Aussie-Yank Flashlights Inc. Or how to span the oceans with crazy mods and good BLF friends. All Done

12/02/2013 Steve, I gave you top billing, (Aussie-Yank)Wink

I got a package in the mail today. I wasn't expecting it so soon. It came from Australia, from a member who is well known. MRsDNF.

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You know Steve does some awesome lights and his unique style has always fascinated me, but seeing these up close and personal brought the biggest smile to my face that I've had in a long time. They are simple Marvelous!

We have been talking about a build for a while now and Steve's been working hard on all the lathe work. I'm going to do a little "O-L" stuff and assembly of the leds and drivers.

(He could have gotten a better guy to do that, but I've got him snowed into thinking it's a piece of cake).Frown

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I love Knurling, especially when it is deep and you can grip it like you will never have it slip, ever...

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I really love the work done to these Maglite "D" bodies. I can hardly wait to tear it all down and work on it.

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Both heads are finned and they will need the fins for cooling.

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Love those tail caps with the brass inserts in them. Really a nice touch.

What all did Steve do to these lights??

From Steve:

Both battery tubes where shortened to an appropriate length for one or two cells. The tubes were turned down to remove the original knurling. The knurling was only machined in the area that you hang onto the light and some grooves machined into the area where knurling could not be machined.
On the twin battery tube OL has done a good job not taking pictures of it but in one spot there is a very slight hint of knurl left that I could not see in my dimly lit shed. It was not until the tube was polished and pictures were being taken outside that I saw it. At this point I decided it was best left there. (O-L has removed that with some sandpaper). These tubes have plenty of material in them for this. The oring grooves is where the material gets a little thinner.
The single reflector’s head was turned down in the lathe to suit the standard head and bezel to allow the bezel to screw on correctly.
The triple emitter reflector was turned down drill press style (thanks for the idea) for the same reason as above.
The Twin battery tube was threaded as seen from the pics to allow the pill to screw in to get rid of heat.
The tailcaps were made to suit the style. The fat one is for the short tube while the long tube has a smaller diameter.
The reason for the threaded brass inserts which have an o’ring seal was for a descent earth ground. The spring can be soldered to the insert and the insert assembled back into the tailcap.
Back to OL.

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As you can see, I have already been playing with these lights tonight at work. I have started polishing on the bodies and some other little things, like this:

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I worked both bezels and I will be working the tail caps and what else? Tell you later...Wink

Here's some more photos of Steve's excellent work:

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The "1D" light will have a 3Up in it and Steve has made a Copper heat sink for it, that threads into the head, so it is adjustable when fitting the leds in place and getting the overall stack height just right.

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The "2D" light will have a single emitter in it and Steve also made a Copper heat sink for it. This one threads into the body and it has a fantastic cut out made for the NANJG driver in it.

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The threading is really well done, both on the Copper and inside the head. It gives me ultimate flexibility when getting everything just the right height.

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Steve even made tubes that work to hold 26650 batteries in the bodies and these aren't your plain plastic tubes that rattle, these are Aluminum and with "O" rings, so they don't move and will never rattle.

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I've gotten everything torn down. I have a lot of polishing to do, along with some painting, (the theme is now black and polished). Then I can start on the builds. One light will have an MT-G2 in it and the other will have three XM-L leds in it. Nothing will be left stock and nothing will be left unattended to, I can assure you of that.

That's all for now...

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12-03-13 One Photo

wow1

Steve, I hope you approve

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12-04-13 - I am at a standstill for a few days. I went to my driver/led box and I see that I do not have three of anything, or one of anything else, LOL. I have decided to use three XP-G2 leds in the 3-up light, because I don't want to try to pull 12 amps for three XM-L, so I will do only 6 amps for 3 of the XP-G2. No, it will not be a monster light, but it should be a nice light with the R5 3C leds from IL. Unfortunately, I had to order, so I probably will not get back to these lights until late this week-end. I do have everything for the MT-G2 light and I already have the led soldered on the star and the star soldered onto the heat sink, but now I have to let paint sit for a while and then bake it, so it's still a few days away for either of these lights.

Just a FYI update...

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12-12-13

This has turned into a F----- -p build. The big light is done, but I don't have anything for photos. It's been so cold, that once I got the replacement MT-G2, I worked on the light at work and I didn't take my camera. Oh, well...... The best part of the light is Steve's machining anyhow, so you have seen the build. All I did was to put in a led and driver and button it all up.

Here's a link to what I did, to make the stock switch into a momentary one.

Other than that, it was just simply adding chips to the DrJones driver and adding the led. I had take the MT-G2 off the star and reflow it back on again. It was not straight on the pads and it had too much solder under the +- pads and not enough under the center pad. I really don't trust anything from China any more. They just can't seem to get it right. I remove and reflow every led I get any more and 90% of the time, there's something wrong that needed to be corrected. It just shouldn't be that way.

Anyhow, as I said, I just don't have any photos for you except the finished light and some beam shots.

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Steve even made a locating ring for the led out of plastic. The reflector is too high, but the beam is smooth. Dropping it down would tighten the spot, but it's ok the way it is and I am not worried about the large spot.

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Spring soldered to the brass insert in the TC.

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Beam Shots

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I didn't want to make a mega light, so I purposefully kept the amps down to about 4.5 and that gives a nice bright light, but shouldn't kill the batteries too fast if they are good 10A to 20A 18650s. It really is a sharp looking light and better off for a shelf queen than a daily driver.

Now it's off to be packaged up, to sens out to it's new owner.

I still have the short light to work on and I will try hard to take some photos, if I remember the derned camera.

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12-13-13

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XP-G2 leds from IS on Noctigon stars. You probably notice that all three domes are shaved off. Well..... there was this little accidentInnocent, so I had to shave off one damaged dome and I went ahead and did all three. Time will tell how that will end up affecting the beam.

I also got the extra chips on the driver, so it should put out 6 amps, 2A per led. It won't be super bright, but hopefully it will be bright enough to do the rest of the light justice.

That's all for today.

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The 1D light is done. I finished it at work and as you can probably guess, no photos. It's just not going well, trying to do it there.

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Beam Shots

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It just wasn't a good day. Must be Friday the 13th. It had rained all night and when I did the photos it was windy, misty and partly foggy, so they did not come out well. Needless to say, the light is not impressive at all. I doubt it's pulling the full 6 amps and I think the dedome just cut the guts out of it. It's not even good to a hundred yards. Only thing it's got going for it is it's about neutral white, to a little yellow. Anyhow, I didn't do Steve's light justice. Win some, loose some and I'm depressed about it, but I'm not going to go back and try to do anything with it. I have learned once it's done, it's done and if I try to redo it, I will just end up ruining it. So be it.

Wow, I won’t get squat done watching you build these and it’s always a treat to see what surfaces from down under. All that shine reminds me of a freshly roasted terminator.

WOW.. just WOW....

WOWW.

:love:

Those are freakin’ magnificent.

Permanently sealed glass case quality.

I haven’t been here long, but I recognized that knurling instantly. :slight_smile:

Already looking awesome!!!

I’m pretty amazed.

that pile of parts looks like a treasure

watching the build...

$5 inc post ? :wink:
Ducks a flying bastard file

cant wait for the finished lights…you 2 have some skill!

Mmmmmmmm me like shiny stuff :slight_smile:

Great work!

gorgeous.

Are these going up for sale, or are they going into the O-L archives?

Oooh, aaaah! Can’t wait to see the results.

Those lights look absolutely awesome.

Wow, just WOW.

Very impressive!

Fantastic foundation for a fantastic light!

Marvelous, they are beautiful flashlight hosts.

One more Photo. A picture is worth a thousand words.Wink

What I would do for one of those hosts...

What on these hosts is "stock" parts and whats 100% custom? I know at this point all parts are custom, but is the battery tube and head just turned down stock mag parts? If so, I did not think there was enough material left to do that.

How did you paint it?

I will let Steve answer about the lathe work. There is quite a bit of material in a Maglite tube.