MtnDon's Hand Made Class, 8th Annual BLF/OL contest entry

I don’t have a room without a window, even the shop has windows, so a good test will have to wait until night. However, I was curious about the potic myself so did the best I could. I made a temporary hookup between mcpcb with optic on the heatsink—- wires to the driver —- wires to a cell holder and some alligator clips. Most of the closets are too full of whatever to allow a person inside but one small coat closet had just enough space. Not enough space for a beamshot. The near white wall was only 30 inches from the mcpcb/optic. But there are no strange artifacts showing, no strange colors or unusual shadows or hotspots, so I think the optic still works satisfactorily.

I made some more progress on some parts today. I took pictures. I’ll post an update later this evening most likely.
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I downsized the earlier photos of the parts I re-did if anyone looks back.

What I did today on this project.

I soldered a spring to the driver board. There used to be one on there at one time but I removed it for some reason

I needed to make a bayonet mount “thingy”. I found a brass tube with a closed end in the junk box and cut off a short piece. Cleaned the side of the copper tube-pill I made earlier, applied flux. some heat and silver solder. I forgot to take a picture until I had begun cleaning up the flux and excess solder.

It cleaned up pretty good…

The copper coupler needs a slot cut to clear the brass bump.

I used one of my wood tube clamps to hold the piece wirhout crushing the shape. I used a hacksaw blade to make the first cuts, then files…

Small file…

Then when the slot was larger I switched to a bigger file

It works…

The hard to see pencil mark indicates where the slot needs to go next. The slot will be cut “down” not up where the more visible pencil marks are. Those are depth guide marks, niot for the slot. …

Rough, but getting there…

The completed bayonet locking mount…

As I filed off the protruding portion of the brass the solid part was removed and the hollow revealed. It does not look as nice but the solder puddled in the hollow indicates I did make a good silver solder joint as the solder was drawn in.

That is all for now. The washer end of this piece with be mounted to the rear end of the finned heatsink. The mcpcb with its washer is to be mounted on the front end of the heatsink.

More coming later, maybe tomorrow.

Glad to hear your optic mod worked out. Looking forward to how it all turns out!

Way back when I was a greenhorn machinist one of the old timers teaching me said ” you can always tell who is a good machinist on how good he can file a part “. You have mastered that MtnDon ! Great Job !

Thanks. Aw shucks… :blush:

I’m surprised but very glad to read that it seems to work fine. I’ll wait patiently for the beamshots. :slight_smile:

Nice work Don. Justin did the same retaining method on a light he built way back. As far as master filer not so sure there. My daughter thinks your nails need a lot better file work done on them. Maybe a rasp. :stuck_out_tongue:

Maybe a power sander. The belt sander takes the ridges and whorls off finger tips very well. :person_facepalming:

CRX has used these too. Someone thought of using the idea for automobile taillight bulgs many decades ago as well.

So, this afternoon saw more progress as well as a setback.

I need to finish off the head assembly. The components are mostly completed or very close, but there needs to be some fasteners installed and places for the fasteners made.

Using the heat sink once again as a pattern, bolted to the front (mcpcb) copper disc I drilled two holes through the copper disc. First I drilled dimples using the heatsink as a guide. Then removed disc and drilled a larger hole through the copper disc. Those extruded mount positions in the heatsink are meant to be used with metric M3 screws. A US 4-40 machine screw will also fit though a bit tight. Therefore when I plan on using a 4-40 machine screw in any of these holes I run a 4-40 hand tap through it. The tap caus easily and the open side to the extruded hole is perfect for the debris to exit this is one place tapping can be done without lubricant.

So, drill / mark the hole position…

The support block with recess to clear the test mcpcb…

Drilling holes through the copper with small vice grips clamp…

Running the hand tap…

With the front disc drilled I use that as a pattern to drill holes in the rear disc.

The front disc looks kind of busy, but there is a purpose for each pair of machine screws…

More drillling parts. Again using one part set as a pattern to locate holes in another part. CNC machining would eliminate much of this work…

One hole drilled all the way through the padauk wood…

This is not the final screw, just a test. The screw fits through the wood and copper disc and threads into one of the 4-40 tapped holes previously shown.

I have to pause to go make dinner. This is also one of those dramatic pauses before we return and reveal the setback. Two actually; varying degrees of “setbackedness”. (probably not a real word :person_facepalming: )

Dinner: crab cakes (Thailand crab meat) and I made apple crisp for dessert because I was slightly miffed at the setback. Well, I just needed an excuse to oberindulge in (brown) sugar.

So what happened? Two things.

One, I neglected to think far enough ahead when I drilled the mount holes through the rear copper disc with pill assembly. The holes are too close to the 3/4” pill tube. The plan was to use flat head machine screws with the holes countersunk. Those heads are even a little larger in diameter and drilling the countersink would be an issue. There are some other hole positions in the heatsink that will likely have been a better choice. :person_facepalming: If I drill new holes to mate with a different pair of heatsink holes then these two holes become ventilation holes.

Nothing insurmountable.

The second, bigger setback came as I drilled the second hole through the wood piece. I don’t know if the bit was a little too dull or if I used a little too much pressure or speed, or if I somehow got he wood God, Wooden, angry, but the wood piece split with a sharp cracking sound just as the bit penetrated the bottom side.

Not good news. However, we do have some excellent glues available in our modern world. By first attempt at a repair/fix is to use a high quality PVA glue. I liberally applied glue, slipped the pieces together and clamped with a pair of medium spring clamps. The glue strength is best after a 24 hour cure. These glues can make joints where the actual glue line is stronger than the wood. We’ll see how this works out tomorrow sometime.

Drilling into end grain like that for fasteners does come with some risk. I guess I did prove that. Appearance is better with the grain running axially, but as you can see there are downsides.

I’ll be back tomorrow most likely. :slight_smile:

Problem #1 was easier to resolve than I thought. Serves me right for not looking more closely and thinking more, before thinking it was a setback.

The first trial fit was with the outer collar in place. Removing it (the sleeve that bayonets onto the driver mount / pill assembly) revealed it was a tight fit, but a fit, not a misfit. :slight_smile: I could not use a real countersink bit as its diamter is too large. However, I was able to use a 0.219” drill bit to make a countersink of sorts. (drill bits have a different angle from what is used on countersink bits.) With the screws countersunk and installed the bayonet collar then slips on and turns to lock.

Photos should explain … The long screws in the front end are for pictorial purposes to illustrate that 2 screws will secure the front wood portion of the head to the front copper disc.

I still need to wait and see how the glue repair works……

Looking good :+1:

Ouch. Saying that it is looking good in all its copper glory. :beer:

Here’s the piece today. Hard to see the glued joint if it wasn’t given away by the dried glue.

I lightly sanded off some of the excess glue and ran the drill bit through the holes to clean them up.

I test fitted the head piece…

Look! I could make a zoomie. Maybe. Not in the plan right now….

I need a piece of fairly thin stock for the next step in this fix. Those of you who have used a table saw may know that it can be difficult to cut thin slices of wood, as the standard slot size allows even 1/4” thick stock to be swallowed by the spinning balde. The solution is to have a table insert with a narrow slot. The yellow insert is the standard one that with the wide slot allows the blade to be tilted. The brown insert is a custom unit.

The brown insert comes with no slot at all. You install it with the blade retracted fully. Then turn on the saw and raise the blade. It cuts a slot just wide enough and there is no space for thin stock to drop through.

I just thought I’d show that in case there are table saw users who did not know about these inserts.

Some small pieces of thinly sawn stock. I am going to use the one in the forground next.

It is being glued on one end of the octagon piece that split and was reglued. The grain of the thin sheet will be a right angles to the grain on the octagon piece.

Lots of clamps…

I let that dry 4 or 5 hours. It can be seen that the excess glue is still not fully cured. It is safe enough to handel and work carefully at this point.

I drilled the 20mm hole through the thin piece center as well as drilling the 2 holes for the 4-40 screws through the thin sheet.

Next is to similarly cap the other end of the octagon section. For this end I’m using a contrasting wood, bocote.

This end is being done with two pieces butted up against each other. Lots of clamps. Can you see the wood?

It was left clamped for three hours and I trimmed the bocote a little. I’ll drill it tomorrow as well as sand off all the excess.

Beautiful work MtnDon! The combination of wood and copper is very appealing, and it will be a flashlight as well…

Nice recovery Don. :+1:

Thank you. :beer:

I trimmed the cap piece and bored thru with the 20mm bit.

To keep the wood head length about what it is I decided I needed to space the mcpcb farther forward in the 20mm borehole. So I needed a spacer, somewhat like we use a spacer when installing a triple with optic in a Convoy S2. I had some XHP50 mcpcb’s I had got somewhere several years ago and only used one. There are solid copper so I decided to use three of them, sanded smooth and soldered together. I applied solder paste to the interfaces and used steel screws to keep the spacers aligned after I drilled holes that match the 2-56 mcpcb to copper disc holes previously drilled.

After soldering and cooling they were cleaned up and then I filed the perimeter where needed to make the diamter match that of the mcpcb and be able to be inserted into the 20mm borehole. The three punched dimples are to remind me how to position these when being assembled with the mcpcb and the copper disc.

Here’s a trial fit of all the head parts, so far made.

…and here without the wood parts…

…bolted together… (I neglected photos as I sanded the sides of the octagon smooth. I used the same technique as back in post #23, using the bench sanding disc and the miter gauge.

What now? I have wrapped a litte tape around the end of a 3/4” OD dowel and loosely wrapped some tape to avoid marring the dowel shaft, just in case I want to use it for something in the future. Just enough tape was wrapped at the end to make the wood head a fairly tight fit on the dowel end.

Yes, I am cutting the head. After each few strokes I rotate the wood head 30 degrees or so and take a few more strokes with the saw.

… alomost cut thru…

There! Cut in approximate 1/3 - 2/3 pieces…

The thicker portion fits over the mcpcb and optic. Note that the optic is slightly recessed… or the wood piece a little too long.

I want the surface of the wood and the optic to be at pretty much the same height. The optic can be very slightly above the wood height… Sort of like this…

I used the bench belt sander to sand down the wood pieces as needed…

I sawed off a couple of the 4-40 screws to make studs to faciltate fitting the parts easier.

Here’s why I sliced the head into two parts. That is 0.030” thick lexan. It will be the optic retainer.

Next I’ll trim the lexan and sand it flush to the head side surfaces. I know there may be some light loss of lumens through the lexan, but I’ll trade that for the practicality of it retaining the optic.

The blue color of the lexan is due to the protective film that I have not yet removed.

I think you need help Don. This just keeps getting madder.
Reminds me of a layered cake. Now I’m hungry, Thanks. :slight_smile: