Fail - Mod closed - Sorry

Flashlight Modding and DIY Parts
1

Sorry guys, but it's another fail, mod is closed, move on to something else...

I just can't stand it any more. The temps are dropping and my hands are itching, (no not from thatSurprised), from not having any mods to do.

Can't resist, resistance is futile... I bought a few Maglites when Wal-Mart was having it's sale and most of the stuff I have here was already "in stock" in the O-L workshop, so here I go, doing a mod the way I said I didn't want to. I realize that my style is who I am and like it or not, it is what it is. Either I live with it, or don't, but after trying Celibacy, I just can't get the modder out of the MOM, (Miserable Old Man).

09-30-2013

3x1a

So I started with a 2D Incandescent Maglite. I had been playing around with cutting grooves in the head and didn't actually have a plan to build it, but I was looking in bins and found a heat sink that I had saved from a previously failed build and decided to build this light as a cut down 1D. I will be using four 14500s in parallel, with a DrJones driver and three XP-G2 leds in parallel.

3x1b

I'm just using plain 16mm stars with the XP-G2 leds. I will need to reflow them.

3x1c

I will also be using three 20mm diameter 15 degree TIR optics and I will use the stock plastic lens to make a holder for the optics. I will drill out the holes with a 3/8" drill and then use a #115 Dremel bit to finish out the proper diameter. I'm not worried about the black marker marks not being round, they're just a starting point and they are smaller around than the optics.

3x1d

I will be adding chips to the DrJones driver. Total of 16 chips @380mA each - 6080mA for three XP-G2s in parallel.

3x1e

I have gutted the stock switch and I will be keeping the housing and the gutted switch, so I can fit in a momentary.

3x1f

The momentary switch will be soldered to a 16mm XM-L star and I will use a dremel to open the stock switch up to house the new momentary switch.

3x1g

I will be using a short spring, so the battery holder will come right up to the end cap and my total distance will be about 75mm.

3x1i

I have measured out the 75mm and marked it. I will tape it off, as I did on the front end and remove some of the tube to shorten it.

3x1j

60mm of tube is what I need to take out. The overall length from the back of the switch housing to the tail end of the tube is 145mm and I will need 75mm of that for the new battery holder, but I have to allow for the seam where the tube goes back together. I know that will be 10mm, so overall, I will only take out 60mm instead of 70mm, to allow for the joint.

3x1h

The heat sink was out of another project, but it will work fine for this one. It's just two pieces of aluminum rod, fitted to go into the head and the top of the body tube.

3x1k

I want to make a cleaner seam this time, so I am going to try cutting each half of the tube with one of these cutters, with the drill press, so I can get a good clean, even cut. Using a hacksaw and files does not always leave a clean and neat seam... The top cutter is for making the seam, inside of one piece and outside of the other. I also have to allow for boring the tube, so clearances will have to be exact!

3x1l

One piece cut off with the hacksaw, so I can take it over to the drill press.

3x1m

This is the cutting wheel I am using and I will hopefully cut a clean cut with it.

3x1n

Well, it worked really good. This way I have a seam that will be hard to see.

3x1o

Like I said, it's going to be hard to see the seam once it's done.

I still have a lot to go, so... have fun till I get more done.

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2

not to be pedantic, and probably teaching you to suck eggs, but please ensure that cut off disk is meant for aluminium, it can clog the disk and cause it to shatter. I know its only small but I’d prefer to say so than not do.

Now the health and safety crap is covered.

Good to see you back in the old lumens cave, liking this build already.

Graham

3

It's a good point. I don't know what the heck they are made for, I just know I have been using them for a couple years now and they seem to work well. They are just an abrasive wheel. I would think is it just grit and glue under pressure. They are very brittle and they will shatter if the are flexed at all, but they seem to cut aluminum very well and don't clog.

The metal ones are HSS and from what I read, that is much better with aluminum than cobalt. The HSS bits seem to last a long time and the cobalt seem to break a lot.

4

The cutting discs are just designated “metal” and have no other distinctions but that was a good call to check on it. I’ve been missing your mods as well, OL.

5

Any particular reason why your using 14500’s in parallel instead of one larger battery?

6

Glad to see you modding again (That's what smokers say to each other as well when quitting failed again ).

7

Looks like it will be a very nice light for sure.
Hope you are having fun!!!

8

8) That is a better job parting of than my lathe.

9

I guess, because I can. A 26650 or 18650 could be used instead.

10

I have some cut-off wheels that say plastic, not metal. They look the same to me.

And yes, that is a fine job of cutting off the ring using the drill press….very impressive indeed! That outer edge is clean as a whistle!

Your video showing this splicing operation has the outer trimming looking easy. I have not found that to be the case, I try to use the 1/8” diameter carbide cutter and it just doesn’t go as well. Should I switch to that 1/4” diameter HSS cutting tool? I had to make a copper part, essentially a washer, to mount a driver in where the opening was larger than the driver….that inside cut using the 1/8” carbide tool was a real challenge! It wanted to chatter and run the rounds inside the circle! Very difficult to control. I eventually managed, but had to do some adaptation in my holding techniques to really lock down the tool.

Thanks Justin for all your videos and explanations, really helpful stuff. Perhaps I’ll try chopping down a Maglite one of these days……

11

Could you also use your drill press with the HSS bit to cut the splice difference? This would maintain precise depth for your 10mm splice joint and perhaps be much quicker/easier to manipulate not having to clamp/release/rotate/clamp. ??? Just a thought.

12

I think he uses an end mill bit which should work much better than a high speed steel drill bit since its made to cut flat at the end.

13

HSS seems to be easier to use the Carbide, but it is really a hell of a lot of hard work to do one. Even on the drill press it’s tiresome and one little mishap and the part is ruined, or your hands or eyes. I think a larger cutter is usually better. I use from a 1/4 to a 3/8 depending on what I can get cheap. Copper is hell on wheels. I wouldn’t try copper, it chatters like crazy, even in a lathe.

A lathe is the only good way to do it.

14

An end mill bit. Sometimes a 4 flute and sometimes a 2 flute. It depends on the material. For a fine finish I use the dremel #115 cutter.

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Well, folks, it just didn't happen. I ruined one of the pieces of body tube cutting it on the drill press. Trying to cut away material from the outside of a tube, by using the cutter in the drill press and holding the part, is just about the worst way of doing it. It's the only way I have come up with,other than holding the part in the vise and using the dremel tool, but both ways are a hairy experience and one tiny slip and it's all gone, all done, washed up.

That's what happened tonight, so the build is a bust. No way to repair a tube when the cutter digs into a spot where it isn't supposed to. It just ruins the part.

I'm not surprised, as I have been ruining a lot lately and in searching for the answer and it all boils back down to what I said a month or so ago. I'm just not happy doing these hand builds any more like I used to and it's why I'm screwing up so much. I just can't get into it any more when I know there are so many better ways to do it and get professional results. I made the niche for a place that I fit into and now I just can't be satisfied doing it that way any more. Instead of fun, it's tedious, nerve wracking and irritating.

Oh, well, such is life. I've never been one to be happy with any one thing for more than a short while. I just love the mods, but doing them just isn't working any more.

I started this mod because I just got so darned bored I couldn't just sit around any more and I went back to what I really used to enjoy the heck out of, but I'm screwing up left and right, because I'm just not doing it with the patience and control I used to have.

It's a point where I'm just spinning my wheels, not wanting to let go and not wanting to get back into it the same old way. I think that happens to lots of people and it surely isn't anything new.

Just the way things are, don't think there's much more to say about it all. Sorry for the fail though.

15

Ooops. Sorry to hear that.

:_(

16

Strip the anodizing, and have it TIG welded to fill in the gouge. Nothing is unfixable! There's probably somebody local to you who would charge you next to nothing for the literally 5 minutes it would take to zap some aluminum on there.

Don't feel too bad, I ventilated a SRK trying to enlarge the ID of one of the steps of the head, and cut through the root of the fins. I shaped a piece of copper to act as a sort of mold that fit the profile of the fins on the outside and blobbed some molten aluminum on the inside (AL won't stick to the copper).

17

Ah well, maybe you have to break some stuff playing around with it until you find where you want to go and what you want to do. At least it wasn’t even an expensive part. :slight_smile:

18

Well thats a big bugger. Some of the things we do that we take for granted can end up being so frustrating at times. l feel your pain.

19

A shame, looked to be an attractive mod. Incredibly hard to move a tube on a table without wobbling off perpendicular unless you use a jig.

What you need is some apprentices to do the fiddly little things like making jigs.

Or go to a Santa's Workshop business model. Any Elfin communities in Texas?

20

you know what I think you need OL? A nice little 7x14 import lathe :slight_smile: You clearly have the skills and mechanical aptitude, it just sounds like you’re butting up against the limitations of your techniques. So, change the technique! Then you’ll have another whole wonderful learning curve to master and challenge you and you’ll be happy again. Trust me :wink:

BTW, what’s that little t-slot looking cutter at the bottom of the pic with the 3 cutters in? I keep looking for small t-slot cutters for a build I’m contemplating and that one looks almost what I’m after.