Wow, you just disproved Darwin’s theory, LOL. You are lucky nothing worse happened. Speaking of melting cables, after work the other day, I had a co-worker ask me to help jump him off. This is a middle age guy who served in the military. I hooked up the cables on my truck. I handed him the other end to hook to his truck as I walked back around to get my phone and let my wife know I’d be late getting home. I looked up and saw smoke coming from under my hood. I ran around and the cables were smoking and melting so I snatched them off my truck. Moron was just standing there still trying to comprehend what was happening. He hooked the cables up backward on his truck. I would have come unglued if he had damaged my truck, but so far so good.
If you want to warm up your beam.
I was playing with my new nitecore. I noticed a speck or a smudge or somting on the reflector. I remimbered that OL said that you can use maguires to very carfully polish out the flaw. Well I just happend to have some show polish (the lightest grit nonwax they make).
Well boy a lot of black was coming off in t the rag, by the time I noticed, I noticed that not all reflector coatings are deposited on aluminum. The reflector is Alumium but they had plated it with brass before the final (now missing) deposited finish. So now I have a very warm looking (light orange peel brass reflector).
You too?
Pretty, isn’t it?
“He’s got that glow, that Golden Glow….”
djozz, you're a great flashlight modder, but I really hope you're not a surgeon. 
Don’t worry. He’s just a neurosurgeon.
LOL At all the stories, my most recent oops moment was when I had the “clever idea” on how to remove fingerprints from a reflector without touching it, since fingerprints are made from oily secretions from our hands, putting the reflector in a household degreasing solution would gently dissolve the fingerprints leaving the reflecting surface intact (that was my hypothesis anyway) then I would use distilled water to rinse any residual solution and be left with a beautiful clear shinny surface.
It worked! Fingerprints are gone! Along with all the reflecting shinny surface of the reflector :_(
I was left with a bare darkened metal reflector, and feeling like a failure…
You can fix this (ask me how I know) with a dremel and meguiars metal polish. Use the little cotton ball deals and go to town. It will create a messy disaster but works well. Patience and gloves required.
I tried that but the metal seems to have a brass coating, when polished it turned golden yellow, I ended up throwing it in the trash and ordering another one.
I was able to fix a clouded spotlight reflector using pure carnauba wax, it did not affect the polished surface, like a metal polish would.
I sand the brassy base layer off and then bring it up to about 800 grit, polish it with Mother’s. Works really well. There really is nothing wrong with the one you threw away. 
Edit: unless it was plastic.
I do get steadier hands over the years, when I retire 17 years from now I know my new career 
djozz, that was truly a great video. I cringed and laughed at the same time.
A, specks of dust on a reflector, I hate them 
my oops moments are related to "reviews".. and to be more clear: taking pictures.
2 of my unfortunate OOPS moments/days..
see this thread: https://budgetlightforum.com/t/-/20444
Canon Close Up 52mm lens.... broken.
and the next could have been much worse
see the broken glass....cheapy tripod.. with a heavy body and lens....
Good thing you had UV protection filter on that 2.8!!! So easy to toss a comparatively cheap filter vs. having your $1100 lens repaired.
The close-up lens, well, different story. Oooops!
Cutting corners is many times more expensive than doing it right the first time. Get a good tripod.
(cracked me up when you called that a heavy body and lens! Seriously dude, you should try toting around a 1DsMkII with a 70-200 2.8 L IS on board!)
;) true to all that!
I guess my tripod thought it was heavier than a compact digital, so dropped it look it's hot.
So just in comparison to most people's point and shoot,it's quite a heavy setup, not comparing it to a 1D with 70-200 2.8 ;)
After changing a TF3T6 to series LEDs and building a buck-boost driver and modifying firmware and testing outside the host, I assembled the new light and clicked the button... nothing...
I opened it up and out came a whiff of smoke :(
I discovered one of the XMLs had opened circuited, fatal for my design as I chose not to enable over-voltage protection (lesson learned). But why did it open up? I carefully examined the bond wires at 45x - they looked fine - or did they? Nope, what looked like bond wires was only tubes left in the dome where the bond wires once were... Oooh... :o
Apparently, the reflector touched the LED, connecting it directly accross three 18650's. I bet that never happened to anyone else...
Lol. I used to have a stack of 105Cs with burned traces underneath the MCU.