Perhaps a variation on what Hi-Beam said— design the body tube so that a metal
sleeve can be inserted/pressed into place. Maybe a perforated print style body to allow ventilation.
I am not too sure—but isn’t the metal sleeve/surrounded by ABS body tube
similar to the Surefire G2’s construction?
Like I said it was just a guess at what point the plastic would begin to melt. Every manufacture uses a different blend in their formula. With every new spool of filament I purchase I have to adjust the printer to find it’s most favorable temp. Some much higher, some lower so this proves the wide variance in formulations.
I don’t think this will be adequate for power hungry modders and I have no doubt that it will melt.
You could print parts that would screw together around a head section or print at least 80% percent of a light and incorporate an extended pill section turned on a lathe and threaded.
I don’t think there will be widespread use of printed flashlights, there are better ways of building plastic lights. 3d printers are very finicky and require lots of attention to achieve acceptable results, this creates lots of wasted filament and inconsistency between parts and the finished product is nowhere near the quality of vacuum formed parts or parts that have been casted.
As you said plastic is not a good heat conductor, it’s cool, it’s novel, it’s fun to play with but it is still plastic.
I’m not looking to sell these guys. I recently built a new shop and moved the printer into it but have not set it back up yet. Since many of you have expressed interest I may refocus some attention towards these printed lights and do some actual testing and better design work.
I will post my findings and distribute a few to interested members for verification and further testing.
There are great possibilities here but there are limitations as well.
Nicely done
Have you thought about sending it off to something like shapeways to get a metal printed version? I’m wanting to do something like shapeways but the $19 shipping is a bit high for me.