As per usual with my mods, it’s not very neat but, functional and probably the best headlamp I have! With the right tools, it’ll look a lot prettier in the end. The idea was simple: USE THE BODY AS THE HEATSINK.
What I did was pretty simple but hard to impliment given available tools.
Cut off the head so about 1/2 to 3/4 the heatsink sticks out when it’s screwed into the body. (to ensure you have enough head to shape to fit snugly onto the body.)
Remove anodizing (optional) from the flat spot on the body, cut a 4C, XML2, 16mm noctigon to size and epoxy it to the flat spot.
File, grind, cut, saw, sand, dremel and do what ever it takes for the head to fit snugly onto the body and over the LED to produce the beam pattern you want.
Epoxy the reflector and window into the head. (there is no compression from the pill to press the window onto the ‘O’ ring to make a proper seal.)
The driver (8X 7135 Dr Jones Lucidrv) is put into the pill like normal but the output wires are extended to reach the LED on the body.
insert driver into pill, screw pill into body, epoxy in place and solder output wires to LED.
TEST.
Epoxy head to body ensuring that there are no entry points for water to get to the LED/reflector assembly. Ensure also that epoxy does not get on the LED!
Epoxy closed the holes in the pill that the output wires pass through and epoxy the wires down to the body.
At the moment, I’m using a nitecore headband for the light which i’ve zip tied to the headband since in my opinion, the wide bands of the nitecore would reduce heat dissipation. In future, I’ll be ordering a headband from FT with silicon rings similar to what SPARK (my inspiration) uses.
PROBLEMS: I had major issues shaping the head. Besides lack of proper tools, (part of my shaping process involved cutting vertically into the head with a hacksaw and breaking off bits with a leatherman,) I ended up getting dremel dust inside the reflector and while washing it out, scratched the surface a bit
If you use slow setting epoxy (cures with less defects and gets into seams better), epoxying the head down to the body is a real pain in the ass since you have to hold it in the ideal position for a WHILE.
In the end, i am totally satisfied with the final product. I have a well heatsinked, ~700 lumen headlight with multiple modes and a low output of maybe 3 lumens that is submirscible to some degree in case I have to swim during an outing. It also functions as a helmet light (worn underneath the helmet) but, in my opinion, has a too wide beam pattern to be of much use when going fast on wheels. What’s ideal for one situation is not ideal for the other i guess. shrug.
nice! (sorry, I miss a lot of threads nowadays, too many nice threads moving too fast down the list to keep track).
It looks like a good working flashlight, and I love the idea to just chop off the head to make a head lamp. Hmm, would it be possible to do this a bit neater?...
It doesn’t make sense to me either. I just settled for the Home Depot 3 AAA plastic 2 pack for $10 or $15. It functions somewhere between an Incan and a decent led.
Thanks guys ( although it feels like you’re buttering me up now )
CheapThrills: Yes, It aggravates me how, well made, handheld 18650 lights are cheap and easily available while there are no equals in the headlamp world. I don’t like zoomies and will not buy any for the sake of experimentation.
This idea of this light was born about a year ago when I recommended a NW, Spark ST6 headlamp for a friend. It costs A LOT MORE than I could afford but it’s functional and bright. As a modder, I thought, ‘yeah, I can do that’ and probably make it brighter too!
For a LONG time I thought of modifying a zoomie but information about reflector size was not clear and heatsinking in the light I thought was most moddable was poor. For almost as long, I thought of messaging OL and asking him to make a right angle adapter to screw onto the body/head of a Roche F12 for example but, besides -$$$, making proper +ve connection might have made the whole process too complicated.
The actual host made itself available when the driver in the EDC failed and I was just too upset to repair it so decided that I’ll either destroy it or make a gem by attempting this mod. I’d recommend to anyone who wants to try this build to get either the spark headband or a cheapie from FT or wherever. Another issue discovered is that the round barrel of the body pressing on my forhead is not the most comfortable feeling so the silicon backing of a proper headband would be nice.
I just saw this thread. I totally agree about the frustration of lack of decent low-mid priced 18650 headlamps. I never understood why we can buy a dozen different really nice 18650 flashlights in the $20-$30 range but there are very few 18650 headlamps in that price range and fewer that are any good.
Truth be told, I have not been happy with any of my 18650 headlamps. I had a Sparks, UF-H3 and a couple of others. The H3 was decent but stopped being reliable due to the contact pad wearing out. The Spark overheated and shutdown.
I have 15-20 trouble free 18650 handhelds but can’t seem to find a single headlamp worth buying.