Update 24.8.16.
The build continues, though as much time as I’m spending on it not a lot seems to be happening. The following pictures show items that have not been cleaned up and may appear to be a little rough.
Firstly is the driver which comes from non other than Richard of Mountain Electronics fame. It will drive the XPL led at 5.5 amps with a simple four modes with memory. Yes a bit like me, the simple bit that is, I dont have the memory.
The led end of the body. This will take a 20mm Noctigon
This little ring of wood measures 25.3mm ID, 28.4mm OD and is 3.25mm in width. You can see at about the 9.30 position that it has broken once. Hopefully it doesn’t break again. Super glue can glue wood back together. The plan is to embed this into the end of the tailcap.
As mentioned earlier the switch has been assembled and sits here with its retainer and switch boot spacer.
The wooden bezel sits with its retainer. I have screws on order for it which will hold the bezel retainer to the wooden bezel along with the glass lens and oring. If that does not make sense it will when its assembled together. No sneak peaks until then though. It will spoil the surprise.
And finally for tonight is the semi assembled light. I’m almost tempted to not machine the wood as it looks half ok like this.
Update on the 7.9.16.
The tailcap had a groove machined in the end to allow a piece of timber to be inset into it.
The groove half finished.
And the finished groove with the end also countersunk around the boot hole.
The tool used is a piece of 3/8’’ HSS tool steel ground to a width of 1.25mm with the clearance ground on the side so it doesn’t drag on the side of the groove. This tool is also used for external oring grooves.
And with the wood glued in.
You really can’t see any grain in this by eye but it does add a bit of colour to the tailcap.
Some trial machining was carried on Humpty Dumpty for groove width, depth and spacing.
One last look at these pieces used in the battery tube as singles before they are united into one.
And we have one big sticky mess.
Update 11.9.16.
With the masking tape removed everything looked ok. As the timber had been sanded, sanded some more and still not happy continued sanding to the point that the timber was well and truly out of round.
The now one piece battery tube was put back into the lathe to machine the wood some more and return it to a round state.
A layer of grain filler was coated onto the outside of the wood and allowed to dry.
Humpty Dumpty again with the machined grooves polished. One has the machine marks mostly sanded out. I did like the look of the polished machine marks but looking at it again today I’m having a change of mind.
There was some ominous cracks in the wood so the decision was made to super glue them up. I dont know if the glue will soak in but I felt a little less tense with the glue on.
With a little more sanding this is the final product.
The battery tube was place in the mill for more machining. This is setting up the distance’s from the ends so the grooves all stop at the same place.
One groove finished.
As wood is not something I’ve ever had a real friendship with every time I go near it the stress levels rise immensely as I’m expecting something to splinter or crack at any time. I’ll be glad when I’ve finished the light and its in one piece.
And finally for today a long shot of the setup in the mill.
With the machining finished and no real splinters a sigh of relief was allowed. The super glue must have worked.
The table is just a little crowded with jobs lining up.
Update and the finish of the build 17.9.16.
It was decided that the body and tailcap needed a bit of shape to finish them off. This is the body with a four degree taper.
For those that dont know the part of the lathe that holds the cutting tools, the tool post holder can be rotated.
This is the tool post holder with a 2mm patring off tool pointing at you.
And this is the toolpost set at four degrees.
I’ve had an idea for a year or so now to build a light that did not have an external head and have incorporated this idea into this light. Its made possible by this XinTD C8 reflector which is threaded normally into the pill. This thread is screwed directly into the body and the lip at the large end of the reflector is used to locate the bezel and bezel retainer
The bezel, bezel retainer, reflector and AR lens used in this light.
Screwed together it looks like this.
The following pictures are of the parts used and sub assemblies.
And finally the finished light.
The driver is a very delectable buck driver from Mountain Electronics with four modes, last mode memory putting out 5.5 amps to the XPL 2C tint led on 20mm noctigon screwed directly to the brass body.
The reflector was kindly donated to me by Hank at International Outdoor Shop a couple of years ago. Thanks Hank.
How does the light work? It rocks. It puts out more lumens than any other C8 I have. Its about 85% more lumens than the stock standard Convoy C8 which by my light measuring device is the brightest stock light out there at the moment not including the current model XinTD C8 though as I dont have one.
Thanks all for the positive comments during the build. :+1:
I’ll post some night shots up at a later date.