KY, I assume you still use the OL “human lathe” method for chopping these down? My preference is to chop them at the tail and use a alum or brass pressed in plug for the tail. I could possibly be persuaded in to turning up a small batch if you or anyone else that does minis might be interested.
robo819 has a group buy going on this week at IMRbatteries.com. 20% off which makes the Efest Purple 14500 flat top under $4, like $3.20 each.
Edit: The group buy officially starts Wednesday for those not signed up with robo819’s group buy. 
I use the human lathe method because I much prefer the look of the knurling in the middle of the light rather than at the end. I do occasionally use tail plugs when someone requests “as short as possible” so I’ll give it some thought.
I’ve even cut the tail cap off and put a clicky in it, but that was a booger! 
That’s on my TRUE micro mag, a 14250 cell. (Macro micro?)
Yep, you got that right…… PM answered.
I like the knurling in the middle look as well but I use a brass sleeve to string the parts back together. It allows for more intermediate options with relative ease. Mag lights are great, with as many options as you can imagine. I’d like to work up a side switch module like those for the larger mags.
Actually Scott, that should be pretty doable, well, with a lathe. I think I’ll give it a go with this little black AA incan sitting here… pretty sure how to work it, I think I have a couple of momentary’s, this might be pretty neat!
Wonder if I’ll remember this in the morning? 
Really making me want to try another go at a triple mini-mag. I tried twice and just completely ruined both tubes trying to cut and rethread. Just couldn’t seem to get it right.
I do have a few old incan mini-mags left….
The threads on MagLite’s are 4 way start. Without expensive tools you just can’t “rethread”.
This is a fast thread that literally is 4 spirals, each quarter turn brings up a new start point. Makes it nice for the user, a major pita for the modder. Unless the tube can have the top threads completely removed and the threads in the head bored out for a fresh start, cutting new threads is not an easy option.
This is why we normally cut and re-join with a male/female connection. Not the best, but by far the easiest considering.
He may have been referring to the tail cap threading. OL did a gb before there were GB’s on the tap for that a few years ago. The key to rethreading is one, start with the correct id and two, stay on axis. And lube.
Yeah Scott, I know, but without doing something on both ends you end up with the knurling disappearing into the head with no smooth stretch. I like to see knurling between smooth areas like the stock configuration but it isn’t easy to make that happen. Double cuts, double fitments with the male/female press fit.
Chicago X used to flip the tube, chop it from the other end and re-thread it to make it work out right. This on the larger D and C sized lights, no press fit section this way and it had a nice look to it. Wish I’d gotten one of those from him, he also fitted a clicky switch in the tail cap and eliminated the side switch to make a much shorter 1D configuration. Looked awesome!
Devil’s in the details, you know it, Justin knows it, pretty sure kyfishguy knows it by now as well.
I’m wondering how these lights have the pill made, are there any shots showing this? I got my first chopped MiniMags from TexasLumens and built them up the human lathe way, several triples done that way and I’m wondering if these are done in a similar fashion. (cutting an aluminum or copper spacer/light engine) It can be illuminating to see how someone else goes about doing something sometimes.
Geesh! You expect my bifocals to pick up on that little “here”?
I DID look, but missed that Sorry, and thanks for the prod….
I definitely tune in to see how others do it since in the end what interests me is the variety. My way works for me but that doesn’t make it better. Thanks for sharing yours KFG.
I was thinking along the same lines Scott, one way is not necessarily the right way, just a different way of achieving a similar result.
I do mine differently, but whatever. Mostly it’s because we each come from a different background, have a different skill set, different tools, so we go about a thing as it suits us, a way we find easy due to familiarity and possibly a lack of knowledge in a different aspect. In the end, they all work, marginal differences in output, everyone’s happy.
Really, I haven’t even done all mine exactly the same way, I use what I have at the time and what behooves me sometimes takes a different turn. lol
I knew a bloke once that did the same job twenty times though he used a different approach every time to do the same thing. The end result was that they all worked correctly. Who says long term dope use doesn’t affect you. :-/
Like they say in the machine trade “there’s more than one way to drill a hole.” Give the same job to 10 different guys and you’ll see 10 different ways to do it. One way might be “better” in terms of time / cost / labor / appearance, or some other metric, but if the job got finished properly then the method was not wrong.
Well put. Some folks might say the drill bit has to be the part that’s spinning.
Thanks for the info & heads up on the batteries guys, I appreciate that……
Today my two ‘MicroMags’, exactly like the Blue & Gray ones in the OP arrived. These Bad Boys are nice! I am very impressed with the overall workmanship ’kyfishguy’ puts into these.
And talk about bright…. WOW!!! 
Then turn em’ down to a low mode and ya’ got a useful little light with some run time too.
Nice work………