It’s a sickness. I had my car stolen the other day and as soon as I had reported it to the police and sorted out the insurance I was on this site looking to replace the light that was in my Glove compartment!
There, I fixed the wording in your OP... 
Just wait till you get into modding. Then you’ll be buying all these $2 and $5 parts, and $5 packs of sandpaper and solder, and a great deal on a heatsink, and you won’t even notice that when you’re done you’ve already spent $50 on a light that started costing $20 
Welcome to BLF
You had me with that title, almost didn’t click it but then remembered how friendly of a place BLF is 
Lol…too funny!
I find before I go on road trips or longer drives, I spend days considering what light to bring. Granted I end up bringing my Olight S1 most of the time just cause its so small.
I started down my journey starting last Thanksgiving (2015) till now. I’m not as bad as other flasholics (here and the other forum and reddit), but admit I have more than enough lights compared to “normal” people. I did think about making an Excel spreadsheet of all the lights I bought since then…but didn’t cause I’d probably cry at how much I’ve spent. And I’m usually a really thrifty person who don’t spend on much.
Hello, and welcome! You are sure right about spending!
The best advice I can give a newcomer is to learn about neutral tint, CCT, and high CRI. That way, you won't have to replace all your blue-tinted flashlights when you discover that high CRI is really much nicer. A good place to start reading is here.
Generic SK-98 - $5
Replacement Driver - $5
Replacement emitter on Noctigon - $5
Knowing that you have a quality light you built with your own hands? Priceless.
Haha, I am in the same boat! I’m building some flounder lights and now I am ordering stuff to rebuild an old mag light I found while spearfishing! I have already bought a new soldering iron, about $50 worth of electrical supplies, and about to place my 3 online order for emitters/driver/ect……
Just what I needed a new hobby!
My wife doesn’t understand the appeal of flashlights, to her a flashlight is thing you keep in a drawer until the power goes out and you haaaaave to use it. And that’s if the batteries haven’t leaked and killed it.
To me, they appeal to my meticulous and tinkering nature, and generally speaking they won’t put you in the poorhouse like some of the other hobbies I enjoy. (cough auto racing…) It’s fun to catch up with the rapidly advancing technology - when I bought my last light, the XP-L and XHP lines didn’t even exist. I like looking at the wide variety of designs out there, and trying to match my constraints to find the “best” light for my needs. Poring over lumens and currents and tint charts is all right up my alley.
And after all that, if you can’t find the right light, the fact that you can MOD a flashlight to make it better, or make it outperform more expensive lights… I’ll just say that I drive a minivan because I’ve got two kids, but it has a 6-speed manual transmission and I installed a turbocharger and coilover suspension on it, so… I get it.
“I’ll just say that I drive a minivan because I’ve got two kids, but it has a 6-speed manual transmission and I installed a turbocharger and coilover suspension on it, so… I get it.”
Ok I’m going to need to know more about this minivan. Honda Odyssey with a TL type S tranny perhaps?
Well, it does make my budget light… 
Mazda5 Sport with 6MT from the factory. It WAS the only minivan you could still get with a manual trans, but Mazda discontinued it in 2016. I put on AST 5200 suspension, and a Garrett GT2871R turbo. The 2.5L MZR engine is stock internally but is considered pretty stout and some say it can handle 12+psi reliably - for me this is not a racecar or project car (I have several of those), this car is my DD and needs to be dead-nuts reliable so my upper limit goal for boost is 10psi. Life got in the way and ECU tuning stalled so right now I’m running 6psi, but I’ll get back to tuning soon to get closer to that 10psi goal.
Traction is an issue with FWD open diff, so I’ve already sourced a Mazdaspeed3 transmission with a LSD, and it will be installed in the future as well.
HERE is a build album for the turbo install.
It gets autocrossed semi-regularly and embarrasses a fair share of sports cars. :smiling_imp:
That’s a pretty cool sleeper. I dig it. Personally I’ve always wanted to stuff an LS V8 of some sort into a Chevy Astro van. But try to find one in the northeast that isn’t a rust bucket. I dare you haha.
Haha… Same here. I just registered today.
It started with some kind of Banggood virus. RC Drones, Action Cams, Lasers and Flashlights…. I received a BLF A6 yesterday which is a really awesome piece…. so i found out about the forum and I got infected….
Since I also have a 6 LED Ultrafire ‘Beercan’ Flashlight ( I cheap flooder), I’m now looking for a long beam to throw… But I got no clue about those lights… Im tempted by Madmax list of discounts to spend around 100€… (which is the price for a Fenix TK75)… but there are also Acebeams, Nitecore Monsters and others…… Any suggestions for a good thrower in that range??
That’s always been my dream hot rod… Make it look as factory as possible… At least until people notice the cut out rear fender wells for the drag tires and the 3” dual exhaust. And of course, hearing you crank it up in the Wal-Mart parking lot… And merging with interstate traffic… :smiling_imp:
You’ll have to buy or build your not so understanding wife a light that will make her a believer. Welcome to the lets spend hours pouring over threads on flashlights. :+1:
What a great opportunity to get a better light 
On insurance money, even.
Just show your wife some nice lights and ask what she likes
Mine hates a hotspot
So a cute red Convoy S2+ with tir optics and the small 18350 tube is now in her purse.
Welcome to BLF!
Welcome to BLF
Next up…modding 101!
Welcome aboard!