CRX Rotary - 6th Annual BLF/ Old Lumens Contest Winner

Giveaways and Contests
1

Well I suppose I should make a start on this years, The 2018 Annual BLF/ Old Lumens Scratch Made Light Contest entry.
I am feeling the pain already from all the filing & sanding to be done, though I like it really...

This is a competition where BLF members take part by making a flashlight or light emitting device from scratch using materials and a design of their own choice.

The yearly contest was started in 2013 by popular member though now deceased (2016) Old Lumens who loved using his hands making & modifying flashlights and is now run by BLF member _the_.

There are two categories, Machine made and Hand made.
Again I will be entering the hand made category using only small hand held tools to make a more traditional looking light this time, but with a twist...

Tools & materials I will be using for the build:

I have a rough idea of what I want to make but I am just working as it comes to me with no drawn out design plans

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CRX Rotary - Complete.Specifications:

Copper & Titanium construction
Cree XP-L HD v6 3D emitter
GITD O-ring & LED surround
20mm Copper DTP MCPCB
19mm x 8mm solid copper heatsink
20mm x 12mm SMO Reflector
22mm x 2mm dual coated ARC glass
Lighted Rotary six mode tail switch & Momentary button
Dual colour Tritium indicators
Lockout-able
Diffuser/ protective carry case
Magnetic cell contacts
18350 cell compatible
Removable USB charging unit

Length – 94mm
Width – 25mm
Weight – 180g (With 18350 cell)
Parts Made - 80 (Approx)
Time to build - 101 hours

Modes, Operation & Light output:

Pressing the momentary button or turning the rotary tail switch clockwise gives these approximate outputs:

Mo Switch - 1560 lm
Mode - 1 - 1500 lm
Mode - 2 - 450 lm
Mode - 3 - 180 lm
Mode - 4 - 45 lm
Mode - 5 - 3 lm
Mode - 6 - FF lm

Max cd - 9000
Max Throw - 190m

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The rotary tail switch can be operated through 360° in either direction starting in the highest or lowest mode.
The use of a lubricated o-ring underneath gives just enough friction for smooth operation.
The tail push button gives momentary access to the highest mode.
The tritium markers give an indication as to switch position/ charging mode.

When the two green tritium vials are lined up on the outer shell , the light is in the off position.
When the green indicator on the rotary tail section is turned to line up with the red indicator in the body section , the light is in direct drive mode, or in charging mode if the head section is then disconnected and the USB charger port is exposed.

Other than that the tritium indicators let me know where the switch is positioned.

Operational GIF

2016, 2017,& 2018 competition winners.

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Upgrade Edit: 31:08:2019

I modified the CRX Rotary with a 3K carbon fibre jacket, swapped the XP-L HD 3D emitter for an XP-L HI 3A 5000K, re-made a new momentary tail switch cover, dual o-rings and added a seventh moonlight mode.

Carbon fibre, titanium & copper construction
Cree XP-L HI v2 3A 5000K emitter
GITD O-ring & LED surround
20mm Copper DTP MCPCB
19mm x 8mm solid copper heatsink
20mm x 12mm SMO reflector
22mm x 2mm dual coated ARC glass
Lighted seven mode rotary tail switch & momentary button
Dual colour tritium indicators
Lockout-able
Magnetic cell contacts
18350 cell compatible
Removable USB charging unit

Length – 94mm
Width – 27mm
Weight – 192g (with 18350 cell)

New Modes, Operation & Light output:

Pressing the momentary button or turning the rotary tail switch clockwise gives these approximate outputs:

Momentary Switch - 1300lm
Mode 1 - 0Ω - 1269lm
Mode 2 - 1Ω - 380lm
Mode 3 - 3.3Ω - 162lm
Mode 4 - 15Ω - 44lm
Mode 5 - 180Ω - 15lm
Mode 6 - 820Ω - 4lm
Mode 7 - 1200Ω - ML
Max cd 15000 - 245m

CRX Rotary revised runtime graph in modes 1 & 2.

CRX carbon fibre, titanium & copper triumvirate flashlight set.

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Building the CRX Rotary flashlight. (Start - 01:11:2018)

The text & images below provide direct links to the various detailed build stages.

Preparing the outer & inner core copper tubes to fit together.

Making the copper pill.

Copper pill fitment inside core tubes.

Making the mechanical rotary tail switch.

Redesigned rotary switch contact board.

First test of rotary switch unit.

Magnetic pill contact board & wiring.

Interlocking copper core sections made.

Magnetic copper charging unit.

Core body midsections soldered together & lighted rotary tailswitch installed.

Titanium & copper tail switch cover made.

Temporary brass casing made.

Titanium casing started.

Contact points marked out & Titanium casing finished.

CRX Rotary Assembled & Tested.

Diffuser/ protective carry case made.

CRX Rotary - Complete.

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2

I'm looking forward to this...

I hope your hand heals soon.

3

It’s all about the blood, the sweat, the copper :wink:
Looking forward to your build, and wish your hands recovery!! :+1:

4

Ouch :open_mouth: Maybe it’s good thing you don’t have machinery :zipper_mouth_face:

5

“It’s just a flesh wound”…. :smiley:

Looking forward to the build :beer:

6

Damn! The competition is hard this year :smiley:

Good luck CRX, not that you need any… :beer:

7

Ouch! Good luck, not that you need it. I’m looking forward to watching this come to fruition (despite knowing that it’ll put me another rung lower on the ladder :disappointed: )

8

Wish you a speedy recovery CRX!

In case of more severe wounds there's some good advice from Mr. John Rambo ;-)

9

:+1: Good to see you start. Reducing metal diameter with sandpaper sure is tedious. :beer:

10

Hi CRX, I’m very curious about your next beauty.

11

Ouch, hope it doesn’t hurt as much as it looks.

Looking forward to seeing the awesome build.

12

I’m looking forward to this too. Your creations never disappoint! :crown: :+1:

13

Looks interesting, nice to see you enter. :slight_smile:

14

It appears we have the exact same caliper.

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Preparing the outer & inner core copper tubes to fit together.

I started off with two hours of fun, freehand filing some copper tube to reduce the diameter of the smaller tube as I want them friction fitted together.

The larger 21.96mm OD x 20.40mm ID copper tube is a cutting of plumbers pipe.
The smaller 21.22mm OD x 18.98mm ID tube, a comrade sent to me last year.

This tube needs to be reduced in diameter to fit inside the other.

Tube measurements prior to work:


Outer tube - Outer Diameter - 21.96mm
Outer tube - Inner Diameter - 20.40mm
Inner tube - Outer Diameter - 21.22mm

I filed evenly around the inner core tube using a hand file to reduce the diameter by about 0.84mm.


Pro Tip: Do not use left hand as filing guide Inner tube filed down, sanded, light polish and a comparison to an unworked tube.

Tube measurements after work:


Outer tube - Inner Diameter - 20.40mm
Inner tube - Outer Diameter - 20.38mm
Inner tube - Inner Diameter - 18.98mmNow we have two copper tubes fitting nicely together.

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16

NC would still burn even after being soaked with blood?? Naaah.

Worst I ever did was sear off all the hairs on my forearm when I let a flame get a little too close to an “empty” bottle of IPA. Heard a nice slow “fwoooosh!” and… no more armhairs!

Ever since, I could never recreate my (unintentionally) improvised jet-engine.

17

That file was a real Bastard. :stuck_out_tongue:

18

Looks good! No doubt the finish product will be top quality.

19

True :laughing:
Before people mark you rude for sweary… File Types.

20

^ fun read. Barstead?

In NL we have “bastard sugar” (basterd suiker) which is a mix of fine and coarse grains of sugar.
The brown variant is most popular, it has some syrup / molasses mixed into it.

I recently had a mysterious bastard file on my SD card…
Very strange. 0 KB size mp3 file, and i had ‘no permission’ to delete it either…
So i deleted the folder it was in.
But that only worked after re inserting the SD card and not opening that folder first !!
Very odd… I suspect it was attached to some GIF i downloaded. Not sure. Weird…

Anyway, looking forward to more pics and progress of your build, CRX. :beer: