FWAA & FW3A deep-carry clip mods

Flashlight Modding and DIY Parts
1

I’ve gotten to be a fan of deep-carry clips and hate 2-way clips.

Here is a fairly simple clip mod I did to make all my FWAAs and an FW3A deep-carry:


  • I started with the after-market 2-way deep carry clips from Neals Gadgets. (In this case three FWAA clips and one FW3A clip). I used a Dremel cutting disk to saw off the backbend portion and a Dremel sanding drum to sand down the tip and make it neat.
  • The FWAA clips shown above have 3 variations. The left-most has no extra bend. This is the same as a mod done by Grzybek337 on Reddit. I was able to increase tension somewhat by using pliers to increase the angle of the retaining ring away from parallel with the light. However, I still wasn’t satisfied with the tension. To fix this I applied a small strip of talon grip tape to the underside of the clip where it grips the flashlight (the thicker black portion on the inside of the outer portion of the clip). This greatly increased the grip and solved the problem. Talon grip tape is surprisingly tough and showed no sign of wearing out even with repeated clipping/unclipping.
  • The second from the left FWAA has a shallow extra bend in the clip added around 60% of the way towards the tip of the clip. This increased tension a bit, but still not tight enough. I again used Talon Grip Tape to ensure good grip. When I added the extra bend I also damaged the chrome plating. I used a Dremel sanding disk and grinding bit to remove all the plating and then polished up the bare steel.
  • The third from the left FWAA has a sharp extra bend approximately 75% of the way to the tip of the clip. The angle on this extra bend is sharp enough that the clip grips very well. Talon Grip Tape was not needed. I also ended up grinding off the plating on the clip to bare steel. Looks great with titanium.
  • The FW3A Ti on the right has a similar mod, but with the FW3A deep-carry clip. I added the extra bend and sanded off the plating. No grip tape is needed under the clip when used with the 18350 tube. However, the grip tape works better on the 18650 tube as the tip of the clip sits lower.

I’m quite pleased with how these came out. They grip very well and are low-profile with true deep carry. A vast improvement over the stock clips.

2

Nice. If i still carried an fwaa i would copy your mod :smiley:

3

Congrats!

Thanks for the pics and detailed explanations.

4

I’ve been wanting to order the deep carry two way clip for my FWAA but can’t stand two way clips. I thought of doing this when they first came out but held off to see if anyone would make only deep carry one. This just sealed the deal or me, ordering one tomorrow.