BLF Interest List: EX3 High Current Beryllium Copper Silver Plated springs - Still selling my springs :)

BlueSwordM · 2019-06-18T21:12:24.000Z

Yes.

Will order the springs next week.

I personally can’t wait to get them, especially since the improvement is 20-25% over the 2nd gen while having the same good mechanical properties are the 1st gen springs.

Barkuti · 2019-06-18T21:27:18.000Z

In which way 2nd gen springs have worse mechanical properties versus 1st gen ones? Just the big spring due to some deformation?

BlueSwordM · 2019-06-18T21:36:14.000Z

Yeah, just the big spring.

See, from the feedback of some members, I decided to remove a coil from the large springs, along with making the top diameter smaller.

While making the top diameter smaller was a good idea for broader compatibility, what I forgot to think about during my calculations was that removing one coil while having a smaller top meant that more force had to be applied for compression, and since removing a coil meant more force per coil was being applied, well…

The spring deformation went from 0,9mm right down to 2,8mm, which was not very good.

The 25% improvement in conductivity was nice, but not worth that large deformation.

So, I took a lot more time on my hands to find a new way to improve the spring, which was hard and time consuming, but lead to these developments:

1. Could change the material to BeCu C17500 45% IACS. Was not going to happen for obvious reasons, being that mechanical properties are quite important.
2. Could change the material to BeCu C17550 60% IACS. However, cost would explode to stratosphere levels.
3. Finally, after a lot of research, and myself getting a new job, I found that electroplating a thick copper layer(20-25um) would result in the same performance boost of 20-25% of the large spring, but while preserving the goal of having good mechanical properties.

And that goal was met, and the improvement is actually even better than I intially predicted, since the conductivity boost of the 3rd Gen springs are applied to both sizes of springs.

TLDR: The 3rd Gen springs are a large overall improvement over all previous generations of springs.

BlueSwordM · 2019-06-19T19:08:41.000Z

trakcon · 2019-06-19T18:47:08.000Z

That’s a lot of LEDs.

BlueSwordM · 2019-06-19T19:54:38.000Z

Yes of course.
Wait until you see how many springs I usually order.

I should start shipping LEDs only orders next week.
I’ll try to do it as quickly as possible, and as well as possible of course.

I have received the SST-20 FD2 LEDs.
Will start shipping them Monday for the LED only orders.

I have also ordered the 3rd Generation BeCu springs.
Anyone interested in getting the 3rd Gen BeCu springs now, post your interest below.

DavidEF · 2019-06-19T20:47:42.000Z

Hey, BlueSwordM, would you consider making some shorter springs sometime? I was working on a light today, and was thinking of changing the springs to Blue™ springs, but the “small” spring from you was still a good bit taller than the Qlite driver’s stock spring. I was looking at my Astrolux S42 a few days ago, and the tail spring is particularly pitiful looking. But I can’t change it either, because it is very low profile, and I don’t have any springs that will fit in its place. Even a Qlite driver spring is taller.

BlueSwordM · 2019-06-19T21:11:47.000Z

That is some good advice. Would have to make some smaller springs one day.

However, you may be out of luck with the S42 spring.

Your only option is a bypass, since it’s a press-fit spring, and soldering to aluminium is well, you already know.

DavidEF · 2019-06-19T21:59:02.000Z

I’m not worried about the press fit of the S42 spring. I would just make a copper round piece and solder a short spring to it - if I had a short spring available.

BlueSwordM · 2019-06-19T22:09:36.000Z

Huh, do you have a special kind of flux for this?

Because soldering copper to aluminium is still very hard.

Hope you can do this though.

DavidEF · 2019-06-19T22:31:37.000Z

No, I will make a copper round that I can press fit in place of the spring. The new spring will be soldered to the copper round.

Barkuti · 2020-03-26T22:31:41.000Z

BlueSwordM:

Huh, do you have a special kind of flux for this?

Because soldering copper to aluminium is still very …

Recently I took a peek at available solder fluxes for steel, as I often solder to batteries. Found this strange and not expensive FNA (ФНА) dubbed flux flasks for sale:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Flux-FNA-NVR-used-for-soldering-of-aluminum-stainless-steel-nickel-copper/143061322482 from India.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Solder-Flux-FNA-for-hard-soldering-aluminum-steel-and-nickel-parts-25ml/232663002505 from Romania.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Solder-Flux-FNA-for-hard-soldering-aluminum-steel-and-nickel-parts-25ml/232663002505 from Latvia.

The compound is claimed to be effective on aluminium.

:-)

Edit.-

That flux called FNA (ФНА) is the same flux I use in batteries (Goot Super soldering flux, HWY-800, etc.) and works well on steel, nickel, and of course copper but I definitively won't say it is good for aluminum.

Thu, 06/20/2019 - 01:06

DavidEF · 2019-06-20T00:08:29.000Z

Barkuti, didn’t you already have some experimentation going on with trying to solder to Aluminum a while back? How did that turn out? I can’t remember.

Barkuti · 2020-03-26T22:22:47.000Z

I got FTKA/ФTKА and F61A/Ф61A fluxes back then, and experimented just a bit. Soldering over aluminum foil could be attained relatively easy. But what I originally had in mind was soldering to a chunk of heatsink and some hollow pill, and that was :facepalm: a whole different story. My attempts were mostly unsuccesful. I got some success on the heatsink by pre-heating it in an oil bath inside a frying pan, then soldering over some de-anodized and fluxed part of it. But overall never got really strong joints on the heatsink, I think that had to do with the heatsink alloy. The fluxes emit nasty fumes, and they may be hard on the iron's tip. Due to the overall difficulties I gave up on the matter at that point.

Maybe my bar was very high to start with. O:)

:-D

Thu, 06/20/2019 - 02:29

Firelight2 · 2019-06-20T00:33:29.000Z

I’m in for:
10 SST FD2s

BlueSwordM · 2019-06-20T00:37:49.000Z

No more sorry, as I said in Post 147.

Only springs are currently available.

contactcr · 2019-06-20T14:06:52.000Z

After the springs come in I might be in for a portion of whatever leftover you have, going to wait to order though

BlueSwordM · 2019-06-21T03:26:15.000Z

No problem.

Here are the semi-final specifications:

Large BeCu spring:
Spring upper diameter: 6,50mm
Spring base diameter: 9,0mm
Spring thickness: 1,0mm
Spring height: 12,0mm
Total number of coils: 5
Plating: Copper + silver

Small BeCu spring:
Spring upper diameter: 4,40mm
Spring base diameter: 5,80mm
Spring thickness: 0,8mm
Spring height: 10,5mm
Total number of coils: 5
Plating: Copper + silver

skinny_tie · 2019-06-21T08:16:04.000Z

Hi BlueSwordM, could I please get 20 large and 20 small gen 3 springs with my LEDs?

BlueSwordM · 2019-06-21T17:09:48.000Z

No problem then.

Will add you to the list.