In the UK we don't get such toys to play with. But i do have access to things like 400A welders and 2000oC furnaces. Not to mention seriously obnoxious chemical reagents. High molar sodium hydroxide ought to see off anything made of aluminium. Aqua regia is also fun for seeing off indestructible devices.
not at all... besides, I call the shooting with that AK derivate bogus. Any aluminum alloy of that thickness is no match for even a generic 5.45x39 round. Dial in that pesky sight and it is "bye-bye flashlight". Not to mention driving over a flashlight (circular diameter, the strongest form in geometry) with inflated rubber tires.
What does really kill our flashlights? Leaking alkalines, venting lithiums, and generally lack of maintenance. And sometimes bulldozer tracks on concrete. A single drop from 3ft. height may take out soldering connections and ICs if you're unlucky. This kind of testing is unreal, but still entertaining!
But, to be honest, the British "top gear" TV series is much more creative with their (automotive) destruction tests: www.youtube.com/watch?v=No0xDPFoMq8
Maybe it's because of the show's hosts as well. Gotta love that opinionated style of Jeremy Clarkson. I wanna see HIM do a test on flashlights!
No offense, but I did get a good laugh watching the vids. Those are about the silliest tests Ive ever seen. The axe didnt hit the light, it smashed the ice. About any cheapo aluminum light can be thrown on a graveled road and ran over by a truck several times and continue to work. Besides a lead .22 slug, just about any jacketed projectile would punch a clean neat hole through an aluminum flashlight like a hot knife going through butter. My .223 (5.56mm x 45mm NATO) goes through 1/4" plate steel at 100 yards like the punch of a sharp new drill bit chucked up in a drill press... and thats the least powerful center fire cartridge in my collection. If anyone is in doubt, send me any Fenix you've got and I'll riddle it full of more holes than Swiss cheese and post pics of it here. I could also flatten the crap out of any one of their products with a regular steel hammer... as could anyone. They arent made from hardened ballistic aluminum alloy.
Top Gear is the best! They claim to be in the top 10 most watched internationally syndicated TV shows in the world. Hammond demonstrates the proper way to dispose of a disgraceful car.
Who spent 8 years on the East German border - commanding an anti-tank platoon. Life expectancy in his regiment in the case of WW3 was 20 minutes if everything went right. And that involved all the services playing nice. Aye, that will be right!
Unfortunately he was in the wrong place at the wrong time, holding an SLR (FAL to those who live in the US) when Chernobyl blew up.
Cost him his thyroid gland and a lot of chemotherapy. Not to mention having to take thyroxine for the rest of his life. If any part of his body is making thyroxine, it is a tumour.
I have lived where the pols had failed utterly. Have had an RPG-29 pointed at the tractor I was driving while being accused of being the SADF invading where I lived. No fun at all. But somehow I lived. Being in possession of the wrong coloured skin in the wrong place at the wrong time can be troublesome. Once spent way too much time (about half a second would have been too much time) looking up the barrel of an ancient Browning High Power which a Zairean soldier (scumbag/bandit - I was not in Zaire (DRC nowadays) at the time) was pointing at my head. 3 rounds had already come through the door. It is amazing how large the 9mm hole in the barrel is when it is pointed at your head. That night (Valentine's Day 1985) was not one of my better ones.
Freedom is where you find it - absolutely true. My freedom is restoring and driving my four-wheeled, gas-guzzling time masheens from the 1960's. Although that involves finding a new shortblock for my Mercury after that 289 has thrown a rod last week. Thankfully, I have some really decent lights now to find my way in that pesky engine bay in a dimly lit garage... two of them thanks to the knowledge from this forum (thanks Match!) and surely more to come.