Lathes? Lathes? We don't need no stinking Lathes! - 2AA Maglite Mod

Well I had to do the weekly grocery shopping at Wally World on Sunday. Lo and behold, there was this nice display of Maglites - A 2AA & A 2D Incan with batteries & belt holder packaged all together for $19. Well I had no choice... you understand. Two Mags waiting for a nice Modder to come take them away.

I'm going to put 3AAA batteries and a Q5 emitter, with a heatsink, in the 2AA Mag. Wait! You can't do that! Or can you? I can.

Here's a couple of photos of what I'm doing:

So here's the lonely 2AA sitting next to a couple of files and a 13/32" drill. The light wanted to go back to Wally World at this point.

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Now if I just drill out the endcap a little...

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and now I gain 10mm of space for an AAA battery to sit in. The overall depth is about 12mm, but a short springy thingy will go in the bottom.

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Ok, let's tear up the head next.

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With a couple files and a lotta love, I have cleaned off the threads on the head, just down to where the threads are not visible any more. The OD has to match the copper fitting, so that the fitting is a "press fit".

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I didn't bother to press it on. I need to do a bunch of stuff before I put it on, like making a heatsink, cutting the fitting to length, etc...

That is a 3/4" Copper Union in case you want to know.

Day 2

I wanted to hold the 3AAA eneloops tightly and I had some rigid plastic tube (too small), so I split it and now it works as the battery holder.

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Place the bottom battery in the tail cap (no spring needed as the battery butts right up to the bare aluminum).

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Slide it into the body and there we are! Oh, notice the copper trim ring between the tail and the body.Wink

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The other end - The battery sticks up a little far doesn't it? That's why the copper extension for the head. Once I remove some coating from the threads on the body & head, this will power on by a twist of the head.

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Heatsink Time!

The heatsink is made up of copper plumbing parts. A 3/4 to 1/2 inch adapter, a 1/2 inch cap, a 3/8 inch cap and a 24 gauge piece of flat copper sheet, for the emitter to sit on.

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The contact end is a plastic washer with a brass insert that came from a hobby shop and is for a model airplane. The positive wire is soldered into the brass and everything is glued down using Arctic Alumina.

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It's all got to be cleaned up, but you get the idea.

The heatsink slides into the copper extension and the modified plastic reflector fits flush. I opened the hole in the reflector and sanded the bottom to make it thinner, so it would seat farther down around the emitter.

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There's still a lot of work. I have to make the bezel fit the copper, so the lens can go on top, but that's for another day.

Day 3

It's finished! I just used Arctic Alumina to glue the heatsink in the copper extension and pressed fit the extension to the head. Slip in the batteries and just a twist to light it up!

Here's a couple shots of the finished light.

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done2

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I did an OP finish on the reflector with Krylon Clear Acrylic and I ran a bead of epoxy around the top of the reflector and pressed the lens in place. Worked out ok.

And here's a video of the beam shot.

It's ok, not great, but ok. I liked the beam better with no reflector at all. I am sure the next light I do, will have no reflector, as I like not having any hot spot or rings in a beam, just one solid, perfectly round lighted area. The hardest part of the whole thing was getting the head and body to make contact on the threads, so that twisting the head turned the light on. I wish I could strip the anno off the threads, but I just used sandpaper to brighten them and then laid a small strip of desoldering braid in the threads. That was what did the trick. It is harder to turn, but you only have to turn it about 1/8 turn to on or to off.

If anyone wants it, it will put it up for sale for a few days.

More pills!

Now this I can't wait to see ...

You go Old-Lumens !

I did a very simple mini mag mod [ a long time ago ] , and I have another MMag waiting on a mod ...

Just waiting to free up an older XP-E R2 emitter ....

But this looks like its going to be a very interesting mod , go Old-Lumens , go ...

I would say that it takes a pretty large set to show the beginning of a mod like this before it is done. What if it all goes to crap? Old Lumens doesnt care, Old Lumens is bad a--. Nice job OL!

LOL! O-L reminds me of the honey badger. “Honey badger doesn’t care. Honey badger don’t give a s–t!

Stop referring to my private parts.EmbarassedSealed

I must think I have big B***s? No, I just measure it all ahead of time and sit down and see if normal hardware copper will fit. I was lucky that it was a Maglite AA, otherwise stuff wouldn't fit so well. Once I could visualize it as I measured, it all fell into place, but that was always my talent, seeing something finished before it was started and knowing it could work. Rube Goldberg maybe, but "On the Cheap" has to have a little Goldberg in it...

Thanks for watching the thread!

Tongue Out

can't wait to see it finished, very nice!

mind sharing where you get copper sheet?

In the thread for the SAiK, there’s links to that stuff. I buy small quantities 3"x3" or 4"x4" sheets for $3 bucks or so.

I'm really having fun reading your builds Old Lumens, keep up the good work!

I try not to take myself too seriously in a forum, it’s easier on the rest of you that way.Wink.

Besides, it's supposed to be fun or it's not worth having the hobby. I do take it too seriously for real, but y'all don't get to see that side.Surprised

Awesome work...the copper fitment ring looks great

Honey badger made my day.

Badgers!, Badgers!, We don't need no stinkin Badgers!

http://youtu.be/gx6TBrfCW54

From the Movie UHF. Yes I saw UHF.

All done and working. Pics and a video in the first post, at the bottom of the post.

Put it up for sale to see if anyone wants it.

Have fun!

Justin

Very nice work, thanks for sharing.

I must say, the copper trim ring really sets this build apart.

FWIW, I believe that the deeper 'Rebel' reflector may be better suited for LED swaps.

Once again, excellent job !!!

agreed, i will definitely copy that trim ring idea:) found the link for copper sheet, thanks - cheaper than onlinemetals.com. their sample pack has more mass but $9 + shipping (was 8.64 for me).

Nice Build. I’d like to try something like this for my first foray into Modding.
Did you use any kind of driver or is the emitter connect direct to the 3 AAA’s

Thanks

Pretty sure it’s direct driven.