good point. 
i might have to add a cage over the side light.
Great and unique build! Well done!
Retro and modern in the same time. Truly impressive and unique build!
Good photos too!
Thanks it is quite solid and can take a beating probably, as a lot of heavy brass pieces were used to built it.
Glad somebody stuck with it.
Great work. I’m off to the hardware store.
Posted more updates on some field-use of the Light in the OP :
We took the Steam Pipe light on the BackCountry Canoe Trip with a Group to test it.
It survived the back country wilderness quite well ! in fact it was a hit with the others in the Group. They loved the tint of the 4C XM-L over all their other lights, and it had one of the best beam profiles of any light, with a spill far wider than any other light on the trip.
The side Lantern was also impressive, with the tint and illumination output even compared to Coleman camping gas lanterns.
Myself and everyone was very impressed with the performance of this custom light and its real-world useability and versatility, as a Flashlight comparing it to and squaring it off against many other lights we had on the trip including a NiteCore P25, a Fenix TK35, Olight S20s, various Ultrafires & Maglites in the Flashlight-Mode, and then comparing it to various Floodlights & lanterns including many different LED Lanterns & Coleman Naphtha Gas Lanterns, and the Permanently-on blue Glow Tube proved very worthy in the middle of the night several times to locate the light in the tent in the pitch darkness when i woke up to go do some late night privy-business. The light got rained on, submerged twice, dropped once, lugged around, used as a lantern for hours on end, etc.
in the 4 days in the back country the light held up perfectly, and ended up being the most-used light at the camp.
The others in the group suggested the ideas should be built in a production light for the versatility needed on camping and back-country trips like these we went on this past weekend.
- I will post some more photos soon from the trip with comparison Beam-shot photos of the Flashlight-Mode comparing it to a Nitecore P25 Smilodon, and comparing the Lantern-mode to a classic Coleman gas mantle Lantern.
Thanks for the extra pics. Every time I look at it I smile. A fantastic effort.
Wow, very impressive. I really like the blue glow lantern, a nice touch. Always so frustrating searching your tent in the dark for a light in the middle of the night to see what made that sound…
The blue “glow tube” section proved to be a valuable part of this light this past weekend when i needed to find it in the dark in the tent and anywhere in the camp. its much brighter than a tritium vial, and so far its two AA Alkaline batteries are approaching 1 year of running continuously 24-hours, 7 days a week, since June 17th 2013. (Less than a month left to go a full year glowing in a test set-up as this light has in the glow-tube with the same set of AA batteries.
(the glow tube on this light has no on/off switch so it runs continuously.
I love the ideas and construction methods thrown off by the BLF handmade contests, this example is no exception. Like the homemade locking rings, and numerous other “why didn’t I think of that?” insights. Super cool build, and thanks for sharing!
I had been ignoring this thread for a while, and now it is finished!
This is a great light! I love every part of it, including the testing at the canoe trip. Thanks for the very nice write-up too.
Very cool and beautiful creation. Congrats
very nice result, loved your detailed work
Below is the first comparison of the steam Pipe Light we did while on the Group Back-country Camping trip.
This is the Lantern-Mode compared to a Classic Coleman Gas Single-mantle Lantern on High, and the Steam Pipe Light’s side Light on High next to it. ( The upper photo is a less-exposure setting on the camera, ( 3200 ISO, Shutter at 1/40 ) The lower photo in the Collage is a higher exposure, 3200 ISO, Shutter at 1/5)
- The tint of the Side Light LED is just slightly cooler than the warmer tint of the Coleman Gas Lantern, making the Steam Light’s lantern mode very close to a halogen incandescent bulb.
Output performance on high mode is very impressive for a single resistored emitter on the modded Nanjq 105c/Qlite-Rev driver.
It was brighter on High than every other LED lantern we had at the camp, and matched the Coleman Gas Lantern on High.
Its pulling only 0.18 amps when last tested on high-mode from a single IMR18650. We ran the side light for 4 to 5 hours each night for the entire trip as one of the camp lanterns, and the front light was used many times during the trip by the group for walks to the Privy/toilet or the beach, and the single 18650 lasted the entire trip and not needed to be changed or charged.
This is amazing. Seriously fantastic job here!! Hats off to you.
Here is a Beam-shot comparison of the Steam Pipe Light compared to a Nitecore P25.
- The SteamPipe Light has a XM-L2 NW 4c tint with the optic lens used from the parts bin. ( presumably it may be a lens from a GU10 type LED bulb, but unsure.)
- Nitecore P25 Smilodon has a XM-L2 C/W 2B tint range
Both running IMR18650 cells with full charge, both lights on Highest modes.
Distance to the canoes from the stump the lights were resting on was roughly 45 to 50 feet.
The more neutral tint of the 4C in the SP Light is much better at color rendering as seen on the photo, but the flood angle is what impressed us mostly. The angle of the optic in the SP Light gives it the widest flood of all the lights we had with us, it was almost roughly 170 degrees of flood, as compared to the much narrower flood angle as most reflector-based lights like the P25 in this photo comparison, and it still achieved a good throw spot.
The spot was not as bright as the P25, but also it appeared to be a little bigger is size.
We preferred the wide flood & smooth profile of the beam of the SP light for trail walking as it lit up the sides of the trails much more than the other lights including an Olight S20, Fenix PD32, various Zoomiees and other lights we had on the trip.
More photos & updates in the OP.
I will do more photos soon, of the Light held in hands, standing with other lights in a row, etc.
Tell me you got lots of odd looks when you pulled your flashlight out of your pocket and looks of awe when you turned it on and it actually put out light. I'd love to have been there.
There was some interesting expressions and various ways of saying “cool”. 
One impression of it was something from the Dr. Who TV series.
i got offered various sums of money by others in the group in attempts to buy it from me after it out-performed some of their expensive & boring brand-name lights they had.