Bugsy my family owns a machine shop and have for over fifty years,I will tell you if we made our parts with scratches dents ect we would be out of business in a flash it is not that hard to protect metal parts, so you down playing members problems is not right. I understand you put your time into these lights and we all appreciate it but when theirs problems with them please don’t blame the buyers, we all put our hard earned money buying them.
mine arrived today - charging up batteries - thanks krono!
The tailcap light is to bright for my taste. I've read that Dale replaced the resistor with another one to make it less bright, but can't find how much ohm he used. I thought it was 21k. Anyone?
I hear you man and I agree with half of your sentiment - folks should be allowed to express their honest thoughts. So far, best I can tell, they have been. Sure the organizers may have something to say back but that’s their right too.
Leaving that aside, can I ask you a simple question: would your family have built these lights for this price? I mean, that’s what it comes down to. There’s a vibrant market for perfect custom flashlights. Just check out that other popular forum if you want to see how that works. But those perfect lights cost many hundreds, sometimes thousands, of dollars. Maybe the organizers should have put a big disclaimer in post #1 — “We’re building working lights out of awesome materials, not show pieces and shelf queens!” But I kinda understood that anyway. I mean why else would we have them made in China, other than to do it cheaply?
So I really do understand your sentiment but I think folks are being a bit touchy about these lights. Are they perfect? No, they’re not. Are they an amazing value? Damn right they are. Do I feel like I got my money’s worth? Sure do, and then some.
But then that’s just my opinion.
My SS/Cu sets arrived! Very minor damage to the boxes. Cosmetically both sets look fantastic!
My first Al set arrived! The “boxes” look good. Love the logo! The only issue I have is that the clip for the X5 came installed and the bend radius is way too small to be useful. There’s no way I can clip it to my jeans. The bend radius on the SS/Cu X5 clips are much larger and useful looking.
Fantastic work team Kronos!
He stacked two 22k to get 11k. Somewhere between 6.8k and 12k is probably where you want to be
SS/Cu set #169 checking in.
Supremely well built lights indeed.
I may have the get an AL set as well now.
My x5 clip is the same.
Most of the dents, scratches are not from the machine process, they are likely from debur cleaning process, not keeping parts separate, as for making these lights for the group buy, I think we could be competitive with pricing, maybe not match it exactly but with reasonable range.
Hopefully this doesn’t sound rude, but are you also able to source the electronics and boxes and assemble the finished product? I think that’s a big part of why they didn’t get US quotes.
I don’t have sources for electronics but the amount of people on this forum that do, finished machined product could be shipped to them for final assembly.
It’s a bit unfair to compare a machine shop to a factory that specializes in producing flashlights… I believe the point is that the handling of the parts can be improved, and these can be shipped with less scuffs and dents for the same price. Being a bit more careful does not cost much.
The fact that these lights have great value does not mean they can’t get any better, there’s always room for improvement. But of course this is not responsibility of the organizers but the factory that produces them.
I got mine today as well #164. I was initially hoping to somewhat time my order to try to get #57, lol…. then waited for a link to order that never showed up (I have no idea why)!
Only “damage” on the box is one hit on the lower edge of one side, and a “slice” in the finish on one of the sides of the lid. The lights both look great! Thanks for all the hard work all!
Just received 145/400 ss/cu in cool white and most all is well. Box is fine, lights have no more dings than I will put on them in a week of EDC anyway. However, apparently my x6 is cw and my x5 is nw. Very noticeable tint difference. I also have a nw set on the way, still stuck in NYC. Maybe I will get lucky and get another halfnhalf set? Honestly, I could not care less either way. Being that I am red-green colorblind all I can tell is that the tints are different. I cannot use ANY flashlight tint to discern true colors anyway. Just not in my DNA. These are the most outstanding flashlights I have ever owned! Many thanks to entire development team!
These SS/Cu lights cost $42.50 each and the box was $11, all cheap.
If you really believe that then I hope you guys can step up and build us some lights! I’m serious, set something up; I’m interested in a Made in the USA blf light. Like you said, even if you can’t offer finished lights a lot of us would probably buy some nice hosts for our own finishing. Maybe not 400 of us like for this buy, but hopefully we could make it worth your while. I’ll be waiting! 
I believe that’s probably true. At least, I wouldn’t argue that point since I don’t know enough to comment.
Awesome shipping time for free priority mail. Very strange delivery routing. I live in the eastern suburbs of LA. It arrived at USPS Los Angeles Sort facility then it went down to San Diego then it came back up to Diamond Bar. I could have received it on Thursday or Friday actually.
First impressions - The boxes are heavy. Both boxes look fairly good with some minor imperfections (scratches and dings) to the finish. The boxes exude quality and hint at something special with Kronos serialization. The magnets holding the box close are very strong and require some effort to open. The hinges are super smooth and look very nice (totally worth the $11).
The Flashlights are surprisingly really heavy (even though I knew it was SS/CU). Overall no machining issues. Just a few tiny scratches and dings. The fit and finish are perfect. No complaints.
The brightness at max is shocking. I am very impressed with the amount of lumens put out using a 30Q battery. The heft, feel and look of the X6 just says “I’m special”.
Again, great job on this project (especially for us that got matching serialized boxes). These are wonderful lights.
Thanks again.
Damn - Now, I need to purchase a set of AL lights for everyday use.
I received my Alu set. The X5 is absolutely beautiful. The clip is nice. The output is great. The modes are great. The UI is great. The light is great.
The X6 clip is hideous. The X6 is not a very refined product as the X5 is.
My clip on my x5 looks a lot like the pictures in the OP. Can I heat it up and re bend it so it will clip on my pants pocket or will i probably break it? :~ Are they all this squish or did I just get a bad clip?
That’s kind of Manker’s MO. The clips were too tight on the BLF A6, too. I just bought a U11 - clip’s too tight. They just can’t seem to bend those things properly. I’ve never heated one but sometimes you can very gently bend it outward enough to loosen it up. I did it with my U11 and its workable - not perfect but better anyway.