JoshK's Machine Made Light for the 8th Annual BLF/OL Contest

If it’s going to be a few weeks there won’t be time :cry: .
There are only effectively 12 days left when you take out the holidays and non delivery days, and then you’ve got to make it and write the whole thing up.
I would quickly try to grab a substitute from somewhere or there is a good chance you won’t be able to finish, and that would be a shame.

This was shipped December 24th. Below is a full list if all the tracking events during it’s 1 week transit:

December 24, 2020 - Pre-Shipment Info Sent to USPS, USPS Awaiting Item
December 30, 2020, 6:10 am - Out for Delivery

:rage:

Fingers crossed it arrives today for you! :+1:

Uh, I’ve spent 3 hours trying to make the printer start correctly. It worked perfect all last week. Now it prints 2mm up in the air, and won’t respond to manual adjustment. But otherwise works fine.

As I mentioned in the other thread, this is done, I’ll be posting everything tonight. My family life is very demanding tonight, the posts might come slow.
I did throw together a YouTube video, the link will be posted as soon as the upload is complete.

A quick application of solder paste using the tip of an exacto knife…

Held over a heat gun to reflow…

And bingo.

Then a few wires.

The metal was 4% too small, so I spent about an hour with a Dremel removing material from the inside.
(This is not a one-day build, I fell behind with BLF updates :slight_smile: )

Upload complete! Check out the quick video to see what metal 3D prints are really like!

After Dremeling about 0.5mm off the diameter of the MCPCB it installed nice.
As you can see the negative wire is both designed to make contact with the metal 3D print for Ground, as well as make the press-fit easier and more secure.

Then I designed and printed a plastic isolator with a bump to press the positive wire against the battery.
Spoiler alert: It performs more reliably than the button on some Chinese flashlights. :neutral_face:

Testing 1-2-3…

Then I printed the rest in plastic just tonight, that was 4 hours of work to get the printer going for some reason.


Beamshots!




Neat and pretty! :+1:

Very nice and special flashlight! 3D printing metals has so much potential for flashlights, it is great that you have that going :slight_smile:

I agree entirely with you, I even argued for a 3d printed category last year and a no holds barred this year - but sadly it wasn’t included in this competition.
This was discussed beforehand, and the rules stayed the same afterwards. No outsourcing is allowed.
I was under the impression Josh was waiting for sheet to turn up, not a shapeways part (I thought that had been abandoned due to price).

Great that you managed to finish your build, Joshk. :+1:

This is a special format for a flashlight. It looks very nice. I like the 3D printed metal finish. :person_with_crown:

The floody beam with a slight hotspot is nice, too.

That is clearly stated in the rules……

Thanks guys, I think it turned out cool too.

The rules were the inspiration. The main argument was that it had never been done before, and people were scared it would be impossible to judge if any work was really done. Well, now BLF has a build thread where they can test their fears. Is it really impossible to judge this? I think it’s clear what I did. Just as clear as any other OL build thread.

So cheers to overly conservative rules, this one is for you.

Cheated.

Disregarded a rule because you did not like a rule.

That is not how “the game” should be played.

There were others who faced a rule that they did not like, a rule that made them make adjustments to their project or forced them to change to a different class. To allow a project that involves a blatant violation of a rule to remain in the competition is a slap in the face to others and an invitation for others to exercise anarchy if there ever is another challenge.

The light that was completed is quite nice. No doubt about that. But that does not override the rule breaking.