Nice deals. Does the “Penny Shipping for Orders Over $50” still apply with the clearance sale?
Update: Just got the answer from SBF (and thanks for the fast reply!). No more Penny Shipping due to USPS price increases.
But still great deals. I picked up an L3 Grab Bag and an MC1 Plus charger.
Just grabbed a couple Spark lights. I got 3 from a previous clearance, modded them all - easy to mod. They are well made but nothing fancy - no square threads for example. I think Spark as a company is long gone.
Just wanted to say Thank You to Jake and the guys at SBFlashlights. The L3 Grab Bag and MC1 Plus charger I ordered were shipped fast and I’m very pleased with everything. The 50% off clearance sale made for some incredible bargains. The MC1 Plus looks to be a quality small unit, and the L3 Grab Bag lights were a very nice variety and included L11Cs, L10Cs, and L10s, with a good mix of Nichia and Cree, 3 and 4 mode, and black, orange, and natural.
Well done, and thanks, gents!
Andrew
Received the Spark lights this morn. They look good! Thanks! Hope all is well with the biz!!
I have received my Sparks SL5 and is is malfunctioning and the buttons only work when both are pressed and it only cycles through the modes, the light will not stay on, I have sent several messages to SB over the month about this and previous orders, never getting a response
I am not looking for a refund as all sales are final, but merely a response or a replacement, maybe some assistance with possible troubleshooting, I’m looking into the warranty info, but with sparks being out of business for so long, I don’t I think that is a viable route to take
DOES ANYBODY HAVE ADVISE ON MY NEXT COURSE OF ACTION??? , I APPRECIATE THE COMMUNITY
MAYBE SOMEONE OUT THERE CAN HELP
Have a good week guys TY
Ohh, I think I had the same problems as you describe with both the SL5 and SL6 I received. It was weird behavior with the buttons. There's some sort of issue I think has to do with time on the shelf, maybe oxidation at contact points, not sure.
Anyways, I got both lights working 100% perfect now. All I did was pressed hard down on the buttons (only a couple or few times) and clicked on them many, many times. Eventually the mis-behaving buttons started working. Think with mine the tail buttons would work, and the side ones didn't. But even initially the tail buttons were not working properly. If you searched, these lights data back to ~2011-2012 I believe. I thought I could mod them with driver swaps but doesn't look so doable with these Sparks.
What's really interesting about these lights is they have the inner sleeve and tailcap e-switch, way way long before that design came back again, starting with the FW3A. Just goes to show you old is new, and new is old... Something like that 
. Pssst: it's a better design than the FW3A, using a spring for the inner tube contact. Extra resistance though but more reliability!
Give it a shot though - try pressing down hard once or twice. Might be scary but it started working better right after that for me on the 1st light, then did the same trick to the 2nd and fixed that one as well.
I've dealt with the SBflashlights guys before and found them very helpful. This kind of sale though is scary, sounds more like a going-out-of-business sale.
The one time I contacted them on 11/25, just prior to my recent order, I got a quick reply from Sanjin: sanjin@sbflashlights.com
Andrew
Super Appreciated Tom E and AFAustin, I am going to try both methods as soon as a I get a chance today, we will see! Hopefully I can just clean all the contacts again,
The sleeve for the e switch does seem a bit rough and pulls cotton on qtips. Would you suggest maybe lite sanding or does the fact that the light will light up with both buttons pressed rule that out
Thanks again y’all
Michael
I took apart the tube, removed the sleeves, but didn't clean anything. With mine it was the switches, and I didn't do anything with them from the inside. Post your results - hope it helps. Betta these things have been sitting around for 7+ years.
Thanks Jake, sorry to hear that you’re closing!
Hi Jake,
My L10 came, but I had a small issue with it. The head was glued solidly into the body. So much so that when I twisted hard on it the bezel came off the brass heat sink. In order to free the slug from the body I had to get the body hot, and when I did it melted the black isolator ring that sits between the reflector and the LED. The light still appears to work, but I was wondering if you can send me a new isolator ring?
Thanks
Matt
The categories are almost all empty. Nothing in Acebeam.
I got responses for several different people at SB, they searched the warehouse and sent me a refurbished head and tailcap, and still I am having the same problem, after doing some hilarious troubleshooting over video messenger with Johnny Mac, we both agreed it has to be the inner sleeve, which in the first case the problem I described to them all pointed to the sleeve, but when they sent tracking info saying they sent the refurbished tail and head, I didn’t want to bother them anymore.
I emailed them asking if they had a spare sleeve they could send or have any other pointers, I haven’t heard anything back from them, nothing since Dec 11.
I will be posting it up for sale as is with the spare head an tail if I don’t hear back from them soon.
I appreciate Tom E. And others help during this experience. It’s a shame because it has a feel of a very nice light, ahead of it’s time and all with the sleeve.
I’ve got a SL5 and SL6 now. They were both a bit finnicky at first, but when I verified the inner tube wasn’t the problem I just developed patience and gave the switches a bunch of actuations (and some “really hard presses”) and they’re doing better now.
The SL5 is the real winner for me. It’s pocketable (though really quite large for AA/14500) and has pretty good oomph on 14500. Sadly my black Shockli 1000mAh cells don’t quite fit (width issue), but my protected Thorfire 750mAh cell does. I’m concerned there’s no LVP for Li-Ion as it’s rare in AA/14500 lights even still today, and I can’t find reviews of it (it is like, what, 9 years old now?). But the Thorfire cell is protected anyway shrug
You said they were easily moddable but not driver-swappable - I’m assuming emitter swaps? They both came with alternate frosted lenses, and the bezel comes off easily enough, but I haven’t had the time to try to get in deeper than that. Does the reflector just pop out easily?
The SL6 is pretty nice but the mode spacing leaves something to be desired. It sheds heat well enough but will still get quite uncomfortable to hold when left on “Super” mode - I bravely let it eventually step down, but I’m not sure if that was a timer or a temperature thing. I do feel like it probably didn’t step down far enough to cool properly, but that’s not something I’m equipped to measure. Also, the light is chunky. It’s got a long wide head (kind of reminds me of my Thorfire VG10S in that regard) and barely tolerable in my cargo pants - not tolerable to EDC in any respect for me.
As far as the build quality, yes they lack square (or even trapezoidal) threads but they’re otherwise pretty nice. I’m quite fond of the look and feel. If the driver could be swapped or even just the firmware modified on the SL6 I would make excuses to carry it despite the uncomfortable size. IMO the signal tube design is far better executed than the FW3A (I wonder how the KR1/4 compare, but I still down own them 
). I was examining the tailcap closely and I really like how that part of the system is implemented as well (maybe I’ll get a picture of it later and highlight what I mean).
P.S. I meant to comment on the “extra resistance” regarding the signal tube spring: It’s the switch signal, it doesn’t really matter. That’s why Novatac could get away with using long thin steel springs the length of the entire tube as a signal tube.
Follow-up edit: I looked outside of this forum and found a good review (by HKJ! I was surprised ) that mentions it has a buck/boost driver. I think it definitely needs an SST-40 swap now if I can manage it.
I do really wish I could find someone who has had the driver out, though…
Sorry to confuse, but I bought these Sparks because I thought they would be easily moddable because of past modding of the SF3 and SF6 - didn't turn out that way with these.
Hhmm, don't recall details and see I don't have pics uploaded on them, so not sure what the mod issues were (at work now).
Pics on the SF3 Mod: https://app.photobucket.com/u/TomE2012/a/89f7fe40-6407-46a2-b60b-f5e727ff2544
Pics on the SF6 Mod: https://app.photobucket.com/u/TomE2012/a/86db7aeb-d84e-4542-bd5b-cb0c175b3054
Good Point About the Springs! Didn't realize that, so not so bad.
I will say I saw some SL#s for sale with swapped emitters on reddit, so that’s definitely doable on these
I currently have an SL5 disassembled. Everything is potted in some sort of epoxy. Factory driver was destroyed. I bought mine with the intension of driver swapping so no big deal.
Is there a dimension you want or a picture you’re looking for?
Gonna take another look at them now. Was destroying the driver intentional or accidental? I would be concerned because sometimes I have to preserve the stock driver to use as a base.
I was actually pretty curious about the SL6 - My SL5 is good enough as-is. But it sounds like they’re super potted, so I doubt I’ll be swapping it.
My original curiosity was how the driver dimensions compared to the FW3A (including possibly the lume driver)