+1 VOB! . I got a bunch of your copper pills, and some others. I think the mass is great - well over stock, but not so sure of the copper vs. alum. The weight of these lights is considerably more than stock - gives them a quality feel but the weight is just that more to lug around. I think a well designed alum heat sink would work maybe just as well, or at least close. Don't think anyone has done, or published, any direct head to head comparisons in a real practical modded light, so I don't really know for sure. comfy has been implying alum is as good as copper - for me, I am tending to believe him more and more. Also it's just whatever is easier to work with, or what's available. I like that copper can be shaped, formed, and soldered of course.
But for this - made custom just for this light, and thinking can be mounted solidly, alum would be pretty darn good.
I would also rather have the really cheap aluminum. I have a copper threaded pill (bucket) in a SRK and it’s really cool but I have done my own aluminum “pills” and my results were very close. I had planned on posting the results a while back but I haven’t made another SRK that is exactly identical to the copper one so the results wouldn’t really be accurate.
I have also been wondering about the effectiveness of a heatsink vs thermal transfer to the outside of the light. The mass of the copper heatsink would keep it from heating up super fast but what happens after that? Once that copper block gets hot it stays hot and it gets hot fast enough anyway.
That was great comparative data collected for sure, but it's not the same as being considered here. To do a valid comparison for this case (alum vs copper in a well designed heat sink), you would have needed a custom aluminum pill made to the same exact dimensions as Ryan's copper pill. I think that spreadsheet only had MT-G2 comparative data as well, which is fine, but limited, though you could consider it the worse case because the MT-G2 is probably the highest heat generating emitter.
No bothering doing a comparison, the output differences will be measured in 10th of percents. With such a massive heatpath to the shell, copper is the worst choice, aluminium is cheaper, easier to machine, more lightweight, and anyone with even a hand drill (who has still one? ;-) ) can make their own wire-holes.
I see the point about a stock aluminum pill as compared to an optimized copper one. The stock pill leaves a lot to be desired in most cases.
I don’t see the point about being able to drill holes at home in aluminum only. I’ve used a cordless hand drill many times to drill wire holes through copper, the copper being an inch or more in depth. Even angling the holes to bring the wires in from a larger outer diameter to the smaller driver pocket. Having also drilled the same size holes in 6061 T6 Al, I don’t see that there’s a whole lot of difference in the process.
Easy is, I guess, a matter of perspective. Having dug house slab beams in ground filled with flint stone and tree roots in the middle of a hot Texas summer, among other things, I guess I have a skewed perspective on things that are “hard to do”.
And for the record, there’s a lot more covered in my Trifecta spreadsheet than the MT-G2.
I’m in for the BLF Extreme version (Option 4). This will be my first mod, so the cheaper the better; never know what I might break! My Courui D01 is on the way…
For those of you considering a push fit, I found this little adaptor ring on ebay, it’s actually for a camera but fits perfectly for the thread inside the courui, just above the led emitter shelf, if the copper pill wasn’t threaded (and ever so slightly looser) you could screw this little baby down on top of it to hold it securely? Take a look - here
Like I say I bought one already and it fits fine. This way it would be way easier to take in and out for testing etc.
This could come in quite handy, as even with the stock pill, some members have reported that the threads dis-engage when the pill is flipped, so they have not been able to tighten it properly.
OMG I did something useful! lol! I spotted it a while ago and ordered it to construct a shelf with (long winded plan) but anyway saw a real handy use for it so thought I’d share. Turns out it’s ideal to tighten the loose fitting shlef down.
Using this with a slightly loose unthreaded copper pill would not only be better, but cheaper I’d imagine as it wouldn’t require threading. Well, that’s what I think anyway lol!
Also as this diameter is a standard photography size, theres plenty of bits and bobs on ebay, I suspect it’s the same with other sizes of thread - may be worth a look.
. I got a bunch of your copper pills, and some others. I think the mass is great - well over stock, but not so sure of the copper vs. alum. The weight of these lights is considerably more than stock - gives them a quality feel but the weight is just that more to lug around. I think a well designed alum heat sink would work maybe just as well, or at least close. Don't think anyone has done, or published, any direct head to head comparisons in a real practical modded light, so I don't really know for sure. comfy has been implying alum is as good as copper - for me, I am tending to believe him more and more. Also it's just whatever is easier to work with, or what's available. I like that copper can be shaped, formed, and soldered of course.
