2-D Cell Maglight Conversion to 18650

LED Flashlights – General Info
1

For Christmas, a vendor at work gave me a new Maglight that runs on 2-D cells.

Obviously not the latest technology, but since it was free, I decided to see if I could utilize it in place of the baseball bat under my car seat. {wink, wink}

Now, we don’t have any D cells in our house. But I do have plenty of 18650 cells.

So I cut a block of wood on the table saw. Just a shade over 1” per side so the diagonal matches the diameter of a D cell.

Took a 3/4” spade bit and drilled a hole in one end deep enough to drop in an 18650 cell.

Drilled a hole in the other end so I could drop in a carriage bolt.

More photos of completed “battery holder”

Assemble it all, and now it runs on a rechargeable 18650!

2

Also, I measured tailcap current to be 0.77 amps on my freshly charged 18650 that was pulled from an old laptop battery pack.

D-cell tailcap current was 1.5 amps on relatively fresh cells I ended up buying. Will be interesting to see the beam shots at night.

3

Cool mod, i always like these kinds of mods. I have a 2c mag that i am going to mod at some point :).

4

2018 Mag mod discussions… Cool.

You can do the same thing with PVC pipe couplings and 2x26650.

For the 2C mags, its easy to mod them to 2x18650. You have to remove the tail spring and remove anodize from the tail cap.

5

Does it have a stock bulb?

6

Judging by the tint, it looks like an LED.

No a stock 2D incan lamp will “” with 8.4V.

7

I think OP’s has 1 18650 . Stock bulb will work with 4.2 v?

8

Good question… these old incan lamps can be “slightly” overdriven. I am not sure about specifics though. There is a chance it will work, although I would expect life span to be much shorter. 4.2V Lithium versus 3V alkaleak

9

Looks like the tail spring would also need some modding to make good contact on end of 18650.

10

yeah just bend the end in a bench vise / pliers so it crosses over and contacts -B.

11

its led.
current going down with increasing voltage means the driver is doing its job.
nice mod!

12

OP here. It is LED bulb with single 18650.

13

This must be Led and it has a driver. 1.55A on 2 D cells and only .77A on a 4.2V 18650 indicates that.

14

Wonder if it will take two 18650’s in series?

15

facepalm… right, I overlooked that post.

16

Be careful if anyone else uses it. No low voltage protection.

17

Tube is too short for that. But maybe if the spring was cut down. The big question is what it would do 8.4v.

18

Yes, it would be best to use a protected cell.