NO glue. The holes are a tiny bit oversize .003”-.004” so they tap in and tap out, the lens holds them in well enough, makes it easy to change/mix colors….
Thank you for the tip. It did look as though the glass would retain them well enough, and I agree with your sentiments about the wisdom of permanently sealing them in there. I guess I’ll need to ready another excuse for that UV S2 I have coming…
Perfect. This sounds like the best way to do it.
Oh… so you drilled in from the TOP, not bottom? I guess that makes sense. Good point about not using adhesive, given how everything is held together when the optic is locked into place.
I made a blue GITD gasket, the mix with the green tap inside the bezel is beautiful IMO
I got mine from this thread, very professionally done: WTS: DRILLED OPTICS - 10507 / 10508 / 10509 / 10511
Kawi has a warehouse full of tools and wanted to save some money 
@JaredM, if you make SS bezels lengthened for reflectors and can find a suitable reflector, I’ll buy one. Those are the two biggest changes I’d like to see in this light. DM me if you need a hand with the CAD.
Even grippier FW3A. Now with 2 pieces of Talon grip tape:
I don’t even have my light yet but I obviously need to source some talon tape(I have used it on my pistols but didn’t know that it came in a roll) some GITD powder and tape and possibly some trit vials… 
No doubt that a native BBL SST20 would be a great improvement to these classics. I much prefer native due to the fact that what ever else I decide to do with the light the filter wont affect it
I wonder if that grip tape could be used on the hottest part as a thermal insulator…
huh? why? Do you want to keep the heat in??
Thanks. Wish I’d known about this earlier, as I already bought some optics. I do have a Dremel and I’d been wanting to get a press for it… seems that now may be a good time to finally do it!
The answer is yes. The thermal tape could be applied to the hottest part of the light and it would insulate it. This would mean you could put your fingers on it and would be less likely to burn them.
However, it would also have a large downside: With the heat unable to get out of the head efficiently, the LEDs and driver are likely to overheat quicker. The light will probably rampdown faster and max sustained output would be lower.
The Talon grip tape I’m using came in uncut sheets.
- Take some paper and cut shapes with it then press the paper up against the light, trimming as needed until the paper is in about the right shape. This prevents you wasting grip tape trying to find the right shape.
- Take the cut paper shapes and lay them on the underside of the uncut Talon grip tape.
- Trace the cut shapes on the underside of the grip tape using a sharpie.
- Cut the grip tape.
- Peel and apply.
I bought 3 Carclo optics that arrived today: 10507 (narrow spot) , 10509 (frosted wide spot), and 10510 (elliptical spot).
10507: adds a little more throw, slightly tighter spot with still diffused edges. Quite nice if you feel stock could use a little more focused spot.
10509: is wonderfully floody. If anyone has a thing for flood, I recommend getting one. It also reduces moonlight output.
10510: creates an elliptical beam — kind of neat. Useful if you want to have more control of beam spread.
I have to say… having a light that is this easy for changing optics is so damned cool. You really need to get some of these optics to leverage the flexibility of what the FW3A offers.
I’ll try to take some beam shots later.
10507 is pretty ugly with 219B. Smaller central hotspot, larger differently-tinted hotspot around it, and various artifacts. You can even see that annoying little injection molding point in the beam. Same output as 10511 too.
Vinh modded an FW3A with Olson White 2 quad and got 3700+ lumens and 44k lux.
Not bad. I have some Oslon White 1 emitters. Maybe I should get some White 2 to play around with.
I wonder what it would do with a Manker quad….this lens is throwier as stock. And being narrower, the bezel losses would be smaller as well.
Anyway, a quad W2 FW3A must be a HOT rod.
Had anyone tried a glow gasket +uv trits?
With that power the FW will melt into a pool of liquid aluminium.