Nice work! i really like the camo MT-G2 Mag above.
The camo is more subdued. But the way you build Maglites, I think the flames are pretty darn appropriate. :party:
Not the powder coating resins they make at the chemical factory where I work sometimes.
It is made to stick via static electricity to the barest, cleanest of metals, where it lies gently and softly until it can be baked on forever.
I would LOVE to know how to make decorative patterns like this in powder coat!!! (I mean, with my piss-poor “artistic” “”skills”“)
Dim
I don’t know if you could do patterns like that, but some patterns you could probably do. I know they mask parts for powder coat, so it would be mask, coat, oven, mask that, coat, oven… I imagine somewhere it’s being done for some kind of parts.
Interesting stuff OL!
EDIT: Also they look good. Forgot to mention that. I don’t have many camo items myself, but between those two lights I do like the camo best.
Both of them look great O-L….
But I just saw some testing on your Mag Lights… and they were pushing just over 3000lms
of pure flood and throw.
Great Job
OL, you should try dipping yourself… should make for some wicked body art…
Sweet. You need to work out now how to hold the light so the tailcap can be done. Maybe a piece of wooden dowel pressed gently into the bezel opening?
I had a similar thought, but since he’s got to roll it lengthwise I don’t think it’s very practical. You’ve gotta hold the thing reasonably level and roll it >180° while keeping it reasonably level. OL doesn’t have space for two hands worth of dowel rod sticking out of the head of a 2D Maglite in his tank. I can’t speak for OL, but for myself I think I’d have trouble steadily rolling the thing while holding it that way.
OL, I hadn’t had a chance to watch the video before now. That’s a nice budget tank setup you’ve got!
@ wight
Yes, that tank was a good buy and it works great. Nothing sticks to it. I drain it and wipe it out with a paper towel with paint thinner on it and the tank is clean again.
Since the light has to be rolled, it has to be held at both ends and it has to be level, to get the seam right. That's the reason that I haven't tried a tail cap. I would have to do the tail cap separate. I did the bezel on the light, by using a knob attached to the plastic lens, but the top of the bezel didn't look right. It looked smeared. The bezel and tail cap would both have to be dipped by the angle dip method and they would not match pattern to the light itself. I have seen someone dip a flashlight via the angle dip method, but the pattern looked kind of funky, like it was stretched in places and not in others. When you roll, the ends look strange, like they have been twirled like a top, which is what going to happen, so I have just left the tail cap and bezel out of the picture for now. I may try angle dipping myself, just to see, but I don't think it will come out good.
The biggest reason for giving up on it is the fumes from the activator. It needs to be done in a shop, where the fumes are carried off, just like a paint shop. Can't do that at home and don't want to invest tons of money for a garage modded to do that, where I shouldn't even be doing it in the first place. The fumes need to be captured and the water needs to be captured and recycled too. Just not good for a DIY home thing. I can imagine the trouble if the city knew what went into the drain.
Makes sense to me. I’ve looked into the subject several times but always found enough problems to stop me from seriously considering building my own setup. Thanks for posting your results and thoughts on it.
Obviously I’m talking through my hat, but I noticed quite a bit of leftover film after you dunked the body, to the Upper-Left as you’d see it. Couldn’t you find an area there which “sorta matched” the flames at the bottom & just gently drop the tailcap through it? There would still be a break line, unless you were exceptionally LUCKY as well as being as GOOD as you obviously are, but at least the colors would match.
That would probably work better for the camo…
I forgot to ask: Have you (anyone?) done any testing on this film-dip coating to see how durable it is?
I paid extra for a Fall-Camo 501b which was pretty, but the camo coating isn’t as durable as paint. Now I’m too embarrassed to take it out.
FWIW, like most of us, I can think of several dozen everyday items besides just flashlights which could be massively enhanced by this, but not if it’s going to flake off.
Thanks,
Dim
I think it’s not very durable. It requires a topcoat. Priming is required, then you dip, then topcoat (eg with paint). I took it that OL was interested in this process primarily for making super-awesome shelf queen type lights, not for beater / EDC lights.
I don’t know the process used for the camo 501b and similar things, but I’ve wondered. Whatever they are using, I can’t think of anything cheap which would seem likely to permanently mark Aluminum (anodized or otherwise).
OL ubermeister 
10/11/14 Added a Skull pattern and added the Camo to the OP
I think the camo one would sell well. Some guys like camo everything.
Looking good. Any improvement on the “white specs in the knurling” situation?
Fill in the knurling, LOL. Areas where there was enough primer to fill up the knurl look fine, but if the area still has the knurl pattern even with primer over it, the ink doesn’t flow into them. I think the best way might be to prime, sand smooth, prime, sand smooth, etc., to build up and fill the knurl till it’s smooth. At a distance of a couple feet or more, it looks ok, but when you get close…
Heh! I don’t think it’s possible, but here’s what pops into my mind. If the bottom of the knurls could be filled with a dark colored ink and then the rest of the thing wiped clean of it before doing the dip… clearly this would create a visible diamond-grill pattern behind the flame graphics, but that might not be too bothersome and black spots are way, way less annoying than white spots.
Like I said, probably a bad idea because I don’t know that the wiping step is at all doable.