What’s the best spacer I can buy for a sft40 LEDs ? I’ve read that there hard to center but there is a new spacer for them ?
No spacer needed, just ask for the 5050 gasket with square opening. There’s a small chance you might need to sand the gasket at the bottom to make it slightly lower.
The SFT40 is actually one of the easiest LEDs to center, people only say it’s hard because the light now ships with gaskets with circular opening, which are much worse than the square-opening gaskets.
EDIT: see below.
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This isn’t the right answer. The current L21B batch requires thicker gaskets, the round black 5050 gasket is still 0.2mm too thin, but it only improves the throw by 40 metres if corrected. Using the old white square gasket is thinner again and throws the focus right out, this square gasket was only correct on the first L21B batch.
Convoy is one of the worst brands when it comes to inconsistencies between batches. The QC just isn’t what it used to be.
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Thanks I don’t see any on his site for sale
Thank you for the correction. So far with every Convoy light I’ve owned I’ve only had to sand gaskets to accommodate domeless emitters, this is the first time that I’ve seen padding/raising necessary. This is crazy and sounds like a serious problem with the reflector; I hope Simon fixes it soon.
For raising the reflector (which I’ve had to do a couple of times after sanding too much), I’ve had good luck with layering electrical tape below the gasket.
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No plans on fixing reflectors, same thing on the current C8+ and 3X21D. Just shows that Convoy’s QC is going downhill. Too busy fulfilling LED, Driver, and new model requests. Had bad optic issues with the new M21J as well. The TIR is too small which scrapes on LED corners. Ships with bezel loose to avoid plastic shavings covering the LED. Reported it to Simon and he said he knew about it from the beginning.
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I’ve made many new gaskets by sanding another flat to X mm and gluing them together, works nicely.
That is depressing, that their entire line of best throwers is going down. Maybe the issue is that most people don’t care enough to notice, and I’m sure that a collective complaint in the main thread would make some difference. If more people actually notice such defects and ask for replacements, the extra cost is likely to change Simon’s strategy and shift it toward focusing more on QC.
You may be right in guessing that too much attention is spent on custom requests and developing new models. I take personal issue with the latter because many of them are not substantially different from existing ones, and think some fees should be charged for custom orders, in order to compensate for the time and serve as a weak deterrent–essentially a “think twice before you ask”.
The M21J TIR issue sounds a lot like the issue with round centering gaskets. I am surprised that Simon did not take the opportunity to address it when you brought it up. The issue is also present with Simon’s 20mm 3535 TIRs, but to a lesser extent because there is less mass moving around.
This sounds incredibly time-consuming, bravo for making it work! I wonder if it is feasible, once you have a good working gasket, to duplicate it with molding putty and UV resin. Maybe I’ll try this first with a 9mm 3535 centering ring with square opening, which I made by reaming a 9mm circular gasket from the inside and sanding a 7mm square gasket from the outside, and then press-fitting them.
I have purchased L21B SFT40 five times.
Last L21B come with black round hole gasket and I have problem with it.
Led was bad centered and it come with very loose bezel. Beam was ugly with irregular shape hotspot and corona.
After3-4 attempts I center better led and beam was better but not ideal like my first series L21B with solid + contact on driver.
Now this black gasket L21B is usable but it has smaller throw than my old L21B with square holed white gasket. I try throw on 700 meters and measure intensity of light with light meter and old L21B give higher intensity of light. New L21B has many specs of dust inside reflector and I think that it comes from gasket hole. Old model after 2 years of heavy use doesn’t have no one specs of dust.
I write to Simon and ask him about this problem and he said that it is problem with reflector and he will send me new series reflector with gasket.
I would never buy L21B again if Convoy continue to produce it with uncentered led and gasket which has larger hole diameter than diameter of led.
It was very stupid decision to use that setup and ruin one very good thrower flashlight with best performance in world for that price.
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Yes, that L21B was designed for my New Zealand hunting store. The only reason it was ever any good was because I provided Simon with my own gasket thickness, the focus was terrible at the beginning, even the small C8+ had better throw.
The key to make LED centering easier is to apply downward pressure on the bezel edge as you tighten. If you want the gasket to move right then apply pressure on the left edge.
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Here’s my QC thread Concerns about Convoy's quality control and suggestions for improvement
As a dealer for Convoy I’ve made roughly 400 gaskets by sanding and gluing. Takes quite awhile but worth it.
I’ve asked Simon find another factory multiple times, unfortunately he always ignores that question. I mainly just want the reflectors to be consistent with each batch. It’s horrible having 50x flashlights arrive and find out the range is terrible without any notification from Simon. He knows, he just doesn’t really care.
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Even the gap of the head of the light is annoying and looks stupid, I found a 2mm glass lens and brought the gap down to a hair will work on it more once my lathe mods are done
PiercingTheDarkness do u happen to have the correct height on your custom gaskets ? I’m going to make one by hand and would be nice to know
