Gentlemen,
Do you have an old mini-mag laying around unloved? Have an extra P-60 drop-in unused? Got 15 minutes to spare and a penchant for DIY? This is the mod for you. This idea came about while I was building another mini-match and looking at all the various torch parts stored on my desk. In essence, it converts a standard mini-mag into a host of sorts, but only for the brass base of a P60 drop-in. Best of all, it's cheap, easy, and DOES NOT require a lathe or mill.
Let's get to it. First, disassemble the mini mag completely. The only plastic part that's re-used is the reflector. Save that.
Next, use a 25/32 drill bit and carefully drill down into the head about 16.5-17mm. I used a piece of electrical tape around the bit to give me a visual aid on depth. A variable speed drill is handy here:
The only other cut that needs to make is on the body itself. What needs to be done is the end of the body needs to be opened up a bit. I used a stepper bit for this, but the same 25/32 bit could be used as well. This is done to give added clearance from the positive terminal. Once done, place the head of the battery tube flat on some fine grit sandpaper to remove any anodizing remaining. This is our negative path to the driver.
Next, the stock reflector needs to be modified to work with the new setup. Cut all the little plastic fins off and sand down on the base. The reflector itself needs to be lightly coated with clearcoat to give it that orange peel look, and greatly cut down on the ringiness of the beam. I tried it without doing that first and the beam was terrible... I'll stop describing this process now because here's where a picture or two will do a much better job. Modified reflector on the left in both pics, stock on the right:
Only thing left to do is reassemble everything, so take one of these....
And drop it in the mini-mag head like so:
Then finish reassembly:
Voila! Like I said, quick and easy. Final output and beam will be mainly dependant on which emitter/driver combo is used. But, since it's as easy as swapping out any other P-60 drop-in, I suggest experimenting a bit. I had a spare empty pill, so I used an XP-G emitter along with this single mode driver from dealextreme since it does great in a 2xAA format. The torch is still a twisty in operation, but just reverse...i.e. tighten to activate. I'm very happy with the beam of the XP-G with the modified stock reflector. Very floody but still has a usable hotspot. Here's a whitewall shot:
And that's it! It actually took longer to make this post than it does to perform this mod (allowing the clearcoat on the reflector to dry notwithstanding). Here's a modded light that I can feel comfortable giving away to friends and relatives without having to worry about them using Li-ion. Most non-flashaholics are quite familiar with the good 'ol minimag, and are comfortable using them...and blown away by the performance of modern LEDs. Here in the states, mini-mags sell all day long for ~$10 with included holster, so the total parts cost for this would be just $15-20 depending on what pill is used. Pretty cheap for a damn tough little torch that'll be easy to upgrade later. One could even have multiple pills for it, like a general use xpg with multimodes, a UV, and an ulra low current pill for emergency lighting.
Some notes:
- 20mm carlco lenses are almost a perfect fit for the minimag head, so if one was dissatisfied with the modded stock reflector, one of these could be used.
- There is sufficient surface contact between the pill/head that there are no thermal concerns as long as output remains at 2xAA power levels.
- The driver must have the spring soldered to the center pad for good battery contact since the stock plastic bulb holder is removed.
- The pill chosen should be of the low voltage variety (.8-4.2vdc) in order to work well on 2xAA. One method is to just build one from scratch with a bare pill, emitter, and driver. Or, ready to go drop-ins like this would work.
- You don't need to worry about good ground contact from the pill to the head or head to the body because the front lip of the body makes direct contact on the outer ring of the driver (neat, huh!
).
Thanks for reading.
-Match
Match, YOU ARE DA MAN--DA MOD-MAN!!!
). Here's the deal on this idea: