Considering that I’ve gotten lights with glitches like missing O-rings (ie, not even close to water-resistant, let alone waterproof), and the like, I do check ’em out as best as possible.
If they’re glued, I just won’t trust ’em if I can’t see what’s inside, that there’s nothing missing or otherwise askew.
@ Texas_Ace:
Loctite Corporation
1001 Trout Brook Crossing
Rocky Hill, Connecticut 06067
800-571-5100
Loctite Corporation
One Northfield Plaza, 5600 Crooks Road
Suite 105
Troy Michigan 48098
248-828-8000
Interesting, I do not see a side switch, so is it using Cresendo? Last I heard it was not ready for production, maybe this has changed?
Thanks, looks like they have : 1-800-LOCTITE listed in that link. I will try giving them a call next week if I have some time.
Although one thing I realized is I am not sure on the availability of their products in China.
I resist saying so, ’cause I know if/when I do I’ll get dogpiled on, but that’s exactly the solution. “Vote with your feet”, in a sense.
So if the cost of a cracked lens is to essentially throw away the entire light because you can’t replace it, you know enough to not buy it in the first place. And dirt on an emitter or fingerprints on a reflector, the mfr had damned well better cover that as a fully-free warranty replacement if they insist on gluing it shut. Bad enough you’d have to wait N weeks more for the replacement, but to have to spend extra? Unconscionable.
When a seller then offers you a nice shiny quarter as “compensation” for that… well, you gotta be kidding.
So those “modder-friendly” companies who don’t glue everything shut, where you can even buy replacement parts (shorty tubes from Convoy, drivers from Sofirn, etc.), they’ll end up getting the business, while glue-happy mfrs won’t.
Yeah, we’re the 1% or so, but word spreads, albeit slowly. Until then, you choose where you’ll be sending your bux.
They most probably have a supply chain for China – it’s the world’s manufacturer. Hell, they might make the stuff there.
Dunno if anyone else experienced this, but the triangular “hot bacon” symbol that’s almost always aligned with the side-switch or something to show it’s “centered”, once the head’s loosened and retightened, just finger-tight makes the symbol go past its initial point by at least a little bit. Snugging it up could make it pass center by at least 10°, quite visible.
Why no one uses those cheap yellow stickers (that can be peeled off) and has to etch the damned thing into the head, I have no idea, but that’s one way to see if the head’s been unscrewed from the body.
Otoh, something like that could really put him on the map. being able to tap into all the talent here about emitters, drivers, the UI, etc., most of the work could already be done for him, and just the mechanicals/design would be up to him. :smiling_imp:
Say no more, here is my unglued MF01 :
The button is on the right side, the logo passed its initial position by more than 90°.
The etching is made (probably) on an individual piece by piece and then assembled. If the finished light was to be laser etched in one go, then as Lightbringer said, they would initially line up but not necessarily subsequently. The threading will wear out (anodized then ‘lacquered’ is the usual process) and without a butt stop the parts will misalign (the “o” ring is not a positive “butt stop”).
@ Lightbringer:
Totally agree with you there. My better looking lights have no such markings (JKK03, NA40SE).
That and the machined flats with nonsense (model / serial number, warnings, “tactical” or any other marketing gimmick). Makes it look so “consumer commodity”.
Unglued for me.
Not Crescendo, a different reverse clicky ramping UI.
Well, WE know this… The rest of the buying public does not. For me, I have a couple options to get that head/bezel off. I have a GT, GT70 and GT Mini, and I was able to open each one up with no problems. Had to use strap wrenches but I’m sure many here have them.
The real deal here is that these manufacturers want to take your money every 4-6 months or sooner. So they come out with a light that generates a lot of buzz. They’ll go to the well 3 or 4 times with upgraded versions. Then when that well dries up, here comes a brand-new model, and the cycle repeats. Because these manufacturers follow the P.T. Barnum mantra, they get enough suckers to buy in. But I suppose it’s better and safer than drugs.
<This would be great if you know of something. The problem is finding the right product that is not expensive or hard to get.>
Texas Ace. Off the top, nothing. My recollection of working along side F15/T38 mechanics at the Air Force base in the eighties was that they had a dizzy array of adhesives/caulks/paints which hold those aircraft together, some of it temporary, and most of it flexible.
Let’s say an ounce of some milspec goop costs $100, and would do100 flashlights. Not expensive. Anyone around here currently a military jet mechanic? A reusable flashlight adhesive is out there. It just needs to be found. I’ll look. Sometimes contractors will sell a milspec item. Sometimes they get mad you even asked.
Real neat would be something that activates with UV and deactivates with IR. No heat involved. This assumes one could see the weld. I daydream from time to time.
I wouldn’t call that “the real deal”. More like marketing 101.
I’ve fallen for it more than I’d like. I find I don’t need to anymore. I do like tech, but that need for the latest and greatest that become dust collectors 6 months down the road is over for me. When the mini craze runs its course and these manufacturers and dealers have stockpiles of inventory they can’t unload, then and only then will they figure it out and give a crap about their customers instead of milking them dry.
Yeah, that’s why I got a handful of lights that I actually use, and the rest are box queens.
I gotta stop buying new toys just to Have One and play with it a while.
At least now, I’m turning down lights because I hear they’re glued, or they’re only available in CW, or anything else that irritates me.
Saving a lotta bux that way, too.
I skip some buys because I can’t get them without glue. (Check my comment history).
No glue… by the way, i am not too happy with some version of the astrolux mf02… glued and cant upgrade led.