Show off you flashlight mods!

[Mike, Lord of the Spammers!]

Since becoming a bit of a Jammie I've seen a lot of amazing home built torches, and plenty of modified production one's, so please post your examples here

[nuphoria]

I haven't done anything exciting mod wise myself, but this is a great idea for a thread 

[Neil]

Buy me a small engineering lathe and I'll show you some mods

[ryan1835]

that goes for me too


 

[Essexman]

Who needs a lathe (I'd love one!)

Here's a mild mag mod I did a while ago

3 Cree XRE LED module fitted with a new driver on a home made copper heatsink, powered by 6AA.







A popular torch in the UK, is the Tesco 2C LED, great mod fodder.....3 Cree XPG's each getting around 500mA from a Micropuck each, powered from 2C cells.  Approx 400 lumens for 2+ hours. There's an optic that goes on top of the LEDs, it gives the best smooth beam ever, all flood, but very useful.





Home made heatsink again with the 3 micropuck inside the can. I need to take more pics.

Oh dear, I've a few maglite I'm working on..............

[nuphoria]

I love those short Mag mods - gonna make any for sale?

[Essexman]

I love those short Mag mods - gonna make any for sale?

Short?  I think the photo lies!  There just std 2D size.

[nuphoria]

Well OK, 2D isn't as short as some mods for single 18650's but they still look cute compared to all the really long ones. Shortest I have is a 3D, and I would love throw a brighter drop in in it and give mine to a friend.... any ideas on that front?

I don't mind changing from D cells either

[Neil]

Well OK, 2D isn't as short as some mods for single 18650's but they still look cute compared to all the really long ones. Shortest I have is a 3D, and I would love throw a brighter drop in in it and give mine to a friend.... any ideas on that front?

I don't mind changing from D cells either

What bulb/emitter do you have in at present?

[2xTap]

Well, I am not technically savy enough to do home-built mods myself. I usually buy them already done or Lego things up. This first one I put together piece by piece as money allowed.



It's a PEU Pineapple body which has a McGizmo McTC tailcap with a single stage McClicky module installed. It's all topped by a Tactical Lighting Solutions Striker Bezel unit with a CREE Q5 LED emitter. It's all Surefire E-Series compatable. Here it is alongside my slightly legoed Surefire 6P Defender (this SF uses a 6PD body and head, but the head now houses a Solarforce CREE R2 drop-in. Attached is a Detonator cell-extender and a Leef tailcap with a single-stage McClicky tailswitch).....



Another that I have is a ElektroLumens modded 3D Maglite. It's the black one with the huge bezel.........





It started life as a regular stock 3D Incan Maglite which Wayne over at ElektroLumens did his magic to. He basically cuts off the switch holder light post, wires up the switch and LED directly, and presses in a custom made heat-sink. He used the factory reflector, just cut the tail off and opens it up for the LED. It's direct drive, no regulation or any fancy circuitry and can run off of Alkaline or NIMH D-cells. The LED is a C-bin SSC P7, rated at a max output of around 900 Lumens. I run it on alkalines so I am only getting about 650-700 Lumens out of this thing, but on fresh cells it'll run a good 4 hours or so at max output.



I removed the factory lens and installed a UCL glass lens as well as a KIU stainless VL Bezel with GITD teeth holes. The red 3D Maglite next to this ElektroLumens one has a Terralux SSC P4 LED drop-in with a KIU stainless LP bezel.

I have a few others but they are real simple lego mods, nothing special.

2xTap

[Benner]

Not much of a mod to look at, but my A2 had been fitted with a high output lamp, uprated LED's, GITD paint in the LED assembly and GITD O-rings (which aren't pictured below);

 

[Gareth]

Closest I've come to torch mods is a few simple drop-ins on my maglites (no actual modding required TBH  ).  Love your stuff though Essexman.  

[Mike, Lord of the Spammers!]

Great mod's so far guy's, keep them coming

[gunga]

Hmmm, I've done a lot of mods, but they just look like a stock lights.  I've done emitter swaps, driver swaps, and other minor stuff.  Built a nice Surefire E1L pocket rocket before, but sold it.

So, nothing fancy to show...

[Mike, Lord of the Spammers!]

Doesn't have to be fancy

[nuphoria]

Well OK, 2D isn't as short as some mods for single 18650's but they still look cute compared to all the really long ones. Shortest I have is a 3D, and I would love throw a brighter drop in in it and give mine to a friend.... any ideas on that front?

I don't mind changing from D cells either

What bulb/emitter do you have in at present?

Honestly can't remember! It's probably a Terralux, something like 100-150 lm-ish. I will give that one away if I can throw something brighter in there instead.


Loving the mods guys

[NutSAK]

Hmmm, I've done a lot of mods, but they just look like a stock lights.  I've done emitter swaps, driver swaps, and other minor stuff.  Built a nice Surefire E1L pocket rocket before, but sold it.

So, nothing fancy to show...

Same here.  I'll try to post my slightly modded Novatac and Elektrolumens Blasters when I'm unpacked.

[Benner]

I forgot my Blaster (which has switch probs BTW Terry  )

[Energie]

Simple mod for owners of a Surefire E1E (incan)
All you need is a RCR123 (3,7 V), a defective bulb,
a 0,5 W 5mm Led and a resistor (approx. 3 Ohm).











18 Lumen and 6 h runtime.

[NutSAK]

I forgot my Blaster (which has switch probs BTW Terry  )

I'm sure Wayne has extra switches.  Contact him!  If he doesn't want to ship to you, have him ship it to me and I'll forward.

[Benner]

Thanks.  I'll give him a shout. 

[parnass]

I have used a Maglite Solitaire body as a pill carrier and a cut down Mini Maglite to carry larger items.

[Mike, Lord of the Spammers!]

I think the Solitaire works better as a pill carrier than it does as a torch

[Aloxfan]

I think the Solitaire works better as a pill carrier than it does as a torch

Ha, nice!

[jekostas]

Here's a cheap one.  Got one of those "Techlite Lumen Master" lights from a clearance store for $5 bucks.  Used to be sold at Costco, Cree XP-E emitter.  Build quality is actually really good - smooth threads, quality anodizing, good O-rings, water and shock resistant.
Was happy with it for a while, then batteries started to die really fast (3xAAAs in a holder).  Dug around CPF, found out that the "smart" clicky tailswitch has a massive vampiric drain problem that kills batteries in something like two weeks.

So, went and got one of those $2 9 LED Aluminium flashlight jobbies, ripped out the tail switch, replaced it, replaced the coil spring with a folded piece of aluminium, added a body spacer and used an 2400mAh IC-protected Samsung 18650 I swiped from a laptop battery pack from a broken laptop.

The end result is a single mode 160 lumen Cree XP-E 18650 flashlight with very good build quality... for about $8 total (including tax).   It's warm to the touch after 5 minutes or so (meaning the thermal protection is good), but doesn't get too hot to hold even after 20 minutes of constant running.



Fun fun.

I managed to scavenge 3 good protected 18650s out of that battery pack, I just need to dig up a charger now and I"m golden.

[Mike, Lord of the Spammers!]

That's a hell of a lot of bang for your bucks

[Gareth]

A proper "MacGyver" light.

[jekostas]

Took frankenflashlight out for a spin today - worked great.  I'm going to have to shine the lens a bit because it's got a scratch, but clean spill, nice (if slightly undefined) hotspot, didn't get hot in my hand.  I guess being outside made the heat dissipation much better as it's below freezing.  Might see if I can dig up a few more, maybe one of them with a focusable head and try it again.

[Tofty]

I know this was an old thread but i think it's appropriate to keep it going.

This is my Surefire E2E with a Malkoff M61 260 lumen P60 style dropin inside a Valiant Concepts VME titanium head.
The tail switch is a Z57 clicky type that replaces the twisty/momentary original switch, with a custom made (by me) titanium tail shroud that i designed to complement the shape of the head.






It's a nice torch and i like the Malkoff dropin but due to the dropins brass construction and the extra weight of titanium over aluminium it's a bit too front heavy.


I also tried out the standard valiant head and their delrin tail shroud and i can't decide which looks better. In the future i would like to get hold of a E1 body for this head and run it with an M31 dropin.

[Gareth]

It's got to be the Ti one for me.