Forgive me for my ignorance, but I thought plain lubricants such as graphite or silicone lubricants were “good enough” to maintain the threads.
Frankly, I’ve never heard the term “galling” used with reference to flashlight threads. :quest:
Brett, those are the Red cells that Efest sells in almost every line of their offering, if I’m not mistaken the first Purple 14500’s were a light color with the Efest name being smallish. These new ones are dark purple, like the 3000mAh 18650 or the 4200mAh 26650, a new line of their cells that just recently came out.
On the lubricant story-line, I use Nyogel 760G or nothing at all. It’s worked the last 3 years and 135+ flashlights, from base aluminum el-cheapo’s to Type III hard anodize and Titanium and full copper.
+1 - only Nyogel 760G -- ever.
I’m not understanding the galling comment either. You just got the lights, how many times could you possibly have taken the tail cap off? Surely there isn’t any issue between the Stainless and Cu, and I’ve been modifying this little full copper X5 for a while now, rebuilt it fully over and over, no issues with threads at all.
I’ve also got a mistake sample that’s all stainless. No galling there either and it’s been rebuilt several times as well, with drivers exchanged many times as we figured out what was ailing the birth of the brainchild. To this day, those threads are dry. I never put anything on it at all and it’s smooth as a con-artist at a widow’s ball.
Emarkd, on the orange tail LED’s, that’s sharp! I’d love to do that, can you tell me where to get (and what to get) those little LED’s? I’d strongly consider purple as well, just need to know what size and where to find options…
I thought the Alu X5 clip looked nice, but upon trying to use it, it is unusable as it is too tight. Has anyone been able to bend it so that it is usable?
PS: I suggest a mod thread be opened for all modding posts.
I'd like to know as well. That orange is B.A.!
Verdigris ?
Really?
Why don’t you just say, may cause Green crap to develop on the copper?
$100 words.
Whatever
And heaven forbid, we use the wrong lube, a 3 cent o-ring is gonna have a shorter life, Big deal.
Exactly how many years will it take for this supposed Galling to make the threads become unusable?
Probably Long after I am tired of these lights, or dead, which ever comes first.
Have all of you forgotten the Illuminated tailcap has its own thread? 
Pro-tip: basically everything needed is linked there
Sorry, Sharpie but your absolutely wrong about this. Petroleum-based grease will destroy latex. Latex can be solidified into rubber. Silicone grease will make silicone expand and foul its purpose. I respect your electronic knowledge and likely your chemical knowledge is superior to mine as well, but if you’re working from memory, don’t trust it. I suggest you spend 10 minutes on Google researching this to jog your memory. For organic rings, you want synthetic grease. For synthetic rings, you want natural grease. Its not as simple as that, but that’s a good rule for non-experts. I realize we’re talking about o-rings that cost 10 per penny, but when it comes to sealing out water or getting good thread action in spite of the ring, we will spare no expense.
I hope this is in no way patronizing, but I believe this is what he was talking about:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galvanic_corrosion
NO-OX-ID is my lube of choice. Seems to last much longer than any silicone I’ve tried, and lithium seems to just look dirty almost immediately.
Lubrication really is a science and there are better lubricants for different situations. What I have been using is a teflon based firearm grease and it seems to work fine but I also intend to use some wax based stuff that I can get at work that seems to work also. Considering that I have been going through multiple battery changes every night I can say that any lubricant is better than no lubricant and I have had zero thread failures.
@ Cone - You are correct that some comments are viewed as attacks and although some are not many comments regarding the name Kronos and designated SN's were attacks, and uncalled for at that. It is also true that Neal and Banggood are pretty good at resolving issues but there have been many suggestions (even demands) not even posted here that are just not really feasible but also some that are impossible.
As Dale has said, the Copper lights are a first. There are lessons to be learned....for everybody. That requires a certain level of acceptance of things being the way they are for this go-around and the realization that no matter what this was a hell of an accomplishment for all. Honestly, that is what annoys me and fires me up. Some people are even claiming diminished value of a collector's item....really?
If we are to progress then we cannot make those types of silly claims. As it stands...we may never see a serial number again but even worse is that we may never get Copper lights again because the perceived risk is too great (because there are several hands handling the product IE: Machinists, Assemblers, Packers, Shippers, etc). Sure, better packaging is definitely in the picture for the future but there is no future if a product with slim margins becomes a loss. I hope that does not happen but we will not know until after CNY when it will or will not become a reality.
Added: All I have ever tried to do is protect the integrity of BLF while still getting what many (including myself) have wanted. To do that requires give and take....not just gimme gimme gimme. It just cannot work that way. There must be reason.
Thanks guys! Like PD said its probably all in that thread… but to be honest I didn’t read much of it (sorry!). I probably should have but there’s just sooo much content here that I can’t take it all in. So I did what I often do - wing it! It worked out as you can see but I did make a mistake. I assumed everything in there was 0805-packaged stuff. That’s what the first bit of the lighted tailcap thread discussed so that’s what I ordered, but that’s not what’s actually on these boards. The resistors may be (probably are), but the leds are larger. It worked out though because the 0805s will still work. The sit almost between the two pads, just barely touching on each side, but that honestly made it really easy to solder. I just tinned each led pad, set the 0805-package led between the two tinned solder-blobs, clipped them down firmly so they wouldn’t move and touched my fine-tipped iron to each junction. They joined right up and work great.
As for parts to order, well I went fast cause I have the patience of a small child. I got this assortment from Amazon for 2-day Prime delivery. I’m sure they could be ordered for much cheaper from other sources, but I wanted it now. Plus now I’ve got lots of extras to play around with, on these lights and others.
Maybe someone else could chime in with the actual size of the included leds. I think the next size up is 1206-package so that’s what they probably are, but I don’t know enough about smt components to be sure.
Does anyone know if these drivers will be available by themselves?
No worries, I just try to keep the OP update with most of the major info.
That looks like a decent deal on the led’s for such a good assortment. It’s good to have extras because they are easy to lose and/or damage
Anyone else get a metal washer in their tailcap? I got all 3 of my sets now (2 SS/Cu, 1 alum), and out of 6 lights only the one alum X6 has a metal washer - good in that the tailcap brightness is much lower. The others are a white plastic type (maybe delrin?) that apparently work well in letting more light get to the cap.
The code is open source and it’s likely that rich at MtnE will probably have them at some point. The A6 driver is sold separately already so this probably will be as well.
It seems like more people have been “on edge” lately. I’m not sure why, but I suspect it’s a combination of several things. In particular, BLF’s overall growth and its gradual shift toward being more of a market and proportionally less of a hacker hangout. I think. And more people means more friction.
I’m not making excuses for it, just trying to describe what I think I’ve seen happening. It bothers me too, but I don’t really know what to think of it since it’s a complex change with many tradeoffs. We get more cool stuff and more cool people, but we also get more trolls and more drama. And some of the drama has a chilling effect, as seen in the disclaimers well-meaning people include in their posts.
I don’t know how to make things better, but I feel like it’d probably help to add more cowbell. Er, I mean, more Foy. Foybell? More lighthearted reminders that this is a playground. I could ask people to behave, to follow good netiquette, but … who am I kidding? Humans haven’t changed much for thousands of years.
Regardless, individual efforts to swim upstream, to be nicer than the average bear, are greatly appreciated. Keep up the good work. 
Lady Liberty, verdigris belies not the beauty of your face.
Or, Lady Liberty, what’s that green crap all over your face?
I guess it’s a perspective thing….
*big sigh* … They seriously put a metal washer in the tail instead of the white plastic washer? 
I hope that was a fluke. I also hope Neal has some spares to send out in cases like this.
When you cherry pick just part of what i said, and i read just that, I sort of get why Bugsy gets upset. I don’t mean that I’m upset that you cherry picked some words of mine, I mean I see where Bugsy and others feel like it’s a darned if you do, darned if you don’t situation.
I sincerely hope any of what I said is seen more like an SITREP and not a COMPLAINT.
And, yes, Foy is missed. Others too.