Do you still own any non LED powered lights?

It would be a shame to sputter that immaculately mirror polished alumiunium. I’d never get it that spotless again. I can just pick up a ready made OP one from Kai, keep the SMO for another project.

I just got my first Xenon light. A P60 15W Xenon drop-in from Kaidomain. Seems to be about 100 lumens, gets very hot in about a minute, and just one mode. So pretty much useless, but nice CRI and tint!

I have a few of those in different voltages. They’re good fun and seem to be holding up well. I’ve not had one die on me yet.

Usefulness is all relative really. When I was a kid, incans with leaky alkalines and crappy switches were all we had, and xenon was for fancy stuff.

Incans still occupy a happy niche in my collection, and still get used. Some of the modern technology is awesome though. I love it all, new and old.

I own (and Use!) about 20 of them, nothing better than reading a book before bedtime with an old school flashlight :slight_smile:
here`s a few of them:

I have a couple incandescents that I enjoy using around the house. My favorite has an 8AA -> 2D adapter with a PWM voltage regulator and soft start. Beam stays nice and white until the last 10 minutes of runtime. I’d love to make a high-powered custom incandescent regulator for use with Li-ion cells if I had the skills!

Love those old school lights. Nice collection!

Those are ace. How do you keep the switches in good order? A lot of them look like the riveted type.

Mostly just regular use tends to keep the switches working well, I did have to do some repairs when a few of them came and replaced some of the corroded brass and copper parts with pure silver sheet metal cut to shape, and of course liberal use of switch cleaner and elbow grease, but once they`re up and running, regular use keeps them in good working order.

They all run on protected Li-Ion batts as well :smiley:

Do you use Deoxit? I squirted some of the wrong type of a cheaper switch cleaner into one of my maglite switches and ended up having to tear it apart and clean it out with isoprop. Works flawlessly now though.

“Do you still own any non LED powered lights?”
yes.
for the reason Katherine already posted.
i am 9 years old again reading a book….
just not a comic book under the covers.

yea, i have several stock maglites, 2d 4d. and 1aa. surefire g3 mag 85, 200w hotwire mag. and several cheap 2d flashlights with bulbs that i keep as loaners, thou i do not use any of them on regular basis,

maglites i will prob eventually throw out
crank powered lights with incandescents
50 year old eveready lights

hand held battery powered black light fluorescent-several

old bike lights

i do not use any of them

wle

> Do you still own any non LED powered lights?

No, why?:slight_smile:

Nope. The last incan I owned (a Duracell Durabeam, 2AA side by side) died a loooong time ago. I don’t believe I so much as touched an incan torch in the last 15 years at least, it’s all been LED for me. Moreso now with the warm white options in the market.

Sorry for the delay I didn`t see this before, I use Servisol switch cleaner on mine, it`s cheaper and works well :wink:
https://uk.farnell.com/servisol/super-servisol-10/cleaner-switch-contact-200ml/dp/278786

That stuff looks very good. I was always put off by the price of Deoxit. I ended up buying some other cheap stuff, Kontakt PR, and squirted some into one of my Mag C switches. Made it even worse. Had to strip down the switch completely and clean it with meths.

you have my sympathies, I had to strip down a Mag D switch assembly because an alkaleak ate away almost the entire + contact right into the assembly itself, they`re not the easiest things to understand when you first open them :slight_smile:
I made a new contact out of sheet silver and it`s all good again, but it wasn`t the Most fun I`v had repairing a light! LOL

Leading cause of death for old Maglites, the alkaleak. Aluminium + caustic potash is always such an enthusiastic reaction.

I have an itch to build another hotwire Mag. My 5761 3C mod is already starting to feel a little anaemic, and my pal has promised me his old 3D he’s not using, once he gets around to finding it. But just how much juice can a standard Mag switch stand before it starts getting all melty and burny inside?

That`s a really good question actually and I have no idea to be honest what it`s rated at, But with it being a fairly low voltage and a non-inductive load then contact arcing shouldn`t be much of an issue, having looked at the insides of a D assembly I would say no more than about 5A constant. I`d like to be wrong though because 5A wont really buy you much without cranking up the voltage.

The Philips 5761 is rated at 30W for 6V, and seems happy enough at 7.2-8.1V, so I guess we’re looking at around 4A in that case?

I’m thinking my next mod would involve a fivemega 6.35 ceramic socket with a 100W Osram HLX64623 running at 12V. That’s a whole lot more amps, but removing the plastic tower would leave room to put a mosfet in there.

And just to be extra silly, if I could find a suitable aspheric to put on the front…?

You’re right. 5A is what Mag switch can take it unless you modify to momentary only and add Jimmy’s PhD on top of the switch with removed tower...and with FM 6.35 Brass socket...

Oh god, can’t wait to get home and light it up.
i owe this thread photos and build notes...