It looks like we are looking at nickel. All Noctigons are very thin coated gold on the outside, nickel underneath to help the with the gold bonding, and then the solid copper under the nickel. Around the indentations, you can see all 3 layers.
The gold can be removed practically waving super fine grit sandpaper over it, while the nickel takes a little bit of rubbing. I've sanded down many a Noctigons over the years.
CRX, what battery are you using? It must be 16340 or cr123? I just took about .005” off of each end of the battery tube to square it up and improve contact. I don’t think I can go any shorter and still take a 18350. Also mine is a S41 but I doubt there’s any difference.
Yes the coating came off mostly with acetone, should patina nicely now
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Yeah i think Toms explanation is right there
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C’mon, give it a shot like i showed, you can do it
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It’s just a thin layer of oxidised copper so would imagine it’s only slighly less conductive and would need cleaned before soldering
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Thanks
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Yeah i think it does look better now
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That’s why i trimmed down the driver retaining ring and replaced the spring with a copper stud so as to leave plenty of space in the battery compartment.
Here’s mine with a flat top purple Efest 18350, still space for a button top
Thanks for the tip. I was able to reuse the plastic washer and installed a forward clicky with spring bypassed. Much brighter!(and more useless as it heats up even quicker)
I was wondering if XP-L will fit under the optics? Or you think I should stick with XP-L HI?
I was wondering the same, the new XP-L2’s might fit but i haven’t looked at it properly yet.
I did buy an extra optic so will probably install some higher powered emitters even if the optic needs modified a little :smiling_imp:
This has been my dream light for a while now and I finally got one! I’m following your lead on some of the mods I’m doing as well. I hope you don’t mind. Acouple questions though. How do you like the forward clicky with the way the modes are set up on this light, and WHERE CAN I GET A TAILCAP LIKE THAT!! HAHA. Sorry but you took what I thought was a work of art and turned it into an absolute masterpiece! I’m serious about the copper tail cap thoughlol. Is it a one off or something? great work man. my hat is off to you.
Thanks friend, the tritium tailcap has a forward clicky in it and the 18500 tube has a reverse clicky.
I changed the driver to a MTN fet with guppydrv1 so it works nicely with either.
The 18500 tube I made from an 18650 extension tube, switch and copper wire.
Can you show us how you did the copper on the bottom and on the tail cap? I’d like to build one myself just like yours so any help would be highly appreciated!