Oh boy, Dats Tuff !
Been away from this kind of mod for too long, forgot how bad copper is about seizing. Tried to hold the copper disc on a wedge of wood to angle wire holes through on the drill press…. Seized and bit me!
2 Thanks
This is why they call it “red copper”… 
Hope the throbbing isn’t too bad and it heals up quickly!
I learned pretty fast that copper is grabby. You can “dub” your bits to help, and I think the traditional 118° tip angle is supposed to be more forgiving here than the usually-on-the-store-shelf 135° these days. Lead is even worse, if you ever have the misfortune of needing to drill lead.
I learned to buy bar stock copper with Beryllium , even 1/2 of 1% Beryllium greatly enhances machineability.
This time I wasn’t using the lathe and the 1/4x 2x6” flat bar was unmarked in kit I bought from Old Lumens years ago.
And yeah, been too long and too much has happened. Just forgot. I remember now! Lol
Alcohol helps.
I mean drilling holes in copper, aluminium can be cooled with denatured alcohol or IPA. Or propper cooling fluid for copper.
Get well soon! 
And be carefull with beryllium copper dust. I think the marines aren’t allowed to grind their CuBe blades by themself.
I finished assembling my FW1AA with NiMH/li-ion boost+buck driver, a dedomed 519A and aux LED :
I tried using cyan+warmwhite+pink, I think I prefer the good old RGB though.
FWAA 219C sliced with boost driver vs FW1AA on li-ion :
1501cd vs 5675cd
670cd vs 3150cd on NiMH
I find the beam of the FW1AA much more usable.
3 Thanks
Nice one!
1 Thank
Looking at my Sofirn SP70 and calculating… have these new SFH-55 emitters and a diamond textured Illuminations Machines reflector, anyone think it’s worth the trouble? I’d have to build an FET driver for the high amp 3V emitter and either create a 2P 21700 carrier or go with a dummy cell + 1 arrangement.
No copper would be harmed in this potential venture. Lol (No promises on that though)
1 Thank
Three successful LED swaps today:
-
Put a dedomed 4500K 519a into my Jaxman M2. The relatively big, heavy OP reflector makes a beautiful beam. Solder joints shorting on the back of the reflector were an issue as I didn’t have kapton tape. One of those self adhesive paper led insulator discs sorted the problem though.
-
Reflowed a 4000k 519a into my SP10. Left the dome intact on this one, I prefer the slightly warmer colour temperature, reds seem to pop more.
-
Reflowed 4000K XP-L Hi into my Emisar D1S. Somewhere along the line I’d swapped in a 4000k(ish) SST-20, the XPL is cooler than I expected, and looks cooler compared to my stock 4000k D1 v1…
1 Thank
That is some amazing miniature wiring and soldering thefreeman! 
2 Thanks
Jeweller vice or something like that, it’s a cheap one.
edit : looks like this one
I removed the handle and put it in another small vice, I have another one that I mounted on a base
Those go by lots of names…mostly cheaper versions that are perfectly serviceable but there are some expensive ones also. I learned it as a jeweler’s pin vise but of course searching that brings up normal pin vises, too. Jeweler’s handheld vise might get better results…and I think I saw them called ring vises as well, but there are other types of vises and simple pinch clamps for rings. “Budget” horology folks also sometimes use these to hold watch casings rather than spending the coin on watch vises. Shop around and you can probably save quite a few dollars on these depending on the vendor. The Rio Grande jeweler’s supply outfit (can’t recall their full name) sometimes has great pricing, and Esslinger is also worth a look…also Etsy believe it or not. Amazon has bunches but they don’t always have the best prices anymore. There are a few models with a flat base for table mounting but most have a handle sticking out the bottom (can remove it to make a base or just clamp it in a vise or whatever). The cheapie little black zinc-cast mini vises (usually with orange jaws) can work well this way too if you get the kind that will take posts screwed into the top edge of the jaws…nylon posts but those could be replaced (I covered mine in thick walled silicone tubing for better grip).
That’s an amazing mod, thefreeman…and the driver!!
What’s that unique optic in there?
Thanks, it’s a Gaggione LLC22N, most of the beam is good but the outer spill has some diamond shaped artefacts, according to the datasheet the optic should be 0.4mm above the LES, whereas I put it at 0mm, maybe that will improve the beam. I’ll try some Ledil Tina as well.
I hadn’t even heard of them before…thank you. Found their site and will snoop around later. Where can you find those for sale? (Noticed they’re based in France so I assume you have easy access.)
I bought samples directly from them.
An engraving ball vise has a similar head
Thanks to all. The term ‘peg clamp vise’ finds plenty of sellers. I’m ordering one and will try mounting it on one of my HD camera ball heads.