FW3A mod thread. Post yours!

aka Tactical Ring

also available for $16 from HDS…

Flipping the body, gives a similar grip advantage.

I think the idea of the tactical ring is that it makes it even easier to get a cigar grip, because the ring makes the ledge that stops your ring and middle finger even bigger.

Flipping the body tube would make the light harder to use with cigar grip I think. Doing so eliminates the ledge your fingers are supposed to grip.

flipping the body eliminates a need for a tactical ring

the flare on the flipped body serves to stop the light from sliding forward, plus it balances the grip towards the middle of the light.

the stock body position makes the grip area too far back towards the tail, it is not balanced, and the unflared body tube has a sudden ridge, that is not as comfortable, and not as secure as the flared end.

When using cigar grip without a tactical ring with the stock body position, I feel concern about dropping the light.

With the flipped body, the feel in hand is Much more secure.

try it :wink:

Yeah, you could call it tactical, although I’m using a fully rounded o-ring, not flattened off. I like using this rather than flipping the tube. It’s a definite “ledge” for easy grab & hold.

whatever makes you happy is good :wink:

fwiw, here is the center line for the two body positions

when I use cigar grip with the body flipped so the flare is towards the tail, the light does not slide forward.

With the stock body position, I can understand needing a tactical ring to prevent the light from slipping forward.

The body flare towards the tail, makes for a much more balanced feel, for me. I also like that I have no need to add any bulky, ugly, rubber parts to the body of the light. But thats just me :beer:

[quote=jon_slider]

whatever makes you happy is good :wink: fwiw, here is the center line for the two body positions !! when I use cigar grip with the body flipped so the flare is towards the tail, the light does not slide forward. With the stock body position, I can understand needing a tactical ring to prevent the light from slipping forward. The body flare towards the tail, makes for a much more balanced feel, for me. I also like that I have no need to add any bulky, ugly, rubber parts to the body of the light. But thats just me :beer:
[/quote]
That just looks odd

I can understand your reaction.

otoh, it reminds me of a Hanko head (thats a good thing):

(pic is a link to Hanko image source)

and the hand feel with the flipped body is sooo much more balanced, for me.

Thanks for the detailed photos, Jonathan.
I don’t have any problem with grip slipping, as I have a bicycle inner tube on part of the body. The o-ring is more for easy pick up from the back end and finger manipulation:

So far I like it. I’ll see how it goes… if the o-ring turns out to be more obtrusive then I’ll ditch it for the body switch. Aesthetically, I like the current tube orientation.

Btw, I picked up some more of that Cape Cod cleaning cloth. It really does a great job on copper without being abrasive. It’s just a tad cheaper than the Sunshine cloth. FWIW, I have a 2-piece bag of the stuff that I bought about 20 years ago. One cloth was done. The other was still somewhat serviceable. I was able to use it on my FWAA with success (just did the tube, left the other parts alone, for contrast).

great photo! :+1:
like the multi glow gasket too

glad to hear the cod cloth works well for you
does it smell like turpentine, does it leave an oily residue?

fwiw, I was able to “revive” an old sunshine cloth that was blackened with a lot of metal residue, by rinsing it under running water…

suprisingly, the rinsed Sunshine cloth works very well still… whatever adhesive is holding the grit to the cloth, did not rinse out… I did not use soap.

Yeah, the multi-glow looks nice, but it sure doesn’t have the brightness of the green one! When I get my LM10, I’m going to install the RBG in it and put the green one back in my FW3A.

Here’s the gasket in my 18350 outfitted FW3A. The tint should be bright green, not aqua. Funny how camera CCD distorts colors.

Cool. Sounds like Sunshine is a good equivalent option to Cape Cod. Regarding smell, Cod comes in a vanilla like aroma. It’s not overpowering. Definitely doesn’t smell toxic. It is a “wet” cloth. It does leave behind some kind of substance that you do wipe off, but it didn’t strike me as oily. The package has a ziplock seal on it, so you do want to protect the cloth from drying out. But it can probably be revived with some moisture, as you’d done.

:+1:

Hello guys! Are there any verified people on this forum who take orders on custom fw3 flashlights?
To be more precise - I want to put lume1 driver + warm xpl-hi U4 8A (2700k, 80CRI) in a 18350 tube. Instead of osram rgb in the centre - one SST-20 high powered led 660nm (deep red on aux port).
It’s a pity that fw3X has no any warm light options.
Or maybe this is not very difficult to made by myself? Is there any basic instructions on web how to attach leds to the driver and do everything proper/where to buy components and so on?
I’m completely new in this party, but I know exactly what I want. :nerd_face:

The mix of your questions, like giving very specific emitter specifications for your requirements but then asking about how hard is the process to reflow emitters… is puzzling.
Reflowing emitters is fairly easy to do once you’ve got the right equipment, have learned from example videos + text pages, then practiced it yourself on a few junk lights. But that’s quite an investment of time and effort if it’s just one light you want customized.
I suggest you visit the Flashlight Modding subsection and post a request there. A few BLF members have reflowed emitters and do it for others. If you’re in Europe, you might want to reach out to CRX, who is quite talented in flashlight modding. He’s in the UK.

Btw, I wouldn’t try putting an SST-20 in the center LED position unique to the Lume1 board. There is no optic for it. It won’t add much more to the output you’ve already got.

If he is just after a floody red emitter then that’s not the problem. The problem is making it high power and then heatsinking it.

skylumen.com is a commercial modder, you might ask if he is willing to change LEDs for you, keeping stock driver

if you want a Lume1 driver, ask Loneoceans if he knows anyone that would do that job for you.

Is that just to run them constantly on or is that to make use of the auxiliary function of anduril?

Do you know what size o ring you use for the body? I’m waiting on mine from illumn so I figured might as well get them now so I’ll have them when it gets here.

I have an SST-20 FW3A, considering swapping out for either dedomed 519A or mix tint domed 519A. Which would be better? How’s the difference in throw and beam pattern?

Yes, see this tutorial on installing the O ring

Try 519a 4500K w dome on. Then dedome them to experience the difference first hand. And then remove the 519a, and try sw45k (it is still the best) :wink:
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