When you do that, now the AA cells can fall out the front of the light, right, I mean, only when the heads is off (off course), but nevertheless there is nothing keeping the cells in there when the head is off, right? If that is the case, technically speaking we don't need a tailcap anymore as we can simply remove the head and load cells from the head side, right?
That is a good picture - thanks 
That is what I am trying to do - find a way to make them fit/work in old AA Mags. That is why I was trying the idea of the P60 (threaded portion) as a possible way to use the small Battery Vampire boards).
Exactly. But some people might prefer to remove the tailcap instead of the head. :)
Gotcha - thanks :D
Will
1st attempt at this mod is a complete and unqualified success.
Construction notes:
- Used an old 3/4" masonry bit with peck drilling (a nibble at a time) and test fitting till I got to final depth. The old bit blades were worn in some when I started, but it worked out perfect for width 0f the pill I got from DX on Monday.
- Used a thin file to cut the shoulder off the top of the body . . the hard way but this gave me more comfort for the through cut . . no thread issues at all . . though I may still square it out a bit more with grinder.
- Used a Nite Ize reflector . . drilled out center so that the reflector base sits alongside the edge of the optic . . no longer FTT, but it is very comparable to the P60 reflector beam . . new beam spot is similar size and flood is maybe 2' wider at 6' distance.
Tools used: Cordless drill, locking pliers with cloth, drill bits, file
Reassemble + 2 TF 14500s = LIGHT!!!
This makes for an awesome light because you can pick a brightness anywhere from a few to 200 lumens of a really nice warm white that is really pretty neutral.
A brand new mini-mag in your choice of color and the drop-in are only $20.00! This one is an old platinum but the next one will be green, orange, or blue.
I thought about using that dropin, too, but after reading that it stopped working for several people, I decided not to do that.. well, and I wanted to use eneloops. :)
I ran it for a couple days on an 18650 for short-term testing. If it blows, the repair will just be the next learning experience. Worth it to try having a light with variable brightness at BUDGET price.
I also got a SF low voltage + Duraloops to swap in or use alkys when wanted/needed but I wanted to try 8v brightness first. My holder for the spares is likely to soon be a new MiniMag. :)
Congrats on the successful mod! Glad to see this old post still getting some use :)
Do you have a source for bare pills nowadays? (The one mentioned at the top isn't available now)
I just finished one of these except I cut it down and am running it off of 1 14500. Bright and tiny. :)
Still one of the best mods around. Everybody loves Minimags, everybody has one and it can be "Matched" to todays standards with a couple of dollars. :)
That’s where I just got my latest batch.
I finally got around to doing this one. Works great, thanks Match. I did not have the correct drill bit and didn't want to buy one just to use once so I used a dremel 115 bit. It takes more patience for sure but it does work. That bit works for every step of this mod. If I was going to do more than a few of these I would get the bit.
Be careful if you use the driver Match' recommended.. Dont tighten the light too hard or the upper part of the coil on the PCB might break off. No negative effect so far, but that rattling was annoying so I had to take it apart once again.. :D
I finally managed to complete my mod, "Match"ed 2AA Maglite for my dad's birthday.
After reading about QTC, I wanted to implement it in my mod and asked other people how they did it. Thanks to all the people I molested via PN and thanks to ruffles for selling me some pads. :)
First step, modify the host:
Tailcap: grinded flat, removed ano from threads
Head: bored open to about 20mm so a p60 dropin fits, then removed ano on the inside
Body: made it about 5mm short to get rid of the half threads
Next the QTC part. I placed the QTC between two 4*3mm magnets and they will go into a plastic spacer my grandpa made on a lathe. One side is a 4mm hole, the other side is M6 threaded. Then I cut a short piece off of a threaded rod, drilled a 2.5mm hole in the middle and placed a shorted and grinded flat nail in it. I also cut a slit into the threaded part to be able to screw it in with tweezers.
Two pics to show dimensions:
QTC setup that will go into the white spacer:
White spacer glued to the dropin:
That rather small piece wont hurt the battery, before you manage to screw it that tight, the driver will crack.
Fully tightened, its about as bright as my non-QTC Mag I also modded (silver one).
I used a Carclo medium frosted lens, so no beamshots, because someone else already posted some. :)
Advantage of QTC: variable brightness
Why the hassle with spacers and magnets and stuff? The magnets keep constant pressure on the QTC and wont allow it to move. So it wont see much stress and therefore last longer. The nail part is to make the light hasslefree. You can swap the batterys without thinking much.
As Justin would say, its really a "hack job" and took very very long. I spent hours on this and I dont think it was worth it. If I had to do it again, I would be done faster, and then the "time-result-relationship" would be very good. ;)
Thanks to Match for this mod and to all the other ideas here. :)
Nice. Very impressive.
I don't find "QTC" explained, got a pointer to that?
The more pressure you apply, the more current it allows to flow. There are a few threads here if you do a search for QTC. Its magnetic but soft like rubber. :)