Hi guys,
I know, maglite mods are really old, but I recently got an old Maglite from our firefigthers office with an engraving in it. As it is currently an incandescent light, its quite unusable. I was looking into breathing some new life into it. I dont have a a lathe or a mill, so i cant do heavy machining. I do have a belt sander and a drill press. Any suggestions on what to do with it?
Thanks for your help and greetings from germany
Edit: I dont just want to put in a drop in replacement, thats a little to boring in my opinion, I would like the challenge of “engineering” something.
D Mags are pretty versatile. You can use up to 50mm optics in the head and there is plenty of space for a heatsink and drivers. You have a whole bunch of options for the battery configurations as well. The stock switch can handle some amps, or you could put an E-switch in it.
For optics, look at the Ledil multi TIR optics, The 50mm ANNA series will fit, so you could do a 7UP. Using NiMH D cells in 3s config, you could likely use a FET driver with a bunch of low voltage LEDs without a problem, so you could do a 7up with Nichia 219b or whatever mounted on 10mm MCPCBs. The 3up TUIJA optic is also a perfect fit. Replace the stock plastic window with a glass one, which are available from several places, like FLlens and KD. The bezel-head gap is .113”[2.87mm] so you’ll need a spacer if using a window of typical thickness (~2mm) without the stock reflector. Normally the reflector lip takes up the gap. You could cut the lip from the stock reflector and use that as a spacer.
Without a lathe and such, you may wish to install an aluminum plug in the head or body, either press fit or with adhesive, or with fasteners, but you’ll need to drill and tap to use fasteners.
Here are the dimensions I got from a D Mag with a “D” serial and chrome bulb housing. The dims may be different if your Mag is super old.
Thats a good question, actually. I know, there is a lot of stuff you can do to a maglite, but I havent really decided on anything. I dont just want to add a drop in. It might even be the best option, but where would the fun be in that. I havent really modded a flashlight yet, just build a few convoys.
@Hoop this is very helpful, thanks. I dont really know how old the maglite is, but it should be at least 20 years. I dont know if that qualifies as super old.
Among my D Mags is a really old 3D version. The serial number still starts with “D” but the bulb holder and other metal parts in the switch housing are bare brass rather than nickel plated.
The major dimensional differences of importance are the depth and ID of the shelf:
A common approach to modding D mags:
-after choosing your parts, come up with an appropriate heatsink. It can press fit into the body or head. It could thread into the head. It could be glued or fastened to the shoulder/shelf in the head, etc.
-remove the switch housing from the body. It is retained with a speared snap ring. To get the snap ring out: use a dowel to push UP hard on the switch housing from the back side, while doing that, take a flat head screwdriver and pry on the snap ring spear to get it out of its groove. There is also a grub screw to remove, hidden under the switch boot. It is down in the hole in the center of the switch. This screw establishes the GROUND connection to the body of the light. Being a rather old Mag, it should require a 5/64” hex key to remove. If that doesn’t work: newer Mags require a T8 torx tool to remove the grub screw, but the body of the tool has to be ground down to fit into the switch hole. See this CPF thread for the juicy details. Be aware that it takes a substantial amount of torque to break the grub screw loose. Once you’ve got the switch housing out, chop off the “bulb tower” portion. Now solder wires to the exposed electrical contact parts of the switch, one to the negative contact (the metal strip to the side) and the other to the positive contact in the center. Solder the other ends of these wires to the positive and negative contacts of your LED driver. Here are pictures of a disassembled switch housing.
Today moding maglite is not done due to lack of adequate flashlights on the market, quite the opposite. so if you spend time, money on a mag, it better be a light cannon, something that will impress anyone who see it.
and if it looks different from a stock mag, even better. No sense to spend time/money on anything less.
Now what result do you want to get?
I’ve never had a lathe. Neither did OL. Didn’t stop either of us. A D-cell Mag can be tri-bored for 3x18650/3x16650or used as is for 3x14500 or 4x14500 with minimal boring. Copper or aluminum pills are both easier to come by and fabricate now and what he did with a file puts the rest of us to shame. Don’t let what you can’t do easily stop you from imagining what you can do with effort.
A D mag cannot be tri-bored for 3x18650 but it can be tri-bored for 17mm cells such as cr123 and “4/3 A” NiMH like the FDK HR-4/3AU. I’m not sure if low self discharge NiMH cells are available in these larger sizes.
Depending on where the engraving is located you can chop the light up to make it shorter. Once you have the tube down to a more manageable size its possible to ‘dual bore’ it to fit 18650’s side by side with a long metal file and other hand tools. I’ve done it like that before and while not a quick or easy job its doable, will go a lot faster if you have access to a dremel with a narrow extension shaft though. If you want to bore it out over the full uncut length youll probably have a pretty bad time.
I 3d printed an insert that you need to put in after inserting the two batteries. Pretty much a round puck with two triangles to index with the empty spaces on the sides of the cells and springs to make contact with each of the two. I then put a clicky button in the tailcap to make use of that space (you cannot really bore out the tailcap at all for two 18650s) like you would on any ‘normal’ single cell tail button build with the light body for neutral. On the positive end i put in two normal spring contacts and glued the head into position so so the bored out tracks would stay aligned with them. Not the cleanest job in the world but it worked well enough for the couple lights built. I only made some for friends that know how to handle batteries, they are in parallel so if you mismatch the voltages enough nasty things can happen with a setup like this. Nowadays with the capacities that the fatter cells reach i don’t really think doing a build like this is worth the trouble for anything other than the fun of building it. My latest super shorty is a lot more fun, way more compact and will hold one of those fancy 5500mah 26650s without any problem.
Nice work. Yea, dual bore Mags require some special effort in regards to the electrical contacts. A battery carrier or inserts like you made are definitely the easier way to go and this approach has the benefit of still being usable with larger single cylindrical cells if the center contact springs are long enough.
If dual contacts are built into the driver(s) and tailcap, the tail pcb needs to spin freely so that the contacts stay aligned with the batteries as the tailcap is being unscrewed, aligned via dowel pins or however else. If the head is removable from the body, and a single driver is affixed into the head, a ring type positive contact can be used on the driver like on SRK lights and Q8, etc. Gluing the body into the head to eliminate rotation is useful if the head is to be machined out for space and most or all of the threads will be cut out, and there are many other design choices that require a glued body and head. Dual contacts on the driver(s) will require a glued body and head.
There are multiple ways to design a rotating tailcap PCB, such as with a center spring under the PCB, and having a screw going down through the center of it to retain the PCB while allowing it to rotate. Flat spring contacts which ride on a round trace on the board are another option. Pogo pins are another contact option. Incorporating pogo pins into the design provides an easy way to deliver multiple power and communication channels to the tail to allow for aux LEDs, an E-switch or two, or whatever else.
As for the capacity of the fatter cells, 26650s probably don’t have an advantage over two 18650s, but the 26800 is looking like a superior option, though the quality and consistency of the QB26800 is still open to question. Two name brand 18650s will provide a certain quality assurance and they are easy to acquire. But, with the battery carrier method and long enough springs, either two 18650s or the 26800 can be used.
