Non-working would be great to avoid breaking the bank since all I actually need is the larger o-ring version piston.
So I committed the cardinal sin. I left an Energizer industrial AA in my D10 and then misplaced it for a while. It leaked. A lot. So much that nickel plating of the piston is gone and the bare aluminum is also corroded. The PCB and pill are stained and look horrible, but still work. Continuity of the spring is marginal, so it won’t operate reliably once fully assembled. I am still thinking about machining it down and re-plating but that is a huge expense and might not actually work out. I don’t have a machine shop. This is my very first real light that started me down this path so it’s very sentimental. I have an early version, so the piston had the larger o-ring at the tube OD, not the “button” OD.
Alkaline is now banned in my house. IKEA Ladda all the way now! Screw you, Energizer!
Yea, did that. That picture is after some initial cleaning. It looks better now. Had to use a brass wire wheel to clean the pill, ring, and pill spring. The PCB is cleaner also but a lot of the costing was stripped.
Sadly the nickel plating is actually gone in many spots and at the spring end especially since it sat so long the nickel was stripped. It came out during cleaning in small flakes. The aluminum is now pitted and oxidized so I would have to machine down to clean aluminum to fix that. The alkaline crystals are all cleaned up. I was able to clean it enough to get continuity but it’s a flaky connection and flickers with the slightest pressure change on the piston. I assume it’s the spring and Piston but it could be the pill and PCB also. It was a complete disaster…
I will probably design a PCB myself and toss in an sst-20 but first I want to have a good piston since that is a lot to do and then not have it work right in the end. Sigh. Thanks for any suggestions. This won’t be a simple fix I think. It might be one part at a time.
> it’s a flaky connection and flickers with the slightest pressure change on the piston.
that suggests poor contact between the end of the piston and the split contact ring.
I suggest you clean those two surfaces with 600 grit, or finer, emery paper…
also clean the contact ring on the driver, and the contact surface on the inside of the split contact ring
I do not think you need to worry about lost nickel plating on the piston… I would just make the surface smooth, with emery paper…
the action of the piston is primarily for the end of it to make contact with the split contact ring. That is where I would focus efforts to eliminate the flaky connection
The end looks ok, maybe I need to actually buff the ring, pill, and ring spring a bit more. They were all black, I used a brass wire wheel to remove most of that staining but might have to go deeper. It is still not a nice brass finish. I think I have 200 and then a huge jump to a few k grit for wafer polishing lol. Gonna try one of those anyways, why not. Will have to get some Emory paper ordered though.
I 100% for sure have a spare piston but I don’t remember which design it is (I do know the difference, just not sure from memory about the spare one) but I’ve just moved and literally everything is still packed. Hell I just found my battery charger and batteries yesterday lol. Shoot me a pm so it’ll stay in my mind and I’ll let you know which it is once my hobby stuff is unpacked. If you’re still looking that is.
To be honest, I didn’t oil anything. Even removed the piston o-ring! I have to get some Super Lube and replace the rings with nbr rings. Not sure if mine are silicone so may as well replace them with nbr so I can use silicone lube.
I think I am still going to replace the piston if I can. It might not be necessary at the moment but I doubt it will keep working with the bare oxidizing aluminum. Maybe TruRMS will find his extra one.
I could hone it with a brush hone and see if someone will black trivalent chrome plate it. I had that done for some connectors at work. That stuff can sit in pure acids for a very long time. And is conductive still. Crazy stuff. Or just nickel plate the inside and end myself.
The sides are not a big deal other than the aesthetics, sure. The corrosion is pretty bad where the spring sits though, the acid collected right there between the spring and aluminum and there is a good amount of pitting. It’s hard to tell if there is a significant amount of nickel left right there. Not easy to see down there but I can feel the pitting with tools. I have a feeling the only reason it works at all is because the light only draws 280mA according to my Fluke. So the spring might scratch through enough oxidation to make a tiny spot of contact. Short term it might be ok.
I will keep trying. I think what may have made things worse was that I had not realized the nickel plating was eaten away and I used baking soda to clean up the acid initially. Probably sat to long with the soda in there.
I feel for you AmbientSix. Only put alkaleaks in stuff you don’t care about. I’ve learned that numerous times over the years. Even the cheapest rechargeables are better at not leaking than the name brand alkalines.
Not sure if this will make you feel any better, but I came upon this last week. It’s an old AAA Maglite that was in my nightstand. It didn’t turn on and I tried to remove the battery, but I couldn’t unscrew it. I eventually had to put into the vice to take it apart. After I salvaged the light bulb and 2 O-rings, into the garbage it went.
