slid into the Al tube. The switch assembly is more or less positioned where it will be located when fitted to the Al tube. Imagination required.
The strip pcb board is too flexible for my liking. It was what I had on hand but I believe it will flex too much when finally assembled and a switch is clicked. I plan to epoxy a strip of 1/16ā G10 fiberglass to the underside of the pcb. The G10 is considerably stiffer than the pcb material. Here is how I cut down an already narrow, but too wide, piece of G10. I use the wood blocks (clamped in the vice) as a straight line guide and saw using a Japanese style. Ryoba saw. These blades have no set to the teeth, so they do not cut into or scratch the guide blocks. These saws have a thin blade and cut on the pull. That can take a little time to leearn when you first use a Japanese saw. They make a wonderfully fine cut.
That is it for today. Stay tuned and thanks for viewing. The next update will be early next week I think.