Copper and wood would just go terrific together I think. And since you don’t own a metal lathe, you have an advantage: machining copper is very hard, hand-work may just be the way to go with copper (i.e. see Old Lumens build threats).
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Thank you very much for your support! Indeed I love wooden things too, I’m probably known by the Industrial Arts facility of my high school as the ‘most passionate kid about woodworking’.
Actually, I don’t own a wooden lathe. I’m actually 17 and in High School (here in Australia). For the wooden body part of the project, I used the school woodworking facilities to do some of the machining. The machinery I used included a Disc Sander (to create the round tops), Wood Lathe (for machining the round body shape) and Pedestrial Drill (used to drill/bore a near perfectly perpendicular 22mm hole into the body and the clamp provided would prevent the whole thing from moving whilst drilling). That’s what I pretty much have done at school, and I mostly do the rest at home since I do have access to what every typical ‘DIY’ person has (eg. Hand-drill, spade bits, steel bits, Compound Mitre Saw). Especially the electronics part of it I do it at home.
Hey everyone, I’d really like to thank you all for your support and comments! I was very overwhelmed by the amount of support and great feedback that I’ve gotten from you all. It has really motivated me and made me even more proud of such an achievement I have made. I honestly thought that it wouldn’t receive much support or admiration because it wasn’t really a complete light, only a prototype and that it’s not that bright at all (about 50 lumens output). You guys have really made my day and I’m very excited about my next build.
So here is an update!
02/01/12:
My next build will utilise: Cree XR-E Q5 Emitter, 18mm 950mA driver , Solder tabs to eliminate majority of the need for wires inside the body, 18650 battery, battery contact springs, 18mm SMO Reflector OR 26.5mm SMO Reflector. It will basically be a wooden torch that will have the easy usability of a regular Cree torch and also the battery will be much easier to replace.
- Recently received my Cree XR-E Q5 Emitter and tested it at 1W (3V@300mA). The heat output seemed very reasonable to take care of and should be fine when I fit it to a 18mm reflector (which I heard also helps to dissipate heat).
- The reflectors, glass lens, battery contact springs and driver should arrive here in the next few weeks! So it should be a few more weeks wait before I can really start the second build.
I may be selling some of this build to you guys if you are interested. It is for testing and evaluation purposes though you may feel free to mod it if you like or try to replicate the build. They will only cost the amount that the materials of the torch itself (~$15AUD) + SHIPPING. Also to note is that I live in Australia and I realise that most of you are from North America…so shipping might be around the $10AUD mark. But we’ll see how everything goes first. It seemed like a good idea because I need some good feedback on the torch build itself, and I always try to build it with the best reliability and build quality but bear in mind it is made of wood. Or maybe I should sell it to friends first…and see what they think (but they’re not flashlight people like us! haha).
Have a nice day everyone, and I want to say again that I really appreciate all your support!!! It’s great to be a part of such a great community that has a passion for flashlights!!
Not that I’ve done this but I hear that you can get a wood grainesque finish on metal by mixing a little water into oil paint and using a brush. The water causes bristle wide gaps in the paint which simulates wood grain. But like I said, never tried it but it sounds good in theory.
The Sanyo Eneloop Lite has a higher rated charge cycle, I think it’s about 500 or 1000 cycles more than the Eneloop ones. It is more designed for entry-level rechargable batteries to attract primary battery users to opt for rechargable batteries because of it’s much lower price. At the lower price, capacity is decreased. The AAA Eneloop Lites have 600mAh, where as the AA version has 1000mAh. Not much…but they actually have a lower self-discharge rate than the normal Eneloops!
Here is my lamp build lamp lamp
For next version I am using pair of XPGs @1.2A for about 7W
I also ordered a fan and recycled a bunch of heat sinks from an old monitor.
Certainly using wood body means we need to attach more heat sinking elements to manage heat.
a copper pipe could be inserted inside the tube carrying heat to an aluminum ring with some grooves cut in it for fins kinda sandwiched between wooden sections like an accent ring that dissipates heat. the aluminum could just be discs cut and pressed over the copper pipe too.
That’s a great idea. It’s somewhat on the lines of what I’m thinking to do with heatsinking the LED, but I can’t really get a hold of copper pipes that thick so I generally look around for computer heatsinks and things that I could use instead Also don’t have the metalwork machinery to make the copper block to desired size and shape.
But the copper block might interfere with the contact springs of the driver/reflector. I think I can get around that though, but thanks for the idea!
(i.e. see Old Lumens build threats).
