I’m getting back into the vintage C and D cell incans. I just bought a 5 cell Winchester and a few others. One is all copper, Ravovac 3xD. Light that is not powerful but it is a really cool looking light.
To be honest, most the flashlight uses I have around the home do not need 500 lumens. These old incans are fun around the house. For serious use, I have my LEDs but sometimes it’s nice just to have a nice warm Incan light. Kind of feels nostalgic. I’m old enough to remember when a 2xD cell Energizer “was” a flashlight.
Last week I dug up my Litebox-like lantern with a 55W H1 halogen bulb from a car and runs on a 6V lead-acid battery. They are dirt-cheap but only last a few minutes.
No I guess I don’t. But I do have a couple of these. Electric service is still unreliable where I live. I haven’t measured the total candle power on this but I’m sure it’s at least 5-6
Nice! A guy in town apparently made decent money selling these during Y2K scare. I have a crank handled led one that looks like a Coleman lantern, and I just used a C8 on low to shower etc last winter when the power went out. About 0.4 A, I think, lasts well, plenty of light, I tail stood it
I still have a Princeton Tec Surge 8 AA dive light and a couple of Maglites. Every once in awhile I put batteries in them and scare myself with the ugly beam patterns and hepatitis ridden yellow light.
There’s one beautifully-made (IMNERHO, of course) incan I can’t seem to stop using. I hope someone has seen one … Here’s a picture, it’s all I have:
I bought 2 of the silver ones & lost track of from whom. I know it’s silly, but I do love the way they look sitting on a desk or table.
I’ve been trying to find an excuse to mod it, but everything inside is odd-sized and the way it’s made I almost need a machine shop to fab up parts. The biggest problem with it is I can no longer find any for sale so there’s no real point in making parts. “It gives a lovely light”, so any mod would have to be spectacular to be worth giving up the CRI of the burning wire. It uses the old-school Momentary (press)/Constant (twist) tailcap, which I happen to like a lot.
It only takes 2 CR123 batteries as the body inside diameter is ~17mm & boring it for 18650s would weaken/cut off the threads. And with the little bullet-shaped 6v xenon bulb, it eats a pair of CR123’s rather quickly; but if I use LiIon it will supposedly fry the bulb. The only “upgrade” I can come up with is a bulb upgrade & 16340 batteries. As soon as I use up the rest of the CR123’s I’ve hoarded, that’s ‘to-do’.
I love the look, the UI and the light OTF, and would love to know what it is & where more can be found. If I could find more, that would cost-justify hiring a machinist to bore the heads to “standard” sizes for LEDs, Optics and drivers. I’d be willing to trade CRI for “Stupid-Bright NW”…
4 D mag lite with leaked alkalines stuck in it …
A couple of stainless 2D lights i keep thinking of modding but the construction of the lights is so stinkin poor it really doesn’t make any sense at all …you’d have to have no life at all to do it . 3 or 4 plastic coleman lanterns to mod but will only do them if they can be done very cheaply .
I still keep my Surefire E2e that I bought in 2003.
In stock form it runs on incan with max output of 60 lumens, but most of the time I used the KL1 led head which only gives 30 lumens, which is good enough for checking diapers, as it can also run on 2x 16340 rechargeables, compared to the incan which can only run on primaries
And with the little bullet-shaped 6v xenon bulb, it eats a pair of CR123’s rather quickly; but if I use LiIon it will supposedly fry the bulb. The only “upgrade” I can come up with is a bulb upgrade & 16340 batteries. As soon as I use up the rest of the CR123’s I’ve hoarded, that’s ‘to-do’.