How about a Orange Dry with a brown center :) Tutorial as well!!!

Welcome to BLF, MaofKO! Nice bake job, hadn't seen the wood-fired version before. Smile

Great job. I like the golden brown color. We need a barbecue version :)

Could be my imagination but that wood-fired C8 has a very rustic look to it. More so than regular oven-fired torches. Anyone else imagining the same?

Yes it is exactly as rust, here is another, bigger photo :wink:

Nice, you got a good fade from bezel to tail with hanging it, and from the colour I’d say you got it hot enough, your not far off gold on the bezel. 8)

You guys finally got me to try it. I am baking one of my older and not important lights. It’s a Rominsen 2 AA that I wouldn’t mind if it got messed up. Very easy to take apart and I’m pretty sure it is just type 2 so it will be a good test. It’s in the oven right now.

Just got done. Turned out great. I love burnt orange.

Pics or it didn’t happen!

I love this baking thing-thanks to you guys I found yet another reason why budget lights kick da booday! :stuck_out_tongue:

Amazing lights. These are the sipik 68 clones from bbqbuy on amazon. 3 mode. I kept the oven on for about an hour-2 on the left (2nd pic) were about 20-30 minutes and the 2 right were about an hour. Thanks for the tips guys!

Oh, and some people on another forum were asking about disassembling the normal Sipik. I read here someone boiled the bezel-do you recommend? I thought that sounded risky…Or should they use a heat gun?

Anyone try using a fryer yet? Or maybe quenching in old motor oil? I’m just wondering if it would pick up carbon and have an effect on the final finish. Just a thought.

Also, has anyone figured out a way to keep some parts very cool while heating others, to achieve a more distinctive difference than the regular fade?

These look awesome. I’m still waiting on my first project or two to arrive, so I’m looking around to see what I can do to make it “my own.”

I harbour the belief that body builders putty may allow the destinct design. It’s a putty used to control heat to prevent panel distortion whilst welding. I’ve just not got hold of some to try it yet, or know how to use it - internal or external.

I was thinking of a clay, like the ones some swordmakers use when going for a differential tempering on the blade (think of the jagged appearance of a katana blade). I don’t know if it’s the same type of stuff, but I know that a good, high-temperature clay can be made just from kitty litter.

I forget what the clay is called, but it’s used in most litters, and is the only ingredient in the really cheap litters. Just grind it up really well, mix with water, and apply. Some people use it to make their first forge. I really think it has potential. If I had a bag o’ lights, I’d be willing to be the guinea pig. As it stands, however, I’m still waiting for my first ones to arrive.

PS: Here’s an image of the type of blade I was talking about.

It sounds like similar stuff, as I understand this putty, it acts almost like a fire break, trapping the heat, but I need to look into it. There’s a well known British body repair suppliers named frost, I believe they keep this stuff in.

This is the stuff, £40 is a bit steep, I’ll have to read up on it.

The problem is (as I see it) that aluminum is a good heat sink. It takes heat well and spreads it to the entire piece. While I don’t doubt it’s possible, I’m thinking it will take some combination of methods; and it will have to be pretty precise. Some kind of heat-trapping agent, a method to heat quickly, and a method to cool very quickly. If it was steel I could tell you exactly how to do it, but I am totally ignorant of working with aluminum.

Then again, maybe I’m wrong and we’re on the right track with the putty or clay routine. I think the key would be if someone can figure out the exact temperature at which the anodizing begins to change color. Then all we have to do is come up with a method for heating certain sections to that temperature (and no more) while keeping the rest of it cool — again, a balancing act. Is anyone capable of measuring the temperature of the piece while it’s being heated?

ETA: Anyone have one of those cool touch soldering irons? I’ll bet that it would work at least for creating a camo pattern…probably.

ETA (again): Or I nearly forgot about this: http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/modding-forum/367095-resistance-no-resistance-wire-welder.html Rather than using it to join wires, it could just blast an arc through a small piece of aluminum, quite possibly getting the anodizing hot enough to have the desired effect. May be controllable, to an extent. Again, at least probably good enough for a camo pattern.

ETA (final, I think): Has anyone tried brushing their light with a regular soldering iron? I would think it’s hot enough to change the color, at least if you move back and forth or stay on one spot. I would think the pattern would be more controllable than an open flame or oven.

Ops, why did I read this post? A c8 is heating now…

Boris, the clay used in kitty litter is kaolin (also the active ingredient for Kaopectate), which comes from the coastal plain states in the SE United States among other places. A technique many have used in place of the oven is to use a gas torch to selectively heat parts of the light.

My first thought. Who thought up this "Baking Lights"

What a crazy idea ........ BUT ....... the results are simply amazing.

Those are BEAUTIFUL. The color is very different, variations are very unique.

Please keep "Pushing the Envelope" and post more pics.

On the kitty litter - it’s bentonite clay that I was thinking of. At least, that’s what it used to be made of. However, a rudimentary search does show that kaolin is the basis for kaowool, which is used as a liner for industrial forges, home propane forges, and some wood-burning stoves and the like. The basic recipe for a clay forge liner is kitty litter + sand for a mix that withstands forge-welding temperatures (above 2k F). Again, my own experience/research is centered on steel, not aluminum. So that may be a bit extreme, and it may not actually help to draw heat out. In fact, the sword clay method is used to quench the steel. The clay insulates the section of steel it’s applied to, slowing the cooling, which creates a harder steel. For a blade like the katana up there, you would apply the clay everywhere except the edge of the blade, heat, then quench. It makes for a softer spine (more strength) and a harder blade (stays sharper, longer).

On the selective heating — when you use a torch, you get a fade between the heated and non-heated sections, and the difference is often barely noticeable at all. It’s caused both by aluminum’s heat-dispersing, the torch’s inability to produce precise heat, and probably the user’s inability to hold a perfectly steady hand. Ideally, I would like a crisp line between some shade of orange and black. It may not be possible because the aluminum is so good at spreading the heat around, but I think there’s got to be some way. That method may prove to be impractical because of cost or labor required, but I may want to give it a go anyhow.

One more thought - take a cord (maybe cotton or even paracord) and wrap a section of the tube with that; just one wrap. Then either pull each end independently (in turn), making it spin around the tube back and forth at that point, or make it a loop and connect it to some kind of motor for hands-free spinning. Some people use a similar method for cutting glass. You can heat up one line on the glass then dunk it in cold water and it will break apart on its own. Doing this may heat the surface (the anodized surface) but not produce enough “heat volume” for it to spread very far.

I promise I’m willing to try any and all of these crazy methods as soon as I get my first delivery. I can see it now - I’ll have the first realtree camo light, completely by variations in experiments. :bigsmile: And I hate realtree camp. That, and John Deer seem to be on everything out here…

ETA: Found a really old thread on a paintballers website that discusses baking anodizing at great length. I skipped reading most of it, being comprised of asininity and general juvenile behavior. Apparently, it was a big fad about 5 or 6 years ago, and there was a lot of experimenting. Here’s what I gleaned:

Because paintball gun parts are much thicker, they took a lot more time in the oven. The results vary based on who did the anodizing, and the color of it. Seems a bit unpredictable, except that everything gets lighter. Basically, you’re burning the organic compounds in the dye (what gives anodizing color). They learned a few ways to make patterns…including stupid stuff. The best results I found (supported by some of the very few pictures that exist in the thread) were from Sharpie markers — black works great, but dark blue is better. Apparently other colors work too, to a lesser degree. I also read that someone used an o-ring lube common for paintballers (dow 55), and even mustard with some results (however, no pictures). You draw the design on, bake, then clean off the Sharpie (or lube, or mustard) and your pattern will be there. There is also some kind of controversy about baking weakening the anodizing (specifically, tiny cracks), or the aluminum itself (slight change in size). The science looks reasonable, but ultimately, there was zero evidence of any negative effects. The negative effects would theoretically be increased by repeated hot-cold cycles. A slow cool also seems to be favored to reduce the chances of such effects. I’m still thumbing through a massive thread but thought I’d post this in case anyone wants to give it a go before I learn more. Oh, and here is the single before/after shot of a Sharpie’d barrel (hard to see especially in before because of small size):

Before:

After (note - all those smudges were his deliberate design):

And here’s the original thread: "bake" your marker, steps and tip's thread

Justin, if you quench it enough times it will get brittle... if you heat it in given areas too many times & quench it there is a liklihood of some warping. Just heating and slow cooling will soften the aluminum. Anneal it if you will. This is all however gradual under most circumstances and other than the warping if it should occur quite negligible.

Dan.

just the middle of it actually :slight_smile: but i like so much that i will surely do more
did it on gas stove in less two minutes :slight_smile: taking it apart takes longer than that