DIY Tips

I thought it might be interesting to just have a thread where everyone could add any DIY tip or tricks that they had stumbled upon.

Scotch Magic Tape...obvious one but cleans up any beam where throw isn't needed.

With aspherics either fixed or "zoomies" it can clean up some of the artifacts if you use it on the back of the lens as a mask...use four pieced to mask off the lens leaving a large square unmasked in the middle.

Use black spray paint and a brush (spray the paint initially on a piece of scrap wood) and paint out the Cree ring and anything else that might reflect light when you are working on an aspheric of any kind.

O-rings are hard to find in kit form that cover all of the common flashlight sizes. ACE hardware generally has a decent selection of individual o-rings in a flat file container somewhere in the store.

You can also buy o-ring kits for about $15 online that come in a large plastic box and are for cars really and are too thick for flashlights in most cases but the diameters are there. When you have o-rings like this you find ways to use them. Grips on flashlight bodies, spacers when you mod a light and the head doesn't screw on completely.

I recently used one to help focus an aspheric. Since the o-ring was thick and the aspheric wasn't perfectly focused the thickness of the o-ring moved the focal point in the right direction (too far) and by tightening a retaining ring it adjusted it back (by compressing the o-ring) to the correct focal point.

Light grinding or working with plastics...a small random orbiter sander works well and is small.

If you need custom plastic parts that are basic you may be able to make something yourself with PVC from the hardware store. You can buy a "coupler" (I think that's the correct term) to connect two pieces of 3" PVC pipe to each other.This is a $3 part available anywhere. Cut it in 4ths lengthwise and you have 4 pieces of sturdy plastic. Cut it with a hacksaw, sand it with any sander. You can even shape it with a sander.

Mold it, within reason, by putting it on a cookie sheet in your oven at 250 degrees F for 20 seconds or so and take it out (it's now like cheese) mold it and drop it in water...it's now hard.

Never throw any cheap lights away as they are a good source of parts later :)

Forward clickies are available to Shiningbeam for $3.

Needle nose pliers take apart most any flashlight :)

Although I have some soldering equipment I've not done any regarding flashlights (too tedious) but I may at some point in the future.

One skill I've had to develop therefore is to try to pick the right host in the first place. With all of the choices out there it's possible to pick something that doesn't have to be modified so extensively if you pick the right item initially.

With cheap items from China and long shipping times I'll cover my bases and order several choices hoping that in the end one will work out and the others may supply parts for the final solution.

That's all I have for now. What are some other tips from those who know much more about DIY than I do?

Nice tips!

One ive come to learn is to keep enough parts on hand to build 2 lights from hosts for when parts break or burn up.

Labeling and numbering cells with masking tape can save you many headaches.

Rare earth magnets of many sizes have a million and two uses.

If your lights to hot to hold, Its not doing the electrical parts and battery inside any favors.

Dirty grease or lube on your lights threads is worse than none at all, It kills electrical flow threw the body.

Fujik expands when heated. Use too much when potting a pill and you'll get little white snakes out of every hole when it comes time to solder the driver to the pill.

Good point regarding the magnets. I only have a 18650 charger for li-ions but now have a couple of 14500's and 10400's. After reading a tip on here somewhere I just (today) charged my 14500 using pennies and magnets (chrome plated) to make the 14500 fit the 18650 charger...it worked!

I found a local Meijer store that carries 5-6 different sizes of rare earth magnets and i need to pick up a few more. I never seem to have enough.

Also heat will kill rare earth magnets, So when soldering leads onto them try and heat sink them if possible and do it fast. I know mine have lost more than 50% of their strength when i solder leads on them.

Great tip on the Fujik as i just ordered some as you can never have to much thermal epoxy at the prices you find here in the USA on it. Will it still expand once its dried and hardened? And what is the cure time? Guesses are fine of course.

I try and buy thermal compound in bulk also as i waste more than i actually use.

Its worth repeating, If your light it too hot to hold its too hot for your electronics and battery in the light. This is why so many 3x XML Sky Ray drivers died was prolonged exposure to high heat. And i can guarantee your nice expensive 18650 is slowly loosing capacity each time it heats up even if its not caused by draining it but rather absorption.

We had a blackout of our electricity last night and even tho i used medium settings on my XML 2x 18650 lights they still got very hot after an hour or so. Id swap a new light in its place and set the light aside to cool and remove the cells so they cool faster. Its a small thing, But over time it can become an issue.

I'm not sure as to the cure time or long-term expansion. I just potted my first driver a couple days ago and when I touched the soldering iron to the pill, I got the snakes oozing out. It _might_ not even be the fujik, as heat would cause any residual air bubbles to expand... but I filled the pill in one continuous pour without bubbles that I could see.

Applying it is pretty easy if you have a syringe. Getting the fujik INTO the syringes was a bit messy, however. I used these I'd horded for a few years, and it makes it easy-peasy to apply. For attaching emitters to pills, just pretend it's a cpu and you'll be fine. Put down a small drop in the center, smooth it towards the sides with the applicator tip, then just put down the emitter. Twist back and forth gently to seat it tightly, and that's all.

Can you explain "but I filled the pill in one continuous pour without bubbles that I could see."?

What and where needed that much adhesive? You mention the correct way to add thermal compound to a cpu so im pretty sure you know how to do the same with an emitter board.

You may know this, But maybe someone else may not. But thermal compound and thermal epoxy don't transfer heat when applied in thick amounts or used as "caulking" or "filler", It becomes an insulator when not used as a fine thin film under your heat producing item.

I'm not really trying to conduct heat away from the driver board. The original setup of the driver is a fairly-insulative pcb that only connects along the edges, after all, with a huge air gap above it. And while thermal compound is best used to fill the surface irregularities between two conductive surfaces, it is still better than small air pockets, which serve as very, very good insulators.

Anyways, the point isn't actually heat transfer inside the pill, but for shock resistance of the components.

Great tips on getting thermal compound and even thermal epoxy into the goodies of the driver pcb. That may sound like alot of effort, But it could save a driver one day.

Adding heat sinks may not help much on a long hot extended run, But if done in short bursts it could be enough mass to actually make a difference.

I received some 21mm aspherics from DX today, If you were to grind the lip or flange off it would be 18 mm. They have a longer focal length than what I was looking for to try in the Ultrafire BJ08A which needs a fairly short focal length.

I already have that taken care of with a plastic aspheric anyway. These glass ones do result in a tighter pattern (since they have a longer focal length). They would lose a little more light but the longer focal length would probably more than make up for it.

So if anyone is thinking about ordering these they would go best as a replacement for a light in this size range that had a deeper reflector than average.

I just found some new uses for o-rings. I used one before to fill in a gap on a flashlight but I just used 6 on a single AA flashlight. It happened to have three depressions around the tailcap and three just below the head.

They look like concentric head fins almost but are of rubber of course. They give the light more grip and control in the hand. I don't need 6 but there just happened to be that many places to put them...so I did!

They don't move around at all and it's just one more way to make a light "yours" :)

And if you use GITD O-Rings, they make your flashlight easier to find in the dark...

Two tips I haven't seen yet:

1) Use GLAD brand Press-N-Seal plastic film for diffusion. It installs and removes easily with little to no residue. For more durable installs, place film on the INSIDE of the torch lens. It's a LOT easier to turn a thrower into a flooder than the other war 'round. This stuff will turn your ugliest, ringiest beam into useful light.

2) A couple of o-rings (or even rubber bands) are great to quell any battery rattle when using undersized cells or holders. I've even used paper to stop rattle in some of the Fenix 6xAA TK-series torches to good effect.

I just ordered the Roscolux Gel Swatch Pack and thought I'd post the link here in case anyone is looking for something like this.

http://rosco.com/sbreqs/index.cfm

I use rubber bands for the same thing …just to add color and some etra grip .Add a big rubber at the bezel to hold a bigger fenix diffuser onto my P-60 lights.

get rid of all old 3AAA battery holders and use a 14500 and a piece of pvc pipe cut just a bit shorter than the 14500 to center the battery and fill the gap without rattles. Some people use clear vynal tubing instead .I just had 10 feet of pvc pipe asking to be cut down a little.

A small styrofoam bowl and opaque lid makes a great lamp out of a tailstanding light .shine thru lid and the bowl just lights up like a lampshade . these are the best diffuser I've ever seen or used .

An eye glasses strap can be used to position a light in any direction as long as it has 3 chinching loops .2 for the flashlight head and tail and another adjustable with both straps running thru it(could be one of those balls with a button on many lanyards) . the light balances and can be positioned pointing up down and at many angels easily ..happened to have a odd eye glass strap.(.looked them up on google and they are expensive for no real reason ).. but it works like a champ

http://store.ekusa.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=4_29&products_id=81

Steal clips off of pens and split the ring ,spread if necessary and add to tanks ,black cats small AAA lights ..Steal clips off 2$ lights and add them to you favorite ones .

Ultrafire 18500s replace those pesky 3AAA holders nicely.

http://www.manafont.com/product_info.php/protected-trustfire-18500-37v-1800mah-rechargeable-batteries-gray-2pcsset-p-5569

When these Richuang RC-7001s go on sale at Meritline for .97 cents each they have great clips for various lights.

http://www.meritline.com/high-quality-3w-aluminum-alloy-led-flashlight-black---p-60454.aspx

I bought a giant bag of these o-rings and they make tail standers out of almost anything.