plasmaman,
Your order will also go out on Monday. Shouldn't have forgotten about you even for an instant! You're #6.1 on the list for crying out loud.
Everyone,
I'm afraid that I'm going to just ignore the whole guarded vs. guardless issue. For starters, these complete USL's I'm sending out right now do have guards but the holes for the locking pin are on the wrong end of the guard relative to the switch position. i.e. if the switch were flipped or the guard were flipped we'd be OK, but as it is, a pin inserted into the guard would NOT stop activation at all.
I don't see the point in getting new guards machined and anodized. I'm going to make the rest of the lights (after these 9) guardless by putting a sealing o-ring around the base of the switch, between the switch lip and the light body. This will make a nice snug, and somewhat more splash proof joint there. The guards make assembling these lights just that much more tedious and difficult and I don't see the point in making Data or mac machine up and anodize a bunch more of these.
And on another front, there might be cosmetic imperfections in these lights. I'll do my best here, and try to get the reflectors and lenses perfectly clean, but if there's a small scratch on the light or the epoxy on the switch guards ran over just a touch, I'm just going to leave it. This will make my life a lot easier, and an ever so slightly imperfect USL is better than no USL at all.
The lights are shipping without a lamp installed, but with the can pre-positioned for focusing the 62138. When you get your USL, you'll need to unscrew the head and carefully insert a new lamp into the socket. Do not touch the glass with your fingers as the oil will cause it to explode when it gets up to temperature. Be as gentle as possible when inserting the lamps. The glass is quartz glass and is pretty tough, but you can and will fracture it if you apply too much force. It's difficult to insert the lamp into the socket, but not too difficult. Just keep gradually applying force, and maybe slightly rocking the lamp back and forth along the LONG axis of the pinch, and it will slide in. Next, ensure that the lamp is centered in the head by gently pushing it around with a cloth or with the plastic wrap it came in. When you reinstall the head and get it turned on a few threads, just look down from the top to double check that the lamp is going to clear the sides of the hole in the reflector. If it looks as if it will make contact, remove the head and readjust the lamp.
The screw the head down until the o-ring engages and a bit beyond that, and you'll be pretty close to the right focus and can adjust it by screwing the head down further, or backing it off some.
And remember to NEVER operate this light without the head and lens installed. DO NOT ever use "candle mode". If that lamp explodes you want something between you and your family and your living room, and it. This is a very cool flashlight, but IT IS NOT A TOY. Never allow children to use this thing unattended. The head and lens can and do get hot enough to cause mild burns. Always wait until things have cooled down before replacing a lamp. Also, if you turn this puppy on with a hot battery pack, you are more likely to blow the lamp--"blow" as in instaflash, not explode--so keep that in mind.
OK. Enough for now. I've put in my two hours today (and then some, I think), so I won't post a new thread yet or write up a detailed inventory. But it will happen at some point.
So, things are under way. Dynacolt and plasmaman's orders will ship out tomorrow, and I have an email sent to bobbo.
Things are better than bad, at any rate.
But I figured you could handle that part on your own.
