For a while i wanted to build a light made out of wood, as much as practical, also i wanted to stay away from classic tube\stick configuration, got pretty bored with it.
so one day few years ago i got some plywood and started experementing, and got sucked into it pretty bad, as of now i build about dozen of such lights.
I mostly use carclo and ledil optic, heatsinks, i find taking old equipment apart, all but 2 use 18650 cells, some have ballance pcb inside, but latter i figured i will use ballance tail and ballance charger.
drivers are either taskled drivers, or luxdrive. leds are cree, mostly xml\xml2, but there are some with xpe\g\g2. lens holders have gitd tape inside, it glows for several minutes after i shut light off.
i light looks like old camera, its handle is a handle from ak47, the only reason why i did that, is WHY NOT.
here is most of them. the lights that is.
Those are some of the most unique flashlights Ive seen in a long time. I like your ideas of proper “heat sinking”… no pun intended. Very nice, and thanks for posting.
Wow unique and thoughtful build, I like your heat sinking and your design.
My favorites are clearly the multi emitter lights with the slender profile and handle, like the ones shown in the second pic.
I just remembered that klarus builds such a multi emitter light too, definitely not as unique as your lights though.
I really like the idea, that you proved that a wooden light can house several xm-l emitters if constructed the right way.
Tails I make using 4 and 8 pin plugs, like that
So far they work great. I remove the treaded ring from male side of the connector, put a rubber\leather circle in there and use it as a cap for female part that is on the light.
I use different kinds of switches, spst, spdt rocker or toggle. With toggle I use rubber caps. I buy switches that are waterproof or washdown proof, I mostly buy them at digikey, I also use a shroud around toggles, I found a bunch of them a while back, they were some mounting part for commercial light fixtures.
In one light I used potentiometer with built in switch, also from digikey, very convenient to use with drivers that have dimming done by external pot.
Batteries’ I used tenergy 18650, and in some light panasonic cells. When I used protection\balance PCB, I used unprotected cells, or removed protection PCB from cells. But later I stopped using such boards in favor of balance charge. I use protected cells and charge them with hitek x4, even thou its manual says not to charge protected cells, I never had a problem doing it.
some light charge with cradle that has magnet in it, the light has a reed switch inside, I did it so I can have exposed charging contacts, and no risk of shorting.
If I need to I can use any of the light as an emergency battery. I can tap into their cells via cradle or charging tail.
