Scallywag's 9th Annual Old Lumens Challenge - Modified Light Category

I, um, may have warped the frame on my hacksaw today. So I might grab a new one anyway, and a 14T or 10T blade could be involved in that equation (thanks for the tip).

My impression of the copper is that it wants to grab. I don’t have a drill press (and I don’t know anyone with one to visit, either) so a handheld 12v Bosch is the entire equation here. Unfortunately. The hole saw is also… cheap. From a cheap multi-pack. I have a few regrets, but fewer dollars. My conventional drill bits are better but nothing special. Thanks again for the advice.

Grabby…yes. Depends a little on the particular copper alloy and state of hardness, and all the rest. Copper is a great way to break your old bits and buy those brand new ones you’ve been wanting for awhile. lol. Lots of ways to skin a cat but they all bleed the same way and are just about as much work. :slight_smile: Enjoying the crafting on your project here!

My friend said I need a band saw and a bench (disc?) sander. He’s probably right but that’s out of my price range lmao. I put off the heatsink today to focus on the cell carrier, and procrastinate until the new hacksaw and blades show up. Like I said, I bent the frame on the current one. So, update to come tonight when I get time to sit down and write it and go through the photos. I will say I flashed Anduril to the ATTiny85 from my phone, and I don’t have pictures of that because the phone is the camera, but it was way easier than using windows.

Okay, so like I said I set out today to work on the cell carrier, since I didn’t really touch it last time.
I began by using a dremel to reduce the diameter of the copper discs that would go into each end of the cell carrier. The inner diameter of each plastic endcap was 40mm, and the discs were a bit over that.

Progress was slow. But I eventually got them to fit. The first one:

And the second. The hand-made nature is pretty obvious in these. I also sanded them due to edge burrs.

I had some ideas about marking out where to drill the holes but things didn’t really pan out very well as you’ll see later.

My drill bit was up to the task, though. Went pretty easy. I applied WD-40 to each hole on a whim. I tried to go fast with low pressure, and it did fine. I also countersunk the holes.

To match the pattern for the second disc - by this time, having realized my patterns were not nearly as good as I’d hoped - I simply clamped to drill the first hole, then put the screw right down into that hole to keep the discs aligned. Worked great.

Next I cut my plastic rods to length with my hacksaw, which was still up to this task at least. I was able to hand-drill holes in… okay, near the center? In the ends, without breaking out of the sides, anyway. It’s fine. I promise it’s fine! I tested the first rod.

I’m going to need to countersink more…

In the process of assembling the carrier, on the third rod I kept breaking a screw on one end. This happened twice before I moved to a larger screw size (and had to make bigger holes) for this last rod.

I needed to make a small “button” of some sort for the positive contacts, since this carrier wouldn’t be long enough for springs on both ends.

Enter copper sheet and snips. Easy peasy.

Cuts like butter. Then I figured, if I’m gonna reflow the springs and buttons on the hot plate, I may as well do the driver, right?

All pasted up and ready to go. This is how I lay out my drivers, by the way:

My favorite stage of reflow is when the paste looks like this:

Alright, everything has flowed. Who can spot the issues?

The problems are circled in red at this link. And fixed.
So I had to trim down the external diameter of the driver ring I cut previously. I decided to try the snips…

I should’ve done the cell carrier discs this way! It fits:

And I marked where to drill for the screws with a pencil (but I did not get to drill them today).

And finally, I glued the end caps on the cell carrier. I test-fit a 30Q and it’s kind of tight (it nicked the outer wrapping on the head), so I will probably basically permanently install the VTC6s I ordered in this light.

Big update today, lots of progress. I’m quite pleased. The cell carrier is glued with E6000 and will cure for 72 hours. Hopefully that holds, otherwise I have to buy some 2-part epoxy (JB-weld or equivalent) and even worse, smell the stuff when I use it.

UCLp and three VTC6 showed up so now I actually have every piece of the light. It’s just up to me to finish it.

It is nice to be able to see progress and feel good about it. Oh, I hear you on the epoxy smell! I dislike using epoxy this time of year as the smell seems to hand around for days. Too cold to leave the shop doors open to air out. Too cold to work outside.

So yesterday I did some more work, but then I went to bed early before I got to post about it. So I’m posting it now!
I drilled the holes in the driver adapter ring.

As you can see, I had a casualty. Oh well.
I then reflowed the adapter ring onto the driver. I used my hotplate, and forgot to take a picture.
But, here’s a picture from when I reflowed the 7135s and spring onto the other side of the driver. For this, I had let things cool, then just flipped it over and used hot air.

Another angle.

Then I added LED wires. The positive also bypasses the spring, as the design of this driver requires.

I need to do the switch wires, but I stopped, because they can’t be fully installed without assembling the light. I’ll have to attach them to the driver, install the driver, and then attach them to the switch after routing them. This also reminded me that there will have to be a notch of some sort where the handle mounts to accommodate the ends of the mounting screws (which protrude into the head of the light) as well as the switch wires. I’ll deal with it when I get there.

Looking good so far, I don’t envy you hand cutting copper, it is a bitch to work with even on a lathe! My old lathe does not like parting off copper and it took me a full half hour to part off a 20mm part for my pill, any quicker and it just messes up and flies out the chuck, or at least ioff centre.
No way I’d want to cut it all by hand!

That does look like a lot of work. Sounds like it will be quite an impressive light when you’re done though. Still more tools and techniques I’ve not used or learned yet.

So, I’ve been slowly making progress on the spacer.
This is where I finished* (more on that later) cutting the spacer.


After a sheet of 80-grit, four sheets of 50-grit, and completely dulling a brand new file:


I used another file to make a notch for the switch wires:



And then I realized the LED +/- wires had to go somewhere
So I cut a notch.

And I soldered the MCPCB to it.


I decided I can’t attach the MCPCB+shelf with screws because I’ll never be able to drill adequate holes without a drill press and expensive bits. Maybe next year?
To do:

  • Attach MCPCB to driver-shelf (and possibly inside of head) with either thermally-conductive epoxy or arctic silver alumina
  • Run and solder switch wires and LED +/- wires
  • Focusing
  • Either drill holes into the spacer to accommodate, or (more likely) cut with hacksaw, the screws that hold the driver to the shelf (currently they extend several millimeters above the shelf)

Yes, I know it’s going to be fantastic fun to solder the LED wires to the MCPCB now that it’s on like 0.75lbs of copper

Is the file really dull or actually just in need of a good cleaning? Files clog, especially when used on soft metals. There is a tool called a file card.

The short, fine, stiff steel bristles are used to clean the metal bits that stick in the cut file face.

Available in many online stores and well-stocked hardware stores/departments. Indispensable!

That is such a HUNK of beautiful copper! lol. Impressive.

I was thinking the same about the file…probably just pinned and loaded, not dull. Even the cheapest files these days from China are of a rockwell hardness that is far higher than any copper or bronze…heck, even the “soft” jeweler’s wax files are plenty hard enough not to dull even if misused by stroking backwards. I don’t know if a file card would be enough for copper pinning (it’s generally not for aluminum) so you might need to spend time with a stout needle or sharp pick to clean up the grooves. Alternatively, you could flatten a short piece of copper pipe and run it down the length of the cut grooves in the file, like if you were pushing a wood chisel forward…so it moves across the flat of the file (on an angle with the grooves) rather than top to bottom as the travel would be when actually filing. That’s a quick way to clear up a file and usually the copper won’t leave bits behind when used in that fashion. Sometimes chalking a file before use will help prevent this or at least limit it a bunch.

Don……pleased to see a link to Falcon! Seems like hardly anyone has heard of them anymore but they’re still plugging along. They make great stones!

I have an assortment of their points, small diamond files and other stuff including an old air grinder. Still better than most of the no-brand name items.

Substantial effort!

I would be nervous about the centering of the MCPCB in your situation. I wonder how you made that work. The de-lens might have been safer to perform after the reflow, to avoid flux spatter or whatever, but it looks like it made it through clean.

I didn’t get a picture, but:

I screwed the driver-shelf into the head and set it over the copper spacer while it was on the hot plate. The driver-shelf has a centered hole in it already, which I used to position the MCPCB while the solder was liquid. The emitter is just large enough that I’m hoping this will be “good enough”.

The light is done and working, I’ll get this thread updated tonight or tomorrow night.

LED is slightly off-center. I should still have peak throw in the center, since the SBT90.2 is large enough that part of it is still in the focal point, but the beam is sub-optimal. Sure is bright, though.

Maybe my next mod is to cram 6 SBT90.2 into a EC06? Wait, that’s like $200 just in emitters.

I’m looking forward to the finish.

So.
LED+/-, Sw+ and Gnd (for switch) wired up and passed through the driver-shelf. I also sawed more-or-less flush the screws, which are present in this image:

The same thing, but installed in the head.

This is a dry-fit of the spacer+MCPCB in the head:

The emitter is off-center, but not as bad as that picture makes it look because of the angle.
This is after the MG Chemicals 8329TFF thermally conductive epoxy has set. (For those of you taking notes, this epoxy is also electrically conductive. This is a major difference to Arctic Alumina, which is not electrically conductive nor capacitive.)

Assembled light:

Down the barrel:

And a poorly-done ceiling beamshot. I don’t have room and/or tidiness for anything better at the moment.

So, I’d like to close with a bunch of stuff.

First off, this particular light. I’m a bit disappointed with several elements. To begin with, the light itself wasn’t the best suited to hot-rodding. Heatsinking was basically non-existent, the cell carrier was cheap, and the design was very unusual. Of course, the main reason I chose this host was because of the handle with integrated e-switch, which is a feature I found pretty cool in theory. In practice, that works pretty well, although aiming a thrower with a handle has a slight learning curve. Also, the balance is messed up by the massive hunk of copper now residing in the head. Next, my fabrication abilities are severely limited, and on top of that my skills are also quite limited, so the resulting fabrication is sub-optimal. Everything has a very hand-made look to it, and nothing fits together quite right. In fact, the cell carrier was bad enough that even after shaving down the plastic connecting rods, two of the cells suffered severe wrapper damage during installation of the carrier into the tube. For that reason, they’re now permanent residents: I’ll be charging these cells from the top-end of the carrier tube, with leads connected to my SkyRC MC3000. Finally, the fresnel is… well, djozz mentioned in the thread where I found the source of the fresnel lenses that he expected the beam quality to suffer if the focal length was much less than the diameter of the lens. In this light, I ended up using a 60mm fresnel with 25mm focal length, so you can guess where that lands things (or look at the beamshot above). I don’t think it’s a particularly good thrower for its head diameter, and it’s not particularly bright for its size. While an SBT90.2 pumped with 3xVTC6 ought to do plenty, I’m sure there is a lot of light being lost in the head. It is of course very bright, but my modded Supfire M6 is a lot brighter and in the same size class. My (still stock) BLF Q8 lights the room more as well.

The heat sinking seems to have ended up pretty decent, turbo runs definitely send heat out the side of the head where the copper spacer is. The throw is good, but I’m not competing with any real dedicated throwers in the 60~65-ish mm diameter bezel class. I also am pretty pleased with the SBT90.2, and would throw it in a few more lights. I think it could do well in a single-18650/21700 EDC-sized light - that might have to go on my project list.

All that said, I don’t regret doing this build. I’ve learned a lot about what I can and can’t do, and also what I should and shouldn’t attempt. I also know I want to get a drill press sometime next year. Learning my limitations is just as important as developing new skills. I already had a pretty good idea about what it takes to make a host well suited to modding, so I knew going into this that it would be a rough time. While the light didn’t end up how I’d hoped, it is still usable to even useful. I got to try a lot of new things, like soldering parts together that I’d never done before, and even copper-coating some bare aluminum :slight_smile:

I hope those of you that followed this thread found something useful, or at least entertaining, in my efforts.

Congrats on finishing your build! Dealing with that massive hunk of copper was something I wasn’t brave enough to do this year, so kudos to you for that. Best of luck mate!

Good job! Seems like you learned a lot from it and that seems like the point to me. I certainly did some vicarious learning through your build, so thank you!

As far as the imperfect handmade look goes, if it isn’t obvious from my project, I like it. If anything, I would wish you didn’t have to open it to see that :smiley: