I showed my mom some of my lights. She works for US Customs, well, CBP or DHS, whatever their alphabet is now. She showed me her 5.11 Atac R1. 216 lumens, tailcap threads not anodized. If you don't know how much it costs, don't look up the price yet. She got a deal from a coworker and paid $50. So I'm thinking that's not a lot of light for the money. It should be at least 1000 lumens. I can build a nice 1000 lumen light for about $20, or a 1600 lumen light for $25. Then I looked at the price for the 5.11 Atac R1. About $150 shipped on Amazon. Ouch. Maybe I should become a supplier for the CBP. Granted, that light has a built in charging ports so it can charge with a cradle, but I bet I can build a light that's 6 times brighter for $60 that can charge via USB charger and also charges other devices via USB. This should be a good mod host. Sell this American made light to the government for 3 times as much...
The have to charge that much to cover the congressional “donations” they paid to get the contract.
A Convoy C8 with BLF DD driver coupled with XM-L2 on noctigon should be much better than those “tactical light” not too mention the price too
Brighter, that's for sure. I haven't looked at tactical hosts in regards to the way the rear clickie works, and I doubt there's one with built in charging. Wait... I think there's those new lights that charge through the side clickie. I don't think those have a rear clickie though. I have a Warsun et26 with side and rear clickies, but no built in charging. Installing a forward clickie is easy, and I see that RMM sells them in two sizes.
Made in America, anywhere but China really, means you have to pay decent wages and this increases overhead costs.
Most people who mod lights work for less than what they would make per hour at rotten Ronnies. Add normal labor rates and that convoy c8 becomes a lot more pricey.
Example:
15$ light
15$ parts
60$ for 4 hours planning and building at 15$/h
90 dollar c8
Warsun MX900 and X60 have rear and side switch and charging port.
Thank you! The X60 is worth trying. Hopefully the driver and charging circuits are separate, or at least separate enough, because I plan on doing a driver swap. I bet the tailcap threads aren't anodized, but that doesn't seem to have been a problem with the $150 5.11 light.
I have both on order from Banggood, I’ll let you know when they arrive.
Is she happy with the 5.11 Atac as it is?
Good question. There's no need to make her a flashlight similar in style to the 5.11 if she doesn't like the features that make it special. I think her co-workers would like a light like that though. They're the ones that literally kick down doors.
You're planning to mod it too? Either way, I'll be very interested in knowing what you find out. I'm hoping for anodized threads, especially since I'm not set up for anodizing flashlights yet.
Somehow I imagine them to all be using Surefires, so custom/modded budget lights would be very cool!
If they're used to paying $150 for 500 lumens, it should be easy to get them to pay that much for 3x as many lumens and an extra clickie and charging port, right?
It should be, in theory. 
But it depends on how open-minded they are to trying something else.
I’m not planning on modifying them, I just bought them as I like the side switch with tail switch for lockout and they look really well made, double o-rings at all joins, electronic switch with low voltage warning, etc. If they turn out to have disappointing output then I might try modding them, I haven’t got into modding yet but the resistor mods look easy and would be a good place to start.
I guess these government lights have to go through some tests or so….
For example all the firefighter stuff here costs 3-5times as much as regular stuff, just because of weird and expensive tests and certificates…
A crowbar for 350$? No prob. A 100lumen light for 300$? No prob? Charger for light 200$….
It’s insane.
How about to build something from scratch that can out throw the best expensive throwers out there and in the same time be reliable and useful, can this have some value? :bigsmile:
They have these lights because these are the brands that are commonly carried by law enforcement supply stores. I have a nice ATAC 2 x AAA light I got free from Chief Supply when I bought two pairs of 5.11 pants.
Remember…it’s easy to splurge and spend ALOT of money…when it ISN’T your money 
If you do get around to building lights for them be very careful claiming USA made to a government agency, they’ll always favor US made products but there are strict guidelines for what can be claimed USA made, a % of parts has to be from the US as well, not just assembeled in the US and the vast majority of parts we use arnt. OSHpark boards and cree emitters but pretty much everything else comes from china, I highly doubt you could legally claim “made in USA”.
Just selling them to your mom and a few of her work buddies is one thing but trying to get a contract and you’ll not only have the govt looking down on you but you’ll be taking away from 5.11 so you can bet your ass they’ll be researching you as well and they will find out everything. Corporate litigation isnt something an individual has any chance against. You have yourself, maybe a brother/cousin/friend thats a lawyer, they have a team of highly paid, unlimited funded lawyers with an entire firm backing them just sitting around waiting to sue people that cross them
I'm not really serious about selling to the government, more like the employees that are already hooked on expensive flashlights. I believe the cost of assembly and modifications is enough to swing the percentage. I'll look into it if the time comes. If nothing else, I can claim assembled in America. Maybe play with the rules by incorporating under my sister's name so I can claim woman owned, minority owned, blah blah. Going down that path isn't really worth it. It would be too easy for the companies making expensive light to boost output and drop prices, and squeeze an upstart out of the market. Plus there's the legal bullying you just mentioned.