Photon Fanatic Build, Ti Neck Light (Pic Heavy) *8-5-14 Upgrade*

Flashlight Modding and DIY Parts
4

Phase 4

Boring the tail for my 3.8mm Ti curb chain. This is a neck light after all.

A live shot of the tail being tapered, Ti flying, how in the world does he do this and get pictures too?

Perhaps I failed to mention that Fred went down inside the battery tube and cut a raised bump at the bottom, to ensure contact with cells that had wrap around the edges, and now on the outer end, cutting this little mole nose ….I’d be scared all over again to get inside the already tedious little tube.

Essentially, the work is done. A few cosmetic touches and some work on the pill and star board. But here stands the Texas Poker.

Star cut down from 20mm on the bottom to 10mm on top. This is a XP-G S2 5700-6100K found at LED-tech in Germany. Got 4 of em just in case :wink:

Trace removed, ready to go into the pill.

Fit’s the pill like a glove. I swear I can’t figure how he gets those lines so dang tight!

Cosmetics on the head, the last of the machinework save for boring the pill for the driver. Which will be done when the driver arrives.

So, here she is, a final polish to make her gleam when all is done and she’ll be coming from Mass to Texas! YiHaa! :slight_smile:

Thanks for watching! Hope you enjoyed the amazing show that Fred Pilon, known as Photon Fanatic, put on for me with his camera while working magic on an old Swiss manual lathe. Sheer genius and worth every dime! Thanks Fred! :slight_smile:

EDIT-New Photos: These are the last of the pics from Fred, he dropped the light in the mail this afternoon! :slight_smile:

Boring the heat sink for the reflector, a Dereelight orange peel aluminum unit

And here’s the reflector, nice and beefy with a reinforcing ring around the top…good for heat sinking too :wink:

Perfect fit! But of course it is, Freds the conductor on this trip!

Ah, a thing of beauty! As near perfectly matched as any I’ve seen, this should really make a nice beam!

And here’s the pill to go into the heatsink, keep in mind that little bad boy is only about a half inch in diameter!

And in the next few days, I’ll be taking my own pictures! This has really been an incredible experience, Thank You Fred for an amazing ride!

5

That is absolutely the beginnings of a work of art. You must have friends in high places with parts built here and there and modded over yonder. Half a mm thread pitch is so small. For those not into metric the distance from the top of one thread to the top of the next is twenty thousandths of an inch. This is very detailed work. Keep those pictures coming. Thanks for sharing.

6

yes. i cant wait to see more. i love titanium

7

Those two pieces look like one with different colors, amazing.

8

Where you meet a few people and things start falling in place. Nice people. Helpful people. And they’re movers and shakers and I got lucky. That doesn’t happen to me real often, and I really really appreciate it when it does!

Who said it? “I Love it when a plan comes together!” :slight_smile:

So do I.

9

congrats, puts my custom light to shame! haha…
that thing is a piece of jewelry

10

I’m tellin ya, Fred’s a genious on that lathe of his! He’s got some works that are just drop dead gorgeous and look impossible to do. And manually. Don’t know how he does it. Wish I could!

Hey, y’all see my post count climbing over there? Don’t even think about seeing this light when it hit’s 1000!! ROFLMAO

11

i said it before and I'll say it again, simply amazing!!

12

Who said anything about giving it away for 1000 post's posted. 500 post giveaway would be a lot better. I'm the first entry. Hope I win this thing. Simply orsm and thanks for such an amazing giveaway.

13

i like the way you think :wink:

14

Looking to change the rules eh? You really do have a horrible memory! Don’t even think about it, means it just ain’t gonna happen! :stuck_out_tongue: :slight_smile:

But swim over here through Midland and don’t get blown up at Ft.Hood and we’ll talk :wink:

Very exciting time for me, the closest I’ve ever come to “commissioning” a successful build on something was a few holes poked in the top of a gun barrel with a window in the slide over it for competition shooting with a Glock .40 cal. That was before Glock started doing it, and it worked very well. 4 holes and a slot. Nothing like this at all!

Some of y’all will like the idea of this. Know how I happened upon Fred? I was talking with Matt, the designer of the driver, about a build he’s doing for a kick-a P60 drop-in that’s not quite done. He had mentioned making a new light with a bigger head to have cooling fins and I’m sitting here looking at this big 2 1/2” diameter chunk of Titanium, sitting on my shelf like a big heat sink that there’s never gonna be any way I can do anything with it, too big! So I ask him what I could do with it, kind of offhand like, make a flashlight head? He say’s, “Give it to Fred, see what he can do with it” I contacted Photon Fanatic in a PM and gave him the chunk of Ti. Payed it forward if you will. And that’s how I found out what Fred does and ended up commissioning him to do this light with another piece of the same grade of Ti that I also had.

Ironic, isn’t it? When you’re finally willing to give something away look what can come back at ya? :slight_smile:

Edit for clarification purposes: Fred works for money.

15

That is the most exquisite tiny light I have ever seen .

UN . BE . LIEVABLE .

BRAVO !

16

Howly cow :open_mouth: Thanks God you have used Canon EOS for this work, those shots are simply gorgeous!!! :heart_eyes:

17

Thanks for the compliments, really means a lot to me. I can’t, however, take credit for the pictures as they are Fred’s from his 30D and 100mm macro. Nice photo’s though, to be sure. :slight_smile:

I’ll take some stacked macro’s when I get the light, with my 5DMkII or 1DsMkII, see if we can show a bit more of his fine detail work! :wink:

18

In doing all this posting and writing the description something occurred to me. Now I don’t know if Fred planned it this way or not, but…the V-Grooves in the head, the wider portion of groove that breaks over the ridge, that is almost exactly the position of the emitter in the center of this lil jewel! Almost like the tines on a physical torch that surround the flame, I really like that visual and once again I have to be amazed at the creative artistry that is Photon Fanatic!

Having made rings from this Ti in the past, I know that the tiny bezel detached from the light is near weightless…one of the things that’s always drawn me to Titanium, the piece is just difficult to believe even when holding it in your own hand, mind boggling compared to like items. I just can’t wait to have this light in my hands! :slight_smile:

19

That is just quite frankly jaw droppingly gorgeous. Congratulations.

And severe thumbs up to fred. He is without a doubt a master of the old school.

Cannot wait to see this finished, please keep us updated.

20

Everything was looking pretty amazing through the build, until the end.

Then you turned the awesome-meter past 11 with those grooves on the head.

21

ruffles. You are certainly a hard task master. It started of at 12 for me and went to a 15 (out of 10).

22

Nothing to say, nothing to add. Just posting out of wonder.

23

Here’s a bonus, the last of the Ti bar. Fred made a pill fob for my wife by my request in order to use the rest of the 1” bar. This series of pictures you can thank MRsDNF for, enjoy!