From New and Addicted - #16 by Suncoaster
“I came here after checking out EDC (everyday-carry.com) and updating my EDC gear… now my paypal has had a pounding thanks to you guys… but I had a pleasant learning curve as well, so thanks.”
In 2010 I bought my first real flashlight. And I had some questions about it and I wanted answers.
So after some .oogling I ended up in the other forum (Marketplace).
It took me a while before I could ask my questions in a way that did not make me look like a complete idiot.
But I was wrong, apparently. I received a lot of opinions and no real answers.
Nevertheless I stayed there, mostly lurking. Till one moment I read that the other forum was not the only forum.
I thought: let’s see, can’t be worse. That’s when I stepped from a cold drip into a warm shower. So to speak.
But I stayed in the other forum, as a reminder.
Looking at the other posts it seems that the other forum has been one of the greatest incentives to join BLF.
Closely followed by the BLF GT 
After wasting money on crappy *Fire 18650 and 16340 batteries and horrible blue tinted lights from dx, tinydeal, and amazon, I started looking for reviews and the all-knowing sage, Google, led me here.
Now I spend more, but waste less.
Circa 2010, I was already modding flashlights, some of my old 3D Mags. I had discovered DX as a seller, and had bought a few lights from there: a C3, Romisen RC-G2, TK-703, SK-68, and my favorite, the Ultrafire 501b with XR-E R2 (which I still have and use).
I read a lot on the DX forums flashlight section to learn about modding, and from there ended up linking back to a very young BLF on the old .CZ.CC site. I didn’t lurk very long, joining in early 2011. Always loved the activity of this forum, no posting and then waiting a week to get a single response like on other forums I’ve joined.
Also, posts remain remarkably cohesive here. We get to enjoy good grammar, good spelling, and mostly clean language. Obviously, there is a lot of collected intelligence and education here that other forums don’t get to enjoy.
I was looking for info on the “Shadowhawk Military Grade Tac Light”. Found a link to a thread here that was titled something like: “Don’t buy the shadowhawk its a scam.” Luckily saved some money that day, but have spent a boat load since.
I found this place after searching for info on a Rey Light I got from Massdrop. People were friendly and helpful. I stuck around and lurked for awhile. I saw the Q8 project and got excited. A forum that custom/crowd designs it’s own lights from circuits and programming to cans? How cool is that!?
Started out on CPF in the budget section and the incandescent section . I wanted to boost the output of my Maglites .
When BLF came online I lurked for a while , then joined .
Over seven years ago .
My , how the flashlight world has changed since then .
Hear that pelican roar!
To answer this question I had to go back in time.
As it requires a lot of focus and physical strength my head is hurting and everything is a little bit blurry. 
.
.
CHAPTER 1
My first real flashlight
I remember getting my first ‘power’ flashlight. It had a tir lens and, if I remember correctly, a XR-E or XR-C type led. Funny thing is, that flashlight was the first (and still is the first :person_facepalming: ) flashlight I have dedomed.
It also had a integrated battery that was chargeable trough the 12v outlet in a car.
I always had the urge to disassemble everything and this light couldn’t escape it. So after screwing the bezel off and removing the lens I noticed a small led in the center of a mcpcb. I gently touched it and played with it, I honestly liked it.
But back on topic, I was just about to perform my first mod. As I couldn’t resist I touched the led again and suddenly something came loose, I just had dedomed the led! Unfortunately the led didn’t survive…
So, I needed another light. I was immediately ‘addicted’ after looking the above light in his ‘eye’ when on. You could say I had seen the light. :innocent:
That was when I started to look for flashlights. (don’t confuse flashlights with fleshlights…!! trust me)
As with most people the journey started on DX, they had so many nice lights for a affordable price.
.
.
CHAPTER 2
My first acquaintance with the crazy world of flashaholics
It was wednesday evening 06-18-2012 (18th of June), I had just created an account on CPF.
After looking around on DX and searching the world wide web for information on flashlights I came across CPF.
There was so much information floating around with a lot of people that had more lights than hair on there heads. After creating my account I made a first post in a thread where everyone could show there lights.
That time I had started to look for information to make my first light, that I accidentally had killed by dedoming it, shine again.
And I did, I bought a led and a driver. Oke, it wasn’t really a driver, just a simple single component named AMC7135.
But I didn’t stop there. There where already some things on there way to my door from DX.
Some weeks later a charger and 2 18650’s arrived. The 18650’s had the famous blue wrapper on them with ‘ultrafire’ on them. As we all know nowadays, they are crap.
The second order I ordered from DX came in the morning on 08-02-2012 (second of august). It was the first flashlight I had ordered from china, the ultrafire WF-501B.
.
.
CHAPTER 3
My second acquaintance with the crazy world of flashaholics and the modding saga continues
After reading a lot of info on the p60 style drop-in’s, especially together with the cheap chinees ultrafire WF-501B host, I planned to mod it.
A well known issue was the lack of heat transfer, I decided to improve it by making a sleeve out of aluminium. After making a nice 3d design on the PC I gave it to someone in school that was able to make it.
When searching around on the ultrafire WF-501B I came across the well beloved BLF. I couldn’t believe it, a forum specially for budget lights. So I made quickly an account and started to read all the info that was available. That was the evening of 12-14-2012. (almost a member for 5 years)
In the meantime I got another flashlight, a C8 style light.
That C8 made me make my first post here on BLF. Unfortunately after 1.5 month I stopped visiting BLF for 2 years (sorry…) while I still visited CPF.
In those 2 years I bought my EDC light, an eagletac D25LC2. I carried it everyday back then.
.
Luckily, 2 years later, I needed a new light. And by that moment everything went in a downward spiral…
Not only did I purchase a Convoy C8 and parts to mod it, but started to learn the dark truth about flashlights and modding flashlights.
.
.
Now a couple of years later I have way too many, but still not enough, flashlights. 
Simple…. Surefire D26/D36 mods for my AR rifles and handgun lights. That is when I found Randy Brogden on E-Bay, when he started PFlexPro who I contacted, and did a couple projects together over a winter, and boy was it fun!!! :+1:
Who also turned me onto both Richard (RMM) and BLF.
So Randy is to blame! :laughing:
When i was a kid, i already loved flashlights, when we went to camping stores, i was always in the knives and flashlights section
It all started when i switched to another job 5 years ago, i was talking with my new colleague and at one time we were talking about flashlights, i mentioned my Mag3D which i was very proud of and he told me maglites were the bomb 10 years ago, but heavily aged right now.
Also, i was not familiar with ‘China shipping’ and other colleagues showed me DX, and later Banggood, a whole new world opened up for me! All those nice gadgets, flashlights and prices!
So, i started searching on the internet, first bought a mag conversion, later an sk68, and then i was Happy!
Until at some point the SK68 became dull, i bought a convoy c8 (Lucky me, it was Just a gamble, which turned out a very good gamble) Since China shipping takes some time, during the waiting until it arrived, i started searching reviews for convoy, found BLF!
Now, the Mag is collecting dust on a shelf, and i don’t even knowwhere the SK68 is.
I was very happy to find blf, now i know it is not strange to have a flashlight addiction! The pictures of some members collections made me see that i was just a rookie
Come here almost every day since i subscribed, really love it. It is nice to see the evolution, it all goes so fast and i’m learning everyday
I was looking to buy a new kitchen…. :sunglasses:
I was looking for modding from the beginning. I found CPF and read a couple threads, then forgot about it. When I started searching again several months later, I was actually surprised to learn I had already joined CPF! :person_facepalming:
I read some more threads there, but I wasn’t really finding what I was looking for. So I did some more searching until I found BLF. I’ve been here ever since! But, even after all these years, I’m still a newb at modding. Maybe one day in the future, I’ll be almost as good as one of the greats of today.
i was searching for a good and cheap AA battery flashlight and here i am :person_facepalming:
I forget, i think the high powered xray flashlight i tested fried my memory circuits.
after a 48+ hour blackout, I went looking for lanterns/flashlights so that we wouldn’t have to
use candles again. It’s a bit creepy walking around at night w/ a candle and seeing the reflections
from the mirrors and don’t recognize my own face 
I used my million candlepower flashlight to shine into the distance, and at the end of the beam, there it was: the budget light forum
Lol
Kitchens Sale
HALF PRICE + EXTRA 20% OFF *
A few years ago I made a trade on Bladeforums for some flashlights (Two Fenix and a 4Sevens) and was impressed with them over my Maglight and Mini Maglight.
I did some searching for more info on the lights I received and was led to CPF. I learned a bit over there and ended up with a couple Zebralights (which I love) and that started me on lithium ion 18650 lights.
Since I couldn’t afford to spend the same amount of money on more lights as I did on the Zebralights, I found some links to BLF, probably because of the BLF A6. I bought one (actually an Astrolux version) and wanted to find more lights that were performers but not so dang expensive.
I don’t have a large collection of lights, but being a member here has made my purchases MUCH more cost-friendly and quite powerful. This is a fantastic site with lots to share. I really like it here.