blinded wrote:

Hi Old-Lumens,

What a work of art. Truly impressive. You've inspired me to redo the 3xAA battery holder on my Cyclone C88. May I ask what thickness copper plating you used?

Regarding your Brinyte, could someone use 3 18650s or would that more properly be used with another meaning of the word "torch"?

Best Wishes, Daniel

As far as the copper plate, I believe it was 0.008" or what, about 32 gauge copper. 0.008" or 0.010" is fine. (30 gauge).

EDIT:

Here's what I can tell you about making your own. Remove the original plates from the holder, flaten them down and use them as templates. Just be sure to mark them somehow, before you take them out, so you know which one is which.

I just use a pencil to mark the outline on the copper. I cut the copper with a good pair of scissors. It's much easier to rough cut the piece out, leaving about 1/4" all the way round, then do the final cutting after. It keeps from having the copper get deformed so much. Once you cut them out, flatten them by putting them on a flat surface, cover them with a board or other flat object and hit the board with a rubber mallet. It will flatten the copper right out.

If you want to make the cups for the positive terminals, heat the copper till it turns color and let it cool back down. (heat treating softens the copper). Then use a small socket (the diameter of the cup you want, turn the piece upside down on a piece of soft wood, place the socket on the piece and hit with a hammer (tap it), till you get a cup. You can then turn it back over and use the next size socket, to work the cup into shape, lightly tapping or pushing. Just remember the copper is very soft after it's been heated, so it doesn't take much to shape it.

For soldering the springs on, pre solder a spot on the copper first, then pre solder the end of the spring, place it on the copper and just heat it. It should all go together much easier that way.

I ended up going back and flattening the cups out and just using solder on the positive posts, because of these flat top batteries. It worked better for the flat top.

scaru wrote:

blinded wrote:

Hi Old-Lumens,

What a work of art. Truly impressive. You've inspired me to redo the 3xAA battery holder on my Cyclone C88. May I ask what thickness copper plating you used?

Regarding your Brinyte, could someone use 3 18650s or would that more properly be used with another meaning of the word "torch"?

Best Wishes, Daniel

Correct me if I'm wrong but you could run it off of 1 18650 in that holder, or if you get a parallel battery holder than you can run 3 of them.  

Thanks for all the comments. They are much appreciated. I'm glad y'all like it. I'm glad it raises questions and makes people think of trying it themselves.

Now somebody go buy it.

blinded wrote:

Wow! Thanks so much for your detailed comments Old-Lumens. Now you've got me motivated. Give me a week or two to order the parts, mangle the first one & try again. Then I'll show you what I've got.

Daniel

P.S. Had a great day geocaching with "Mom."

Bigpal wrote:

dorpmuller wrote:

I did... just bought it!

Rich

That's awesome. I know that in the future I will also support the modifyers or local sellers instead of buying a foreign light. 

I would love to learn how to do this. Is there a learning resource on the site that teaches about drivers, wiring, etc? I saw some threads that detailed mods, but didn't see a general learning thread.

 If that is considered a hijack, please just ignore me. 

No there isn't a general learning thread. All I know to tell you is to start reading all of the threads in the Modding Forum. Then ask specific questions of people. Usually you will get an answer that way. Look at people's sigs on the bottom of their posts too. Sometimes they link to more information.