Hey Guys!
After upgrading my trusty old Akoray K-106 with a XP-G2, new reflector and 14500 LiFePO4, I want to EDC it a little more. (It’s sooo much fun now! :-))
The problem: the original pocket clip was just a thin piece of wire.
I need to somehow attach a decent pocket/belt clip to carry the light. (Pockets are already full with other stuff ;-))
As you can see, there is not much where you can attach stuff.
My idea at the moment is to make a flat metal ring with an angled piece where I can screw on a clip like that and screw it on with the tail cap.
Has anyone another Idea or is there a decent clip I can use out there?
I have an Ultrafire A1 which looks to have the same round wire clip, and it seems tough as nails, much more so than you'd think by just looking at it. Was yours made of softer material or something?
Yes, it had quite low spring tension. I replaced It a couple of years ago with a lanyard because I almost lost the light once.
Maybe I had bad luck with the spring wire used.
I would try tapping the original holes where the wire clip passed thru for 2 or 2.5mm screws and using a standard stainless pocket clip. Screws would have to be trimmed for length to not hit anything on the inside, but who knows, it might hold strong enough. It's a pain to remove the tailcap anyway and easier to load batteries from the front.
If that fails, just pick up a new A1 for $9, they're neat little lights. Did you know a P60 pill will screw right in?--> https://budgetlightforum.com/t/-/20003
Yeah, right. I’ve done a bit of drilling and tapping, but not enough to even imagine that working (for me, that is). The body material is so thin and flimsy, what would catch the threads? (And on these, to me, it seems you need to occasionally re-seat the switch in the tailcap. Plus, unscrewing the head loosens the pill (!!!) which also causes flickering.) Very brutal. Probably exactly as effective as you said, but still brutal.
I read that the Akoray K-106 is “the same” as these TrustFire F20 torches, of which I happen to have a few. I didn’t like the clip too well either, but they have proven to be fairly effective at keeping the torch body attached to my body, but I wholeheartedly concur with the OP’s assessment of their quality. The whole “hole” design is brainless, IMNERHO. AFAIK, there’s no decent way to waterproof the tailcap, at least not on mine. You can’t just fill it with goo, since the electrical contact will fail, and the O-rings don’t seem to have any place to seal to.
It helps me to use a lanyard. I wrote an article on how to attach one. Brickmason cord (~1.5mm braided Nylon) works extremely well, as does the cord you can salvage from dead mini-blinds.
Consider laying a piece of string around the inside of the tailcap where the clip would be removed from… Lead the ends out where comfychair suggested tapping, then tie them in some useful two-strand knot… Or just use one of the ubiquitous “hand strap” lanyards given away with a lot of torches. No clip, but your lanyard would never leave, and if it had a big loop in it, you could hang it from stuff…
Except that’s a CR123 torch, where the K-106 of the OP runs on 1*AA… And the A1 has the same pocket clip, meaning the same problem for the OP. That A1 is an awesome torch, though…
Oops, I missed the part about the battery type. :~
Maybe the tiny mod I did at the pocket clip on mine made more of an improvement than I'd thought - the little grooves in the body where the wire protrudes aren't deep enough, and the tailcap sits cocked when tightened. I cut just a tiny bit deeper, with a triangle file, so the wire sat juuuust deep enough to allow the tailcap to seat flush all the way around, but still give a little clamping on the pocket clip. I don't remember what it was like before that but it's pretty beefy now.
On mine removing the head doesn't loosen the pill, front face of the body doesn't touch the pill when tightened, so it doesn't try to unscrew the pill when removed. But, I'm using P60 pills which have less thread length and the lower non-threaded part sits inside the front of the body without contact.
Another alternative... drill screw holes for the stainless clip into the body itself and clear of the inner parts of the tailcap, then grind the screw ends flush with the ID of the battery compartment. I have done several different lights with the screws threaded into the body (or tailcap, when there's room) without using the nuts included with those clip kits and no problems with any of them yet.
And I may be hullaballoocinating, but it almost looks like you could find enough meat in the tailcap end, given that you’d grind off the ID like that…
Somewhere around the house I have a “Small Sun” K-106 copy (few interchangeable parts) which came without a clip… :zipper_mouth_face: I liked the TiN coating but it had other “issues”… You just gave me a way to salvage it. Thanks!
I have done that in the past, but I much rather would like to clip it to my belt. It’s a shame if the light hast to stay at home because I don’t have enough room in my pockets.
But I have to admit, you lanyard knotting definitely looks better than mine, great article!
I don’t know, maybe that is one of the differences between the Akoray und Trustfire models.
My pill looks like that and never caused a problem. Overall this is a quite decent quality light. Only the pocked clip design is brainless, as you so appositely said.
No problem, the A1 is a very sweet light, and I’ll get it probably one day.
Wow, your mod looks great!
Directly screwed into the cap - cant’ get better than that!
I guess I’ll order the clip then and try to find someone with a drill press.
On the A1 at least, there's room in the tailcap. I didn't think there was, but it's essentially the same as the TR-801 just scaled down a bit. If you center the screw holes on that outer band the top edge of the clip may stick up a little past the end of the tailcap, but it can be filed down and not affect the screws or the screw holes in the clip.
