Hmm, I hate so say it and load the suspicion upon me of being awfully self-confident, but no: I am not always amazed if a mod actually works. I do think a lot about if what I do is feasable beforehand, that compensates for the little actual 'workbenchtime' I have for the hobby, with work and family going first. But it makes that I do not make a lot of design errors. I do scr*w up a lot of the practical work though, but manage to fix most of that, that does amaze me sometimes.
I was TOTALLY amazed yesterday when my cheap old benchtop drill press actually turned an aluminum rod true! I was able to take a 1" bar down to 29/32" and cut a recessed end into it for the Qlite driver, all on the drill press! I clamped an old high speed steel planer blade into the drill press vise at an upward angle, used the down travel of the drill press to be the "lathe". Hey, it worked! :)
The black in the aluminum is from a black sharpie to show me where to part it off for the Noctigon. ;) That's an 18mm McGizmo reflector on top of the XP-G2.
That’s impressive DBCstm! I’m a little shocked to see a P%pfire in the background though… 
hahaha, yeah, well, never use it...was checking length to see if it might be shorter than the Efest IMR10440 for the miniC8. I got that years ago when I got the LD01.
Yep I'm still amazed if the light turns on when I'm done. In fact if it does the first time then I wonder what I did wrong.
This is what I use for enlarging the hole on reflectors. It also comes in handy for filing down drivers to size.
About a week ago I worked on two lights at the same time, neither worked when finished.
Last night I revisited them and one had the + wire to the emitter loose , must of been when “twisting” the wire putting in the driver, simple fix 
The other one has heat damaged trace on the pad, replaced led, easy fix and a bit of fodder for my first reflow when the “sinkpads” arrive.
Then I took my favourite light for a walk, Small SunzyT08, feeling good about fixing two lights and noticed that the light was brighter and getting warmer than usual, even allowing for the 25c air temp, so I switched to med, or tried to, I now have a one mode, 4A light, so a light I worked on a while ago (shorted out the sense resistors) gave out, ah well, I intended turning it from a 2p to a 2s anyway, Driver ordered.
Win some loose some, this is a hobby for me so working on a light two or three times gives me more hobby for my money 8)
Cheers David
Just keep MRsDNF away from your work area when he's on meds or you'll have
[quote=tallboybass]
I guess they call that, low self-esteem.
Had an XPG2 on Noctigon and Qlite 3A driver laying around, then I saw that RMM was selling hosts too, so I got the Convoy S2 host to put them in. After just a bit of wrangling and soldering the 4th star to ground to get the moonlight mode I put it all together and popped a sweet LG D1 18650 in,
“charged to 4.35v”, and VOILA…Let There Be Light…it WORKED!!
I thought anything over 4.1-4.2 volts was dangerous/bad for cell/mini pipe bomb territory?
Fill me in kids :quest:
That particular cell is made to charge to 4.35V, different chemistry. Really have to pay attention that you don't charge a normal cell that high or you may indeed have issues.
[quote=tallboybass]
I guess they call that, low self-esteem. Had an XPG2 on Noctigon and Qlite 3A driver laying around, then I saw that RMM was selling hosts too, so I got the Convoy S2 host to put them in. After just a bit of wrangling and soldering the 4th star to ground to get the moonlight mode I put it all together and popped a sweet LG D1 18650 in, charged to 4.35v, and VOILA…Let There Be Light…it WORKED!! This makes for a throwier than normal tube light with a smooth reflector that I got from Simon. The S2 is beautiful, I don’t understand why it’s so much cheaper than the others, quality is amazing for an $8+ host! ANYway, the point is…I’m absolutely AMAZED every time something goes well. Must be because the first attempts went so bad, but when I button it all up and hit the switch it’s like I took a pile of parts and MADE LIGHT out of them! Most people don’t get it but I’m betting a lot of you do! The next attempt may be the classic “turning a C12 into an MTG2 wall of light” trick. RMM has everything necessary, all I gotta do is drill that reflector out. How hard could THAT be, right? Um…we’ll see. 
[/quote. You got me beat on that one iam still 0-9 but my emitters and drivers just came in from IOS so ill try again to make a 17.00 light cost more than 25.oo $.
Now that put a smile on my face, thanks :bigsmile:
Cheers David
Stop being nice to me. I’m lucky if that’s all that happens to me when I’m not on some sort of prescription pills.
made my morning!
Whew! Didn't know if that'd fly or not, well, not fly, but you know. Thought I might catch some flak for wrecking your train. :)
You may yet, it was pommie’s train. 
Yes, but I'm amazed I don't frequently fall on my face when walking and using a flashlight at the same time.
David, Steve was driving! I admit to being on the train with him, but honest, I was trying the entire time to get him to slow down and throw out the booze! Really!
Is it just me, or does it always seem that the intricate parts (like 7135 chips and resistors) always come in after you’re tanked up with coffee? Why is that? Hard enough to solder those legs without caffeine!
^ trying to get the train back on the tracks 
Speaking of the tiny stuff, how do you all solder those lil’ bitty chips and stuff? Magnifiers and muscle relaxers? :bigsmile:
I usually rest my wrist on something to get rid of the shakes, although a shot of your favorite drop usually helps
The Small Sun ZY-T08 that I mentioned before where the driver failed is drawing 5.5A at the tail, on aluminium 
and I used it for 25 min last night, still working.
I thought I was driving the train, that will teach me to sleep on the job, hey now I can mod the wreck J)
Cheers David
You guys sure love your trains! Wish I had a clue what you were talking about…