Good point. i need to acquire some more parts to build the second Steam Pipe Light for one of the prizes. Maybe i should check with RMM to see what they have that i need for the Prize light.
and some other parts to build a new odd-ball entry separate.
Is this contest for flashlight only? How about lantern or something that lights up?
a good idea, or as a combination of both if wished.
In the past the only limitations were the light should be hand held and no machine tools other than hand power tools like a drill or Dremel. A drill press was ok I think but a lathe puts it into the machine made catagory.
Hand made started out with just hand tools and progressed to power tools such as a drill press or rotary tool, but items such as a Lathe or end mill were considered to be in the Machine Made category.
"Flashlight" came down to something that could be hand held, whether is was a flashlight, lantern, gun stock light, etc. If it could be portable enough to be hand held and not something that was plugged into a wall socket, or was stationery and couldn't be moved or carried around, it was ok. A fairly loose definition I believe and I believe it's much the same this year.
OL's original competition with a real hand made class was a great idea. It would be nice to have a category like that again for folks so inclined. I think most people rather use power tools, but can't afford or know how to use lathes, CNC's, or end mills. We really need 3 classes:
- Real hand similar to what O-L first started, but no power tools at all
- Home power tools that includes everything except lathes, CNC's, and end mills
- Big boy/girl class for lathes, CNC's, and end mills
EDIT: "Need" is the wrong word. It would be nice to have those 3 classes, but it makes the competition more complicated. Maybe if there was just one winner in each class and the remaining competitors were not ranked.
Honestly manual machine and CNC should be separated too. I can tell you that the limits are much different when you design around one vs the other.
To have more divisions there needs to be more entries. In the past, additional consideration was given to builds that used more hand work vs power tool work.
I get that. It’s completely fair for something truly awesome made by hand be given more consideration. Until I get a lathe that can thread I’m out of my league in both (or all three potentially) categories.
i think rules that we had last year are proper. i think we should keep them for this year as well.
As the old saying goes, if it aint broke_____.
How many in each group anyway?
How about a hand made category for right handed people that only used their left hand? It might even turn into a cate-gory! :party: OK, we’ll let leftys that only use their right hand enter.
So how many folks are are in the contest this year?
Got my design sorted, though its likely to evolve, just waiting for time to get started. Time is the only thing I’m short of……maybe I should subcontract it out! (Is that allowed? 
)
MRsDNF wrote:
As the old saying goes, if it aint broke_____.
How many in each group anyway?
You apply this philosophy to your flashlights?
After an almost a year long break from flashlight tinkering, that sounds like the right thing to get started again! 
I’m really looking forward to it!
Is over, done, finito. We have light.
hi, here is my build thread