The There Are No Stupid Questions Thread

I can see these may be useful - parallel fish & tackle pliers with neoprene pads.

Pic clicks to arbitrary store.

The brass lined version sounds real good: https://www.micromark.com/Parallel-Jaw-Brass-Lined-Plier

I've known them as channel lock pliers, but that's a brand name apparently. A quick google for either term gives a good idea.

Sorry the Knipex were half-joking. They are expensive, but an interesting alternative to a crescent or adjustable wrench. They are a particularly expensive example of a Knipex wrench - however, my Knipex tools are my nicest tools by far. I am sure they will outlast all my other tools, and me.

Please don't use those on nuts/bolts! Anything with teeth should stay far from nuts and bolts.

Slip-joint! Yes, heard that term as well. As for hemostats... Forceps to me! I use forceps routinely when soldering - it's a tricky thing to keep them from buggering up the wires.

What type of cell are you using? Alkaline, NiMh/NiCd, Lithium Ion, Lithium Primary?

May be worth also asking this thread.

Cool! Useful indeed.

Locking forceps make too much pressure, screws up the insulation.
Been using a variation of these and various other models (can’t find a pic / store with the lightweight aluminium cladded mini alligators) .

Pic clickable for link. Store has many other tools for the hobbyist. No affiliation.

Edit: found the clips

Clickable pic for link.

You give me too much credit, I’m not that strong.

Really though was using open-end wrenches for all the bolt heads I could, but the contours of the assembly kept it or a socket from fitting onto some of them. Improvisation was needed.

Not exactly. It is the “There are no stupid questions” thread, so stupid questions are allowed, but it says nothing about permitting stupid answers. Take this answer of mine as an example, it is not allowed. Belongs in the Joke of the Day thread, maybe.

Ask a stupid question...

Get a stupid answer!

I'd re-read the OP.

To clarify, I was saying my post is stupid, not yours. I will edit to make that clear.

What’s the highest CRI LED I can buy on a 20mm star, and where can I buy it?

I’ve got too many cool white lights accumulated over the years. Time to fix them.

SST-20 4000K and below has the higher CRI and R9 of any emitter you can find installed on a star AFAIK.

Kaidomain and others might be selling some 291Bs mounted but IDK what bin they are.

Thank you

I had two questions, but a read of the original post answered one question. So here’s my second question: why is it that small gas engines are so much noisier than large gas engines?

You might think the smaller engine is noisier because it’s usually higher pitched. Humans don’t hear sound linearly. We have what’s called Flecther Munsun Curves. We are less sensitive to lower frequencies so a larger piston tends to sound deeper and quieter while a smaller piston is more “whiny” and louder.

Also, smaller engines tend to have smaller mufflers so as not to reduce too much power.

These are some general reasons.

https://www.virence.com/
Availability might be tricky, but I think he’d scoff at SST-20s.

FOR MY QUESTION:

This may not be budget but will just change the lens to black one, https://www.allmoparparts.com/sku/264274bk.html. It is from Recon and the price is not too nice and would it be a best choice for a recon light? Also, not sure if it legal to have one lens to be black and the other white…but would hope I can do that.

I would see what the cutoff pattern looks like. I’ve seen a lot of jeeps with projectors that just glared oncoming traffic like crazy. If these give you a sharp cutoff pattern and they are adjusted right, they might be okay.

Oof, how could I forget about Virence?!

To add to the reasons given usually a large engine will often simply have more material around it to soak up noise and vibration too.

Virence doesn’t appear to have flashlight-sized and -shaped LEDs, unless I’m misunderstanding the pages there.
I’d be looking for 20mm stars to drop into existing flashlights replacing the cold blue stock emitters.
His page seems to offer the largish square emitters which wouldn’t work with normal reflectors.

Virence’s CRI offerings do seem to be better than anything I’m aware of.

144A is a straight swap for an XHP50/50.2, 219 and 319 are 3535 pad. Optisolis and E21A are similar to XP-E or smaller and work well in small lights that have low current like AAA keychain plus he also has “quadtrix” boards for them that allow 4 to be mounted very close together and centered in a large enough reflector or TIR in an S2, Skilhunt H03 and similar.