I actually have a heat gun and a strap wrench. Unfortunately, I donāt think they are very good quality. My heat gun is a Radio Shack thing meant for stripping paint. I donāt think it gets hot enough to soften threadlocker. And my strap wrench doesnāt seem to provide all that much torque.
Maybe I should look on Amazon and see if I can find a better heat gun and strap wrench.
If it can melt paint then thatās too hot much heat to use on a light.
It may not even have thread lock on it, sometimes theyāve just been tightened too much and theyāre never easy to unscrew if the bezel is shallow as itās difficult to grip.
I had that problem with my Thorfire S70, I made some round jaws from a piece of wood that I could use in a bench vice to grip the bezel.
Complex problem, the tighter you grip that thin bezel the more snug it is on the threads. Your force is applying directly to the threads and making it even harder to get off!
3M Auto tape, itās double stick and itās the stuff they use to stick emblems on cars. Stick a piece down on a glass table top, or formica, and then press the bezel down onto it firmly to make the adhesive activate. Then twist it off. That works a lot of times on the smaller thin bezel lights.
I wrapped 3M indoor stairway grip tape (the grey rubber stuff) around the bezel. I used a pliers with some more grip tape around the jaws to try to turn the bezel. I had the head anchored in a vise.
The sucker didnāt move at all. This method has worked for most lights. It will easily remove bezels with no threadlocker. Iāve even used it successfully to remove bezels with a moderate amount of threadlocker like the Jetbeam RRT01, and Jetbeam TCR01.
Unfortunately, this method didnāt work with the the EC-R16. Based on previous experience, I suspect they used a lot of threadlocker to anchor the bezel in place.
Or use the āTEVAā-method. In my case: clamp a (clean) hiking boot upside down between your thighs, press the bezel on the sole and turn. Especially thin bezels like that of my RRT-0 come loose quite easy.
If one makes me mad enough, Iāll drill holes in it and use a drill bit through the holes for leverage, fill the holes with JB Weld or something later. When I get onto getting it open, open it will!
I tried something similar. I used one of the rubber pads from the grocery store for opening stuck jars on the top of the bezel. Also tried sticking a large piece of the 3M indoor stairway grip tape on the bezel then pressing my palm into it and turning.
In my experience, these methods donāt provide nearly as much leverage as the tape around the edges of the bezel with pliers. And unfortunately, I had no success on this light with either method.
After just building fourteen red XP-E2 lights for other people (hunters), I figured I would build a special one for myself. The deep red Luxeon rebel has always intrigued me, and I needed a change from the XPE2s. This is the first rebel Iāve had mounted on a direct thermal path SinkPad II. These little rebels are rated for max 750mA, so I had to drive them at 1.5A per emitter. As already posted, I stacked a Qlite drive for 4.5A to run my triple. SinkPad triple boards are set up for easy series hookup, but not so convenient for parallel. You also have to remember to grind the edges, or it wonāt fit in a 20Mm tube.
I started by building a little contact board to run the 22AWG Teflon leads from the driver pads. This mod wouldnāt have worked with silicone wires as they are twice as thick.
Attaching the 26AWG Teflon LED wires.
I had to expand the hole in the SinkPad, and still barely got the wires through. Itās a good thing I thought to stick an insulater disc to the roof of the pill, as there is no more room left inside. Itās jammed in tight. There is no room to store any slack wire. A real tight fit.
All the wires had to be sized and stripped to the exact length at the emitter. Time to add a Carlco optic and screw this baby into somethin.
A red triple should always be installed in a red host. Thatās class.
Yep! Itās red alright.
Still red. My cat seems to like it.
Still red
Hereās the 18350 version for those who prefer a shorty.
Q: Why did Ouchyfoot build himself a red flashlight?
A: He has absolutely no idea.
I āmoddedā the new Trustfire TR-J20 and gained 1000 lumens plus a few. Easy peasy mod, as it were. My Trustfire 32650ās came in from Richard, they bested the BASEN 26650ās by that 1000 lumens. Sometimes the right cell choice is HUGE, taking this one from 17.64A to 21.71A at the tail.
The UCLp lens gained me just shy of 400 lumens as well. So for a lens swap and the right cells Iām up 1400 lumens. Iām taking it!