The easy one:
Tried a Hank button and bezel on an S21E and it drops right in perfectly. No mods or spacers or anything needed. And it has a great feeling click to it.
Now the more difficult one. After seeing a post on Reddit a few weeks ago where someone made a triple B35AM and had to hobble together something with a Lumencraft mcpcb. It worked. But it didn’t look great. So, I designed an mcpcb with triple B35AM’s.
I understand that the B35AM has a larger LES than the Carclo optics. The floody ones seem to work great! (Ignore the dirty optics. I cleaned it up after seeing this pic. LOL!)
If those MCPCBs are available for purchase I would definitely be interested in a couple. I was going to buy that lumencraft MCPCB to do the same thing, but never actually ordered it
Put an sft70 3000k into my s6 shorty today. 5amp boost driver wont fit without heavy compromise. So went with a 4amp boost driver. The difference isnt noticeable. Still an effective hand warmer.
I took some beamshots. But my camera just makes it look bad. So wont poat them. Beam is perfectly fine. No donuts or rings. Throw is excellent not quite as good as the sft40 it replaced. But not as far behind as one might think. Tint is eons ahead. Spill vastly improved. Great little edc multi purpose beam.
I didn’t know they existed, that’s hella neat! Now everyone can have a usable level of illumination from Convoy tailcaps by swapping the stock LEDs with 2835 white LEDs elevated on enamel wire.
Thats just an orange silicone button and a the magnet ring from simon on the stock switch and stock s6 tail.
He has orange, green, blue, white, black.
The orange tube is just the s2+ tube.
I love illuminated switches. But not on an 18350 or 18650. Too much parasitic drain.
I had a black Lumintop FW3A that had been sitting around for over a year waiting for an emitter swap, but I couldn’t get the bezel off. Unlike my earlier model grey and titanium FW3As which had no glue, this black one was heavily glued. Ugh! Ever since I got this light, I had made periodic non-destructive attempts to remove the bezel all without success.
The light was no use to me without the emitter swap, so today I finally decided to accept some scratches and used a vise and a couple locking pliers. This method finally worked. Inside I found every part of the threads plastered with red threadlocker! Yuck!
With the bezel finally off, it was time for modding:
Removed threadlocker - I used a metal pick and qtips to remove all the red threadlocker.
Lens replacement - I replaced the stock glass lens which was accidentally damaged during the bezel removal process.
Scratch damage control - I filled in all the new scratches with an “Aluminum Black” touch-up pen to make them much less noticeable.
Increased switch tension - I increased the switch tension by swapping in an alternate switch board with stiffer popper, adding an o-ring and swapping the nubbin for a smaller one.
Emitter swap - I swapped the stock cool white XPL-HI emitters for two NTG35 and one SFT25R all at 5000K. The idea behind this emitter choice is to get good throw without sacrificing all CRI and R9. It’s not a true high CRI light with the SFT25R installed, but the two NTGs help to give a much more pleasant beam.
Clip tension increase - I removed the clip and bent it inward slightly for more tension.
Optic replacement - I replaced the stock floody optic with a Carclo 10507 for increased throw.
VOCOMO Rubber Strips, Solid Rubber Sheets Self Adhesive Neoprene Rolls & Strips for DIY Gaskets Anti-Slip Pads Crafts Pads Seal Strip Weather Striping (1” Wide x 1/8" Thick x 3.3’ Long)
You can put pieces of it on your light to avoid scratches with pliars. It works great! Wrap 1 piece around the bezel and the other around the head. Leave the head on the battery tube to help avoid warping the head. Apply force!
I wrapped the bezel and head with strips of 3M Safety Walk Tape. Then I used two Plastic Jawed Pliers directly on the tape as levers to try to unscrew. No luck. The tape slipped before any movement. This is a method I’ve used successfully to break threadlocker on many other lights, but if there’s too much it doesn’t work.
I then swapped the pliers for two Smallrig Super Clamps on top of the 3M tape without result. I then tried the Smallrig Super Clamps by themselves with no tape underneath. I made sure to screw them down as tightly as I could, even using some pliers to get them extra tight. Still no luck….the rubber slipped before the bezel moved.
Finally I gave up on non-destructive removal and resorted to using a pair of locking pliers. One on the bezel and one on the head. I screwed them on quite tightly. I knew this would gauge the aluminum, but to minimize the damage I wanted to make sure they would not slip.
Holding one pliers in each hand, I could not turn them. I had to place one of the pliers in a mounted shop vise on a workbench so I could get two-handed leverage on the other pliers. It took an immense amount of strength, but finally moved.
In my opinion, no amount of rubber would have been sufficient to break this amount of red threadlocker. There was so much of it. The only non-destructive way to remove the bezel would have been to apply heat, a method which I have never personally tried. Doing so would have required heating the head to 450-500 degrees F. Such high temperatures might destroy or damage the anodizing, lens, optic, o-rings, solder joints and/or driver. I don’t have a working torch, so the only way to get that high temperature would have been to put it in the oven in the kitchen … not a good idea if it releases toxic odors while cooking. And I’d have to unscrew it while it’s hot. That probably would have required a couple metal pliers, which might scratch the anodizing anyways.
Putting rubber pads between the pliers and light wouldn’t have saved this light from damage. The only reason I was able to get the bezel off was because the pliers jaw’s were digging into the anodizing to get a firm grip. With how tight I had to screw them down, they would have cut right through any rubber layer in between. And if they didn’t, the rubber would have slipped or torn before the bezel unscrewed.
What about using two rubber strap wrenches? I managed to unscrew the TS10 Max bezel that way, though there were plenty expletives thrown around :D. No damage to the light though despite the bezel threads being completely flooded with threadlocker. And the wrenches were like 5-10$ for the pair with shipping from AE
I used rubber strap wrenches on my Black FW3A.
I got the bezel off but it required so much force I partially crushed the head and cracked the glass.
I also managed to scrape the anodizing on the head.
I feel like heat can help. I use a heat gun, like the kind made for stripping paint. It can get plenty hot, probably too hot if you let it. I don’t think the goal is to get it hot enough to melt the glue. Instead, my theory is thermal expansion helps break the glue’s bond between the pieces. Cycling heat, cooling down, heat, etc. a few times had seemed to work for me.
