MRsDNF entry to the BLF/OL 4th year 2016 comp. Machined. Finished 17.9.16. Pictures added to the OP 18.9.16.

The finished light. 19.9.16.

The following couple of pictures are previous comp light builds using C8 reflectors.

The build.

The light this year will be small using a C8 reflector and single battery. I’ve thought about building this light for well over two years and over this time the design, or lack of, in my head has changed several times.
It was OL’s idea of using timber in a torch and then RBD’s battery tubes made of wood that really had the thought processes in over drive to the point I wanted RBD to build me a battery tube that I could build a torch around.
Well as time dragged on I kept making excuses to RBD why I had not given him anything to build that I decided I would have a crack at building one myself.
Timber is not my favourite item to work with. I can at times light a fire with it to keep warm. Other than that it is an item that I believed should be best left to those that have sawdust flowing through their veins. If I’m really lucky I will not have another permanent disability to put up with.
Anyway here is some timber I collected from the bush months ago that has been sitting next to the wood fire with a warning to everyone not to burn my wood.
Who knows, none of this lot may be any good and I’ll end up at the local timber yard looking for an idiot proof piece of wood.

Update 24.7.16.

With an hour to spare today I took my much guarded, highly valuable timber out to the shed today to have a look what was underneath the exterior.
Not a lot, not a lot of decent timber that is as shown in the following pictures.
Starting with this,

we had this after cutting the end off. Not a promising start

We were left with two pieces left in the end after discarding the rest.

This was discarded but later retrieved from the fire before it caught alight as I was getting desperate for a good piece’s of wood.

This left the most promising of the lot left.

The further I went the worse it looked.

This is the what was nearly burnt before it was rescued and tickled up with the sander (5’’ angle grinder with 24 grit sanding disc). Maybe I can get a battery tube from it.

And here I am hard at it. The top of the sleeper wall here is where half of my pictures are taken as if you ever wondered. :stuck_out_tongue:

Update 31.7.16.

Another weekend gone with only a little work being able to be carried out on the build. I’m still not sure what I’m doing.
I set out yesterday to machine the pill but decided that of the dozen or so leds I have I did not want to use any of them in this build so the pill material was removed from the lathe without being touched.
I was planning on making the battery tube in two layers, wood and aluminium but changed that idea as well. lts now going to be three layers, well two if the wood doesn’t work out. :stuck_out_tongue:
The light until 2 seconds before the machining commenced on the battery tube was going to use a single battery but looking at the tube I picked up to machine a late decision was made to use two cells as the material will be long enough for two batteries. I have a driver made by RMM, well at least I think I do, which should run an led at 5.5 amps on high beautifully.
Heres an action shot of the battery tube diameter being turned down.

The reason for the 7/8’’ OD was to suit the inside diameter of the brass tube. This has an OD of 1’’.

An end shot showing the two layers.

This was then threaded on the end complete with o’ring groove.

A collar was then machined up and threaded onto the battery tube so the wood will be able to butt up to it. The OD of the collar will be decided by the timber diameter.

I wonder what changes will be made next week.

Update 8.8.16. Today must be a world wide date. :person_facepalming:

I’ve decided to go with plan B with the wood. While outside getting wood for the inside fire,

I turned around and wondered to myself if these old red gum fence post timber wood be any good.

The chain saw was fired up and a couple of blocks were cut from a post and dried out for a few days.

The arm strong saw was put to use cutting the blocks up into what I thought would be good sizes.

These two pieces will hopefully will be battery tube material.

Another piece was deemed suitable for the bezel so the holesaws of around the right size were put to use.

And with lots of sawdust and an intact ring we ended up with this.

It was then time to try and drill out the battery tube material.

The three pieces were then given a good soaking of wood rot liquid to try and prevent them from splitting when being turned up.

After watching far to many You Tube videos on wood turning I decided to do things my way. A mandrel was turned up to hold the bezel material with a light press fit with some help from a couple of layers of Teflon tape.

A piece of 3/8’’ high speed steel was ground up into what I thought would be a good shape and set to the highest I could in the tool post. This would of been about 2.5mm above centre height, the lathe switched on and saw dust manufactured.

To be honest I was taken aback just a little with how well it went.

Expecting the worst when I was turning the ends as I expected it to rip to pieces. This is the rough finish from the chain saw.

I was blown away with how well it actually finished up.

I’m just a little worried that so far it has all worked out ok that next time it will all just turn to firewood. :stuck_out_tongue:

Update 15.8.16.

The wood work continues after we had a Humpty Dumpty incident with one of the battery tube pieces of timber. I will use it to use as a test piece for work down the road. The replacement was made a lot quicker than the broken one. The things you learn.
The Bezel at the moment is still in one piece, fingers crossed it will stay that way.
The next two pictures are of it being turned up.

The pill is nearly finished. i took a bazillion pictures of it as I went but when I looked at them on the pc they were terrible. I think the brass colour and dark shed played have with the focus.
Heres a couple of pictures starting with the led end.

The fins are 1.30mm across and from memory about 5mm deep. I’m not sure if it will stay this shape. I’ll see what it looks like when the lights going together.

Its been another busy weekend, not torch building though, so heres a small update on what did happen this weekend and during the last week.
At the moment I have four turned pieces of wood waiting for other parts to be finished before I can try and destroy them. The Humpty Dumpty piece is on the right.

The bezel retainer was turned up. Its in the lathe getting the front faced off. Its 3mm in thickness. 3mm is a common width for certain spaces in this build.

The components for the switch assembly includes one of the rapidly diminishing djozz springs. These components are all in one piece now.

The next few pictures are of the tailcap getting the knurling machined into it. Knurling does not always turn out this good. :slight_smile: The first picture is an action shot.

And finally a close up.

My Humpty Dumpty piece of wood was used as a dummy first up for trimming the length. Needless to say it did not end up well.

Sanding the inside diameter to 1’’ from 25mm to slide over the battery tube.

I’m just a little concerned at the moment that when I go to groove these pieces of wood that they will chip and splinter. I suppose there is only one way that I’ll find out. Until next time.

Update 24.8.16.
The build continues, though as much time as I’m spending on it not a lot seems to be happening. The following pictures show items that have not been cleaned up and may appear to be a little rough.

Firstly is the driver which comes from non other than Richard of Mountain Electronics fame. It will drive the XPL led at 5.5 amps with a simple four modes with memory. Yes a bit like me, the simple bit that is, I dont have the memory. :slight_smile:

The led end of the body. This will take a 20mm Noctigon

This little ring of wood measures 25.3mm ID, 28.4mm OD and is 3.25mm in width. You can see at about the 9.30 position that it has broken once. Hopefully it doesn’t break again. Super glue can glue wood back together. The plan is to embed this into the end of the tailcap.

As mentioned earlier the switch has been assembled and sits here with its retainer and switch boot spacer.

The wooden bezel sits with its retainer. I have screws on order for it which will hold the bezel retainer to the wooden bezel along with the glass lens and oring. If that does not make sense it will when its assembled together. No sneak peaks until then though. It will spoil the surprise. :slight_smile:

And finally for tonight is the semi assembled light. I’m almost tempted to not machine the wood as it looks half ok like this.

Update on the 7.9.16.

The tailcap had a groove machined in the end to allow a piece of timber to be inset into it.

The groove half finished.

And the finished groove with the end also countersunk around the boot hole.

The tool used is a piece of 3/8’’ HSS tool steel ground to a width of 1.25mm with the clearance ground on the side so it doesn’t drag on the side of the groove. This tool is also used for external oring grooves.

And with the wood glued in.

You really can’t see any grain in this by eye but it does add a bit of colour to the tailcap.

Some trial machining was carried on Humpty Dumpty for groove width, depth and spacing.

One last look at these pieces used in the battery tube as singles before they are united into one.

And we have one big sticky mess.

Update 11.9.16.

With the masking tape removed everything looked ok. As the timber had been sanded, sanded some more and still not happy continued sanding to the point that the timber was well and truly out of round.

The now one piece battery tube was put back into the lathe to machine the wood some more and return it to a round state.

A layer of grain filler was coated onto the outside of the wood and allowed to dry.

Humpty Dumpty again with the machined grooves polished. One has the machine marks mostly sanded out. I did like the look of the polished machine marks but looking at it again today I’m having a change of mind.

There was some ominous cracks in the wood so the decision was made to super glue them up. I dont know if the glue will soak in but I felt a little less tense with the glue on.

With a little more sanding this is the final product.

The battery tube was place in the mill for more machining. This is setting up the distance’s from the ends so the grooves all stop at the same place.

One groove finished.
As wood is not something I’ve ever had a real friendship with every time I go near it the stress levels rise immensely as I’m expecting something to splinter or crack at any time. I’ll be glad when I’ve finished the light and its in one piece.

And finally for today a long shot of the setup in the mill.
With the machining finished and no real splinters a sigh of relief was allowed. The super glue must have worked. :slight_smile:
The table is just a little crowded with jobs lining up.

Update and the finish of the build 17.9.16.

It was decided that the body and tailcap needed a bit of shape to finish them off. This is the body with a four degree taper.

For those that dont know the part of the lathe that holds the cutting tools, the tool post holder can be rotated.
This is the tool post holder with a 2mm patring off tool pointing at you.

And this is the toolpost set at four degrees.

I’ve had an idea for a year or so now to build a light that did not have an external head and have incorporated this idea into this light. Its made possible by this XinTD C8 reflector which is threaded normally into the pill. This thread is screwed directly into the body and the lip at the large end of the reflector is used to locate the bezel and bezel retainer

The bezel, bezel retainer, reflector and AR lens used in this light.

Screwed together it looks like this.

The following pictures are of the parts used and sub assemblies.

And finally the finished light.

The driver is a very delectable buck driver from Mountain Electronics with four modes, last mode memory putting out 5.5 amps to the XPL 2C tint led on 20mm noctigon screwed directly to the brass body.
The reflector was kindly donated to me by Hank at International Outdoor Shop a couple of years ago. Thanks Hank.
How does the light work? It rocks. It puts out more lumens than any other C8 I have. Its about 85% more lumens than the stock standard Convoy C8 which by my light measuring device is the brightest stock light out there at the moment not including the current model XinTD C8 though as I dont have one.

Thanks all for the positive comments during the build. :+1:
I’ll post some night shots up at a later date.

Mine started out looking much like the one back right. Front left looks nicely knobular though.

I was gonna say the far left as well, looks like a nice burl piece.

Good luck! :slight_smile:

Looks like the two tall pieces are tying to kill the ones on their backs. Should title that pic, Night of the Walking Deadwood.

Looking forward to seeing what you create.

So, the old "I've got a woody" phrase is finally catching on this year? WOW, it takes you guys a while for stuff to sink in, doesn't it!

I think that burl will probably make something great looking if you can resist the temptation to smoke it and cut it up instead.

As always, we are looking forward to one of your awesome builds... Can you knurl wood??

Waiting for some gnarly knurling.

Watching with great interest at a unique MRsDNF creation.

Who’s Ron?? :wink:

I reckon Ron fits in well with do not finish. :laughing:

Well, they both better stay off the turps, otherwise nothing will get done…

Not the piece in my pic but there’s a 2 x AA tube sitting here with your name on it. You’re not the only one here deserving of the DNF moniker but if the C3 parts I’ve ordered work I may have to misplace that name tag.

Huh!, what else would would one pick to challenge oneself when oneself can already machine up a torch out of metal at will? Well an almost abstract shaped piece of flora, of course.

Curious about how you’ll go about this…

later on.

some more of our good slang it was originally part of a cigarette add
pj/s I think

I don’t know but hope to find out when I eventually have a lathe. If I’m not mistaken a similar pattern in wood on guns is referred to as ‘checkering’.

I’d rather see the grain and have the knurling elsewhere.

Knurling (or checkering) can bring the grain out quite nicely. Not the same pattern we typically use on metal but a larger diamond pattern. Goncalo Alves on a 1911 .45ACP is gorgeous!

Good luck DNF! If I don’t live up to your moniker, I might have something interesting for the winner.

Gidday Bucket. It’s good to see you back here. I miss your uniqueness, the way you attacked problems with more patience and persistence than I would ever have. :slight_smile:

The checkering on firearm stocks before it was laser cut was chiselled out. I aren’t going there. :stuck_out_tongue:

Op updated 24.7.16.