Rdubya’s OL contest entry Finished 12 -07-2020

I don’t have any tiny taps and I was looking for some way to hold the LEDS on the pill . I found these old copper nails in an antique carpenters chest I inherited.

I cut them down to fit the holes of the MCPCB

Then I marked and drilled the pill . I should have taken the time to use the drill press instead of drilling by hand as just slightly off center of the pill . Not much , but I can see it .

Here’s my first real screw up . Made the lens cap first . Was pretty much happy with it . Then I thought I would put threads on the head end of the body . That was going ok until I realized I was cutting the threads to the same diameter as the pill . I get a number in my head and just bull right along with it .
So I’m going to blame it on old timers disease . My default excuse for when I don’t want to admit I’m old and don’t need to write numbers down , cause I’ll remember that !

Didn’t take me long to arrive at “ oh crap , that doesn’t work “ . My 1 inch stock does not accommodate the thread diameter I need without making the body walls paper thin . So I have ordered some thicker stock that should arrive later this week .
Not to totally have wasted your time , here’s a pic of a trunk full of carpenters tools that were my great uncles which date from the mid to late 1800’s.

That is very cool to have

Bummer. Happens to all of us.

Those old-fashioned carpenters tools look great.

Good luck with your build. May it proceed well from now on. :person_with_crown:

Too bad with the “oops”. Hope your stock comes in soon and you can get back up and going.

And that’s a REALLY cool trunk of tools.

As I was reading some of the build threads , I saw a comment about thinking out of the box . I realized I have a lathe and don’t have to cut standard threads . I can make my own ! Sat down , did some math , and bingo ! Back in business.

Cut the internal lens cap threads…

Cut the body threads and thought I was good to go . I then discovered my pill wouldn’t fit . It 4 thousands over. So back to the collet chuck. This thing is only 3/4 long , so even with a collet chuck, it’s hard to set up.

The nice thing is , after turning the part around to finish , it concentric.

So it all fit together like I was hoping and is starting to look like a flashlight. Now on to the other end .

In case anyone may be interested, here’s a pic of the cutting tools I had to make for internal threads and to cut the small shelves .

Its handy being able to make your non standard threads. Love the home made tools. :beer:

very cool….

Starting to take shape and lookin’ good!

Started end cap for switch

Switch in cap

Test fit rubber boot before final dimensions

Made the retaining ring for switch by threading a piece and cutting to size

A look at driver in place

The shelf the pill sits on

Threaded

Body cut to length

Drilled and bored body

Here’s the finished light

I’m having a hard time configuring this driver , forgot how hard it is to “quickly tap 8 times “ Right now I only have 4 modes , but that’s 3 more than I started with .
I’ll try some beam shots , but I don’t think my I-pad is gonna do much with that .

Once again I wish I had a metal turning lathe and skills to use it….

yeah, I’ve begun mentioning how great it would be to have a lathe (and perhaps a small CNC) to my wife so that in maybe 20 or 30 years it might actually happen :wink:

Nice work :+1:

Thanks , that means a lot from such talented people :beer:

I have wanted a lathe for years . I bought that as my Christmas present last year with the intention of making flashlights. This is my first one . Internal threading to a blind shoulder was making me apprehensive.
This competition to honor Old Lumens , was the kick in the butt I needed to just go for it . I had fun , and I learnt a lot . I would like to say thanks to this forum , and all the great mates that hang out here .
Randy

Very impressive Randy! You made all of that look easy :wink:

What lathe did you decide on?