So, I wanted to mod my EC4S, but I couldn’t get the bezel off.
I tried the latex glove method first with no success, then I tried a watch case opener, which slipped, because the bezel has 5 indents (star shape), so there’s no opposing ones. Then I quickly draw and 3D printed a tool, that matches this pattern and used a small steel rod to apply some force to it, but nothing happened. After that, I tried to use a screwdriver with the printed tool and guess what, the flashlight bent the chrome-vanadium screwdriver. Finally I found a longer and beefier screwdriver, which started to work a little bit, then the printed part gave up and started to rotate in the bezel. It was grindy and gave a scraping sound, while it rotated a little bit, I think this is because this light has an enamel-like coating, not anodization.
Now there’s a tiny gap between the bezel and head and the bezel doesn’t move in either direction (also the glass rattles a little). Do you have any ideas on how to get it off or back in place.
Ugh, sorry to hear about the damage. Hopefully you can salvage it. Yeah, I’m pretty sure Nitecore uses Loctite on the EC4 series. It’s a shame, because it’s completely unnecessary. I love this design. It’s such an ergonomic shape for the hand. And, nice anti-roll properties. It’s a bummer that Nitecore abandoned this design after like 5 iterations with 18650 cells. (EC4, EC4GT, EC4S, EC4SW, EC4GTS)
Anyway, please circle back when you’ve successfully modded it. Would be interesting to hear your thoughts about the result.
I’ve printed 3 more ‘sockets’ that I could use and after about 40-50 minutes of repeated heating with a heat gun and rapid cooling, it loosened up, but interestingly it wasn’t glued at all. Instead it seemed like it was cross threaded from factory. The threads on the bezel (steel) are fine, but in the body (aluminium) they look kinda torn.
Just clean up those treads real good and grease them up before putting the bezel back on (the bezel is made of aluminum)
I bead blasted mine and it corrected that outer ring issue the light had
I put a 4000k 50.2 in mine and I left the thermal hooked up —it’s one of my favorite lights —- Turbo does around 2000 lumens , but High does 950 lumens and ridiculously holds around 900 lumens for well over 30 minutes