Hi,
bought couple of sipik 68 clones from tomtop. I hear some scraping sounds when trying to zoom, so i decide to put some silicon grease on zooming mechanism but don't know how to disassemble the flashlight. Head cannot be unscrewed and if i pull harder i'm afraid that i will break it. Does anyone know how to do this ?
Looking at this thread:
It looks like you unscrew the bezel on the top of the head and take out the lens. Then you unscrew the pill at those two notches. I can't be sure though, I'm just guessing.
correct
thanks guys, i didn't realize that head is made from two parts because bezel was tighten really good. I unscrewed the pill, but now I'm little bit disappointed. OK, i know that i can't expect too much from 6$ flashlight but it seems to me that is really stupid to put some sort of steel wire on top of the pill instead of rubber o-ring, even more because o-ring is on the pill's bottom. Now it's obvious why i hear scraping when using zoom. I saw here https://budgetlightforum.com/t/-/5581 that other clones are with o-ring on right place.
picture quality is poor because my cellphone camera is crap.
Another variable in the Sipik SK68 clone lottery.
I have found the same as you. My UltraFire branded clones(one and three-mode) all have the o-ring in the groove. The others have that retaining ring like what your picture shows.
The ones that have the o-ring properly in the groove to make the zoom sleeve move smoother do not have the o-ring directly above the threads. You might be able to remove the steel ring and put the o-ring in its place. I am at my shop right now and won't get time for a couple of days to check it out.
I noticed the lack of a o-ring in some of the clones when I was removing a 3-mode pill and putting it in a red Sipik. I was trying to get a 3-mode red.
The ones without an o-ring;
TomTop unbranded
Colored Sipik SK68 from Meritline
The ones with an o-ring;
Ultrafire 3-mode
Ultrafire 1-mode
Unbranded 3-mode
A couple of weeks ago, in one of these clone threads, I mentioned that the UltraFire clones felt smoother and had a more quality feel to them. Now we know why.
fnsooner: "A couple of weeks ago, in one of these clone threads, I mentioned that the UltraFire clones felt smoother and had a more quality feel to them. Now we know why."
Glad you got some nice ones, but that's another aspect to this lotto that can't be relied upon. All of my clones are UF branded (except for two un-branded ones) and some of them scrape like a shovel on a driveway. Ok, I exaggerate a bit, but only one or two feel actually 'O ring smooth'.
Dang, I thought I was on to something.
No. I like one of mine (I have two. The second feels not so good).
My Sipik 58s were the same: a metal C-ring instead of an o-ring at the edge of the pill which made for grindy zooming. I was able to replace it with a very thin o-ring, and added a second o-ring to the slot on the body where the head slides against it. Result is a perfectly smooth zooming.
I also have a clone Sipik 58 that surprisingly has a real o-ring at the ring of the pill and gives a very smooth slide. Also unlike the one-mode Sipik 58s with Osram Golden Dragons, the unbranded clone I got has a Cree emitter and is 3-mode.
One piece of advice: Don't try to make these small zoom lights completely waterproof. If you do so, the zoom mechanism won't work well since air pressure will cause it to stay in one position and try to return it to that position.
On removing, there's a full set of directions with photos at another website, the URL is in one of the other sipik topics here. Sorry, too rushed to find it.
Short answer; once you unscrew the bezel and remove the lens you see a white ring, inside of a silver ring, inside the black flashlight body.
The whilte ring is nylon(?) pressure fit to hold the shiny little reflector in. It lifts out with careful prising. Don't knock the lens off the LED.
The silver ring with notches unscrews. Used both ends of a needlenose piler, or push one notch then the other with a small screwdriver.
Don't knock the ... you know.
Then the LED lifts out on its round base. Don't unscrew the screws holding the LED down unless you're replacing the emitter.
Find the real directions, they're there
I disassemble Sipik 68s as follows:
1. Unscrew the crenelated ring at the front of the bezel, then lift it and the lens underneath off.
2. Looking into the front of the light: insert needle-nosed pliers into the 2 notches at either side of the pill, then unscrew and remove the pill from the light.
3. Once the pill is removed, the rest of the bezel slides right off. This gives full access to all parts of the sliding mechanism.
4. The white plastic ring inside the top of the pill is a friction fit retaining ring. It holds a metal and plastic washer. I find a small hooked dental tool works well for allowing me to get a grip on it to lever it out.
5. To disassemble the entire pill, I found the best way is to take 2 pots and put them side by side. Put boiling water in one and ice water in the other. Hold the pill in needle-nosed pliers and move it from one pot to the other, back and forth a few times. Thermal expansion will cause the driver, star and retaining ring to all pop out of the pill.
I have the Ultrafire model and my zoom was rough as a cob at first and grease didn't help. I disassembled it and had to file the upper edge to remove some rough spots and burs. Now works just fine.
This morning I took apart some of the lights that use the metal C-ring and removed it and then used the 0-ring, that was at the thread section of the pill, in its place. A little super lube and this works great. I have yet to see a downside to this configuration.
I did two from TomTop and two of the colored Sipiks.
I did not run into the air displacement problems that Firelight2 warned would happen if zoom sleeve is sealed completely. Air must be slipping past the o-ring or maybe through the lense. I do understand what he is talking about and got me to thinking.
The only way I can think of that would waterproof the electronics completely would be to install another lense over the LED side of the pill. Then if you get water in the zooming mechanism, you could remove the bezel and shake it dry. But then you wouldn't have a six dollar light.