I’m doing my first mod ever on a 3D Mag-lite. I’ve decided that I would go with a TERRALUX TLE-6EXB TERRALUX MINISTAR5 LED drop-in and an Optolife A293MC lens. Do you think I should change the reflector? If so what would you recommend?
If you are using an aspheric, you would not want a reflector. Aspherics work with basically a straight tube and all black on the inside.
Guys, correct me if I'm wrong.
You are 100% correct.
So, do I just remove the reflector, then install the drop-in and lens? Am I missing something?
For an aspheric that's exactly what you do. To further reduce internal reflections that cause artifacts in the beam, many will also paint the inside walls and pill flat black.
Remember also, that you may not get the full adjustment from flood to throw. You only have the screwing in/out of the head and most of the maglites I see are usually adjusted for the "square die" (throw), but don't always adjust all the way to pure flood. It depends on the lens and I am not familliar with those particular lenses. Others here will know more about it. I'm not much of an aspheric guy, only what I read.
I will recommend this heat sink and go with at least an XML emitter, with a 8x7135 shiningbeam or KD driver on a 3D maglite. I make my own heatsinks. With the Optolife lens it will fit the recess on the maglite does not have a lip. I have made an ”O” ring out of heavy gage insulated wire to hold lens in place. This is my opinion so take this with a grain of salt…. If you are going to drop the bucks on the Optolife lens then don’t cut corners with a weak emitter/hardware as the results will be less than spectacular. For most the DX lens is good enough.
Do I need a heat sink with the http://dx.com/p/50mm-18mm-2-80-degree-glass-optics-12834
You don't have to have a heatsink for the led you are going to use, since it fits the stock tower. The only reason you would need a heatsink, was if the lens would not achieve focus, due to the distance between the back of the lens and the led. Since the head will screw in and out, you should be able to get focus, if you can't, you would have to go with removing the tower and using a heat sink, where you could position the heat sink in the body tube, for focus. I don't think you will have a problem, but I've never tried an aspheric with a stock led tower maglite.
If you had to go with a heatsink, then you would need a whole different led and driver set-up.
On these lens which is better 2-80-degree or the 8-120 degree
I have used the 2-80 lens with success.