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
whatever makes you happy is good 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
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That just looks odd
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).
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.
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.
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.
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?
Does anyone know if the MCPCB thickness has changed throughout the FW3A run? I purchased an MCPCB from a vendor that says it’s out of an FW3A but it’s 3mm thick. My current one is about half that. I used it for a 519a swap because I wanted to retain the original but the gap it’s created is irritating.
Did you know that you can use your FW3A like a mule? Simply remove the optic and screw the bezel + lens back in place. The only thing is, the glass appears to be pressed between the o-ring in the bezel and the raw aluminum of the battery tube. The o-ring provides a little cushioning, but you have to be careful not to tighten too much because it could put stress on the glass. I wouldn’t run the light like this as-is for long periods. Probably a good idea to get an o-ring that matches the battery tube and install it on top of the glass.
I’m pretty sure the bezel > glass > optic is what maintains pressure on the mcpcb. Without the optic, you may lose the thermal path and fry the emitters.
! 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 
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