Making Another Strange/Odd Light.

Flashlight Modding and DIY Parts
1

I like the unusual. I also like to make use of on hand things that are not related to the standard flashlight. You may have seen my MugLite for the 4th Annual Contest. Here’s another light, built in the same spirit of a light that could be handy for emergency “grid down” use. That is as good a reason as any to build a light. I started on this about the time the Mug’O’Light was completed.

I have built this light in my mind. I now need to build some of the actual parts needed. The first part is a brass washer; ID 19 mm, OD 28.5 mm. I used some 0.010” stock. Sorry for mixing metric and inches but I do find mm very easy to use for diameters and lengths but relate to thousands of an inch for thickness better. Go figure.

The actual physical work took place over a period of time. Some delay due to waiting for some parts, some delay due to other life stuff getting in the way of this fun.

I drilled the inner hole with the brass sheet sandwiched between 2 blocks of wood. Once that was done I laid out some concentric circles on a wood scrap and eyeball centered the hole over those rings. Then I scribed a pencil ring for the finish size desired. That made it more difficult to have the ID and D concentric but with the tools available this seemed to be a solution.

Then I inked the circle for ease of seeing and better durability while handling and cut it out to a rough size with snips.

Clamping the brass between two wood blocks I then filed using both a coarse and then a finer file.

After many changes of position in the blocks here’s what I had.

Miking it has the diameter varying from 28.5 mm to 28.8 mm. The concentricity looks pretty good, hopefully close enough for the purpose.

The ring needs to fit inside this cap. It’s a lousy photo… that is looking into the hollow, threaded end of a plastic cap. The ring fits with slight sidewall clearance. After the washer is assembled with other parts I may have to fine tune the fit. We’ll see.

This is comprised of three pieces. There is an inner ¾” standard American plumbing copper pipe, with a slip over coupler (coupler of the type with no center stop) in place over the pipe. The brass washer is fitted over the inner pipe. The brass ring inner diameter was sized to slip snuggly over the pipe and butt up against the coupler.

Another shot. In its final form the inner tube will not protrude from the brass ring. This placement was used to help illustrate how the parts fit.

End view…

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On to another part… I need to taper one of the ¾” copper couplers. I need the OD to be about 1 mm less at one end. Since I don’t have a metal turning lathe I did it by hand with hand files.

The finished coupler/sleeve with the taper is the upper one.

The tapered end is to the left. Here is an end view showing the tapered end along with a second coupler that has not been modified for comparison. Not much taper. The reason for it will be revealed later.

Another brass washer is needed, similar to the first one but with a different ID. I’ll just illustrate the finished washer as I made the same way as the other.

Here’s the tapered sleeve cleaned up and a set screw hole drilled in the side. The sleeve is also now sweat soldered to the main tube. Main tube is standard US plumbing ¾” copper pipe.

This is a ½ to ¾ inch pipe adapter. Plumbers use it to join ½ to ¾ pipe. ½” pipe is inserted into one end and then the adapter can be slipped inside the ¾” copper pipe. I soldered a short stub of ½” in there as well. . Two holes were drilled successfully and tapped while the first can be seen with a broken drill stub stuck. Let’s call the adapter the pill. The MCPCB will be mounted using 2 screws.

The pill slips inside the sleeve. The holes will align and a set screw will lock them together. A 4-40 machine screw will thread into the tapped hole in the side of the pill. There is no front retainer hence the set screw. This makes it serviceable.

The LED on the MCPCB mounts to the pill with 2 screws. I failed to get the LED mounted concentrically, however that does not really matter for this project. The other end of the pill will hold the driver. The driver will be mounted using a little solder around the negative perimeter ring.

The assembled head, pill LED… The PCB retyainer screws are a little too close to the tube sides so after initial assembly I Dremel ground part of the overhang off.

Concentricity, or centeredness, does not matter because this is another remote phosphor project…

Wet sanding with 220 and then 400 wet-dry got me to this degree of shine. I may go to finer paper after I am finishing cutting and soldering.

….
….
….I am waiting for the driver and a switch on a PCB, so we will have a delay till the next steps.

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I’m glad you have posted this up. I’m only to happy to read your unique build threads with any type of measurement you want to use. :slight_smile:

4

Looks good, no great!
How sturdy are these phosphor domes?

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They are polycarbonate. I have not tried to break one on purpose though.

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Okay, it has been a few weeks since I did anything on this project. I’ve had the parts that were missing sitting here for at least two weeks. Today I needed to clear the workbench for something else. Rather than just shift things I worked on this.

Here’s the driver. It’s a Nanjg 47A with two 7135’s. It came with three and I removed one after my tests indicated two would be quite suitable for the purpose. Ialso added the spring as the Nanjg 47A came without. I soldered a 17 to 20 mm brass adapter to the copper “pill” and soldered the driver to that. I had to taper the adapter to make it possible for the internals to fit to where I wanted them.

When I reassembled the star to the copper pill something went wrong. I had a direct short between the positive between the driver and the LED and the pill. I tried different star notches but it persisted. If I just held the star in place, tight against the copper pill it worked fine. My first solution was to see if I had any nylon 4-40 machine screws. No the smallest on hand was 6-32. I found some nylon 4-40 at a nearby supplier but they would only sell 100. I didn’t want a hundred so decided I’d glue the star with arctic alumina.

Not a great photo, but the only close up I have. Next shot shows the tube from before, but shortened. The left end is where the pill fits. The right end has a copper sleeve fitted over the main tube, with the brass washer with the large center hole from post#2. The brass washer is soldered to the sleeve and the sleeve is sweated to the inner main tube.

Here’s another shot with the pill inserted and locked in place with the set screw.

I made tailcap piece a week or so ago and I can not find the pictures. I used a switch (rev clicky) I bought from fasttech and already mounted on the pcb. The other washer, the one with the smaller ID hole is soldered to the negative ring of the pcb. I drilled 4 holes in the washer and soldered through those to the pcb contact ring. Securing the pcb to the tailcap was done by carefully filing the OD of the brass washer until it was a relatively tight interference fit to the red caps molded threads. It is tight enough to not fall out. When the tailcap is assembled the brass it sandwiched in place by the cap and the tube the cap screws onto.

One of the 5 switch/pcb units I bought had the switch installed a tad off center and I used it here. The next photo illustrates the offset.

What kind of a cap is that you may be asking?

Well, the outer white portion is a PVC plumbing adapter with the protruding male thread end sliced off. The inner red cap happens to fit just about perfectly and is held secure with some glue. The red cap screws onto……

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… a preform!!

Yessir, we saw preforms in a different thread a couple of weeks ago. I was surprised and somewhat taken aback when that popped up.

My copper tube assembly fits into the preform. The sleeves were use to center the main tube which is a very loose fit otherwise. The LED end sleeve had to be file tapered because this preform tapers a slight amount, narrowing towards the closed end. I later discovered that a different batch of preforms we had are different. No taper but I didn’t find out that until I filed the sleeve to fit this one. This preform is scratched up from all the handling and trial fitting. My finished light will use a virgin preform tube. I also discovered the two batches of pereforms have different threads.

Another view…

A close up view of the washer end being inserted into the preform.

A view of the open end of the preform with the copper tube unit inserted and a cell in place. When the cap is installed the brass ring on that inner tube is sandwiched by the switch pcb washer.

The first time the completed unit was assembled with a cell and switched on! Well, almost completed light as the white cap end is going to receive a coat of paint and I have to get out one of the non scratched preforms.

The remote phosphor was mounted with two smallish dabs of clear caulk.

I’ll do another photo with the final paint job later. The light will sit on the end cap. I think the balance will be okay, but if it proves to be a little tippy I’ll cut a wood disk or something and fit it to the cap.

FYI, the driver has 6 levels; 1, 6, 15, 26, 50, 100, no memory. The two 7135’s means a maximum power of 700 Ma. I believe it will be operated on 3 or 4 mostly, maybe 5 and seldom 6.

The preform and cap joint should be mostly water resistant. Probably not waterproof anymore with the brass discs in there. If I get concerned about weather proofing the open switch end I may glue a piece of rubber glove over the hole. Perhaps do that and sandwich a wood disk over it.

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You just have to love a build like this. This is one very neat lantern concocted from stuff. Orsm build. :slight_smile:

9

It reminds me to Fenix CL05, but yours are truly the coolest one.

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I don’t think I mentioned; the remote phosphor for this one is 3000K. The shape is called an ellipse. It is noticeably warmer than the one in the contest entry mug. I also now have a 3000K phosphor I can use in the mug light. And a 2700K that is so small I’m not sure how to use it. Only 16 mm diameter and 26 mm tall, an ellipse shape. (I bought a few different phosphors from Arrow last month when they had their free shipping offer.)

It can use flat top, button top and protected 18650 cells.

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It is very cool! I love the details, writeup, and craftsmanship.

Also… :stuck_out_tongue: :smiley: :laughing:

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Completed with a new preform and paint on the end cap.

and with the LED on level 2, daylight

I realize now I could make a second unit and in place of the two separate outer copper sleeves I could use a single longer repair sleeve. It might be more pleasing aesthetically. Although the visible parts lend something of an industrial appearance which can be cool.

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:person_facepalming: :slight_smile: :wink: