Hi everybody!

Introduce Yourself
1

I’m a new member here and excited to see and learn the modifications done to the Maglite flashlights.

My fascination with lights started when I was about nine years old. I was given a 2AA-battery incandescent bulb flashlight in a rectangular plastic case. It was an Eveready flashlight and it was my first flashlight that got me hooked to the bright beam of light.

Time passed, got new flashlights and I was happy with my Minimags and 3D Maglites.

Internet came in and along with it websites and the beginning of forums. Internet introduced me to Surefire flashlights and lithium battery. Suddenly, the definition of bright light changed. I had the Streamlight, Underwater Kinetics, SF-3P and SF-12ZM. But their brightness was only for a short period of time. Batteries were expensive and quickly drained by those current hungry lights.

Then, LED lights came along. The early led flashlights were no competition to the incandescent fire dragons. The hook was… they don’t get broken when you drop them and shines longer than incandescent. I got my Photon lights, Lightwave 2000 and another flashlight with seven leds in it that used 3C batteries.

After that, different breeds of LED arrived. They were brighter and used lithium batteries. People are now talking of volts, amperes, watts, lumens when before this LED invasion it was just size and number of batteries. Now, I have to keep up with the different sizes and types of batteries. Battery chargers got into the picture too. OMG! I had an assortment of AA and AAA battery chargers… the Maha, Rayovac, Duracell, etc.

I am now using 14500 and 18650 lithium batteries for my Cree XML-T6 flashlights. I got my Pila IBC and Cottonpicker chargers. Although those batteries also come with bigger risk compared to alkaline batteries, I try to follow the safety precautions when charging Li-Ion batteries. I hope those chargers are as good as claimed and prevent burning the house down.

Sometimes my wife and I would got out of the house at night to shine different flashlights to a tree and enjoy looking at the beam of lights. We were like two children playing in the night.

I hope I didn’t take too much of your time reading this. I’m glad I found this forum and I know I’m in good company of people fascinated with the beam of light.

2

G;day mate. Welcome :slight_smile:

3

Welcome to BLF.

4

That’s awesome! Enjoy your stay here at BLF! :slight_smile:

5

You are going to love it here, what a great post.

6

Hi, verge and welcome to BLF!

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Welcome to BLF! If you still have that 3P it could be worth a lot of money. There are some links in my signature that may be useful if you want to learn more about LEDs and li-ion batteries.

8

Lots of good info here.

9

She must either really, really love you or she has one heck of a great sense of humor. Or, perhaps, both. One thing is for sure, she sounds like a keeper.

Welcome to the forum, Verge.

10

Welcome verge!

I loved that so much. I got my first LED flashlight when I worked in an underground munitions facility. I don't remember the model, but it was a 4AA with aspheric lens. I used to demonstrate the superiority of LED flashlights to my coworkers and security by hurling my flashlight against the concrete walls and floors. My light never skipped a beat. Years later after all that abuse, my light had been missing for a long time and I found it in my brother's car with the head broken off.

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Welcome

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You have come to the right place, verge!

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pretzy… thanks for the warm welcome. :slight_smile:

ezarc… thanks too for the welcoming me to the forum. :slight_smile:

diyau… yes, I can feel I’ll enjoy it here. :slight_smile:

brad… yes, I love it here. glad you like my short tale about my light journey. :slight_smile:

BetweenRides… thanks for the welcome. :slight_smile:

scaru… thank you for the welcome. Also, thank you for the links with enlightening informations. :slight_smile:

kronological… yes, I’ll learn a lot here. :slight_smile:

cone… yes, I feel lucky to have my wife beside me. As the saying goes, In every man’s success, there’s a woman behind, …and hopefully not rolling her eyes. :slight_smile:

leaftye… I still remember the amazed look on my friends faces when they saw me throw that Lightwave 2000 flashlight as high as I can and it never blinked when it dropped to the cement floor. :slight_smile:

flashlight man… thanks for the welcome. :slight_smile:

raccoon city… yes, I feel this is the right place for me. Thanks for the welcome. :slight_smile:

14

Welcome to the forum Verge. If to like Maglite mods, there are some members you need to watch: Oldlumens, an artist with a file who says he hates Solitaires but can’t seem to keep his grubby mitts off’em, Match and JohnnyMac, who seem to do the bulk if the Minimag work, and now me, since those pesky little Solitaires no longer give me the willy’s. Looking forward to what you can add to the mix.
P. s. there are plenty if others. This short list is skewed to my favorites.

15

Welcome to BLF! Glad to have a new member of the family!

-Garry

16

Thanks for the welcome Rufusbduck!

Also, thanks for the heads-up on the works of people here to look-up for Mags mods.

I still have a minimags, solitaires, 4C-Mag, 3D-Mag hibernating in the storage cabinet and I can’t seem to throw them out when clearing the drawers. Hopefully, I can transform these vintage lights into brighter led lights.

17

Thanks for the welcome garrybunk! :slight_smile:

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Welcome to the family, Verge! You aren't in good company here, you're in the best of company here!! Always good to see another Mag guy here. :l

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Welcome to BLF verge,I too had a penchant for flashlights when I was young and remember buying my first retina scorching 80 lumen surefire,lol.Tons of great info here and great people,have fun!

20

Welcome from another new member.