The Solarstorm Raging revisited. Now with Beam Shots! - Finished

[Ouchyfoot]

@Old-Lumens

@Ouchyfoot

How did you keep all the LEDs perfectly centered in the reflector while you soldered the stars to the pill?

I put solder on the back of the stars first, then aligned them and soldered them to the plate, by heating from underneath. Then I added the leds and heated just enough to get them to flow on to the stars. It was nerve wracking to say the least.

So I guess you had to align them with the reflector on, and then lift it back off verrrrrrrry carefully, and hope you didn’t bump anything.
I’ve always wondered what would happen if you used solder paste on the stars, and left the reflector in place to keep them centered. How would the heat affect the reflector? Would the lower melting temp of paste have any effect?

[Old-Lumens]

@Ouchyfoot

@Old-Lumens

@Ouchyfoot

How did you keep all the LEDs perfectly centered in the reflector while you soldered the stars to the pill?

I put solder on the back of the stars first, then aligned them and soldered them to the plate, by heating from underneath. Then I added the leds and heated just enough to get them to flow on to the stars. It was nerve wracking to say the least.

So I guess you had to align them with the reflector on, and then lift it back off verrrrrrrry carefully, and hope you didn’t bump anything. I’ve always wondered what would happen if you used solder paste on the stars, and left the reflector in place to keep them centered. How would the heat affect the reflector? Would the lower melting temp of paste have any effect?

I would not want to leave the reflector on due to the chance of hurting the plating. In theory it might be OK, but I didn’t want to risk it. With the regular solder on the stars, I just put a dab of flux on each one, so they would “stick” to the plate when I lifted the reflector off. It worked pretty well. They aren’t perfect, but better than I had hoped for.

[Pinetreebbs]

@RaceR86

Sweet mod Old-Lumens!

Glad you kept at this light, turned out great!

This will get one lucky owner!

+1. Exactly what I was thinking.

[fartybum]

Nice torch even nicer house

[texaspyro]

What diameter is the driver and how is it held in?

[Old-Lumens]

@texaspyro

What diameter is the driver and how is it held in?

Roughly, 47mm and it’s glued in. Sits down on a shelf and glued in place. Yep, they used silicone on the original and I used AA this time.

[Old-Lumens]

Glamour shots in Post #1 and it's done. Stayed with the stock switch as I could not get the momentary to work all the time with it.