Whats the worse thing you've done to your flashlight(as in neglect/abuse)

[shao.fu.tzer]

Lawn mower found a missing Surefire 6Z for me...big chunk of it is missing and split open the bezel. Replaced the bulb and works great. Oh yeah, mower still works.

I think I remember that story... It's a good one! I've found many throwing knives by using a lawnmower...

I'd been looking for a 2xAA Minimag for some time now, and finally located it. I was so happy at my discovery, until I realized the tailcap wouldn't budge. Death by alkaline. Time to call Duracell.

Stick a thin, strong screwdriver into the lanyard hole on the tailcap and use it for torque. If it doesn't budge, then I would call Duracell...

 

[jamesmtl514]

during the Ice Storm of 1998, I used my 3D maglite to break 6" thick layers of ice covering various things around the house.
attached my Surefire E1B to a fish ( for pulling wires) in many spaces. It's nice and scratched now. I use/abuse it for work.

I baby the rest of my lights.

 

[Viper715]

The worst abuse ever incurred by a light I own was about 10 years ago and was a 6 D cell Mag. I had jut joined the fire department where I live and we had got a working structure fire. My fire captain asked me for my light and I handed it to him. Never loan out your lights especially to a fireman. He proceeded to walk around this house and bust out every single window on the ground floor. He didn't just bash a window he then proceeded to run the mag around the window frame to knock out the big pieces of glass. I've never seen a mag so beat up. There were gouges and even some sharp edges from the glass digging into the aluminum. I let him keep the mag after that and went and bought a surefire Z3 so if he ever needed a light again he wouldn't be inclined to use it as a club.

 

[gsr]

I once dropped a Surefire E1E-HA, with the KL-1 LED head and a clicky tailcap (whose model number I can't quite remember at the moment) several feet (by accident, of course) into a pan of trasmission fluid. I retreived the light, then put it in the hot water parts washer for about 10 minutes to clean it off. It continued to work fine, but unfortunately grew a set of legs, and I don't know where it walked off to.

 

[bnemmie]

A number of years ago I was stationed in Key West, Flordia and dropped my (then) brand new Surefire 6P over the side of the boat whilt at the pier, into about 35 feet of water. A little over a year later we had divers go down to take a look at our props, and I asked one of them to take a quick look to see if they could find it. I did not believe ther was any chance that it would actually be there. I would have put moneyon the fact that it got burried in the mud with the tide or something. The diver comes up an hour later with the 6P over his head like a trophy. Other then the glass getting slightly pitted by the action of the waves over the months, it looked pretty darn good. It even started to grow small barnacles! It still works to this day.

 

[Veebious Maximous]

Loaned it to a woman....then asked for it back.....She said she never borrowed it:shrug:....Gone forever

 

[jamesmtl514]

Loaned it to a woman....then asked for it back.....She said she never borrowed it:shrug:....Gone forever

yup, did that too. But she claimed it as her own. and since I had a bunch I let her keep it.

 

[Cataract]

Dropped my Quark123 from chest height many times on purpose just to prove my point about not trusting dollar-store lights.

It also flew out of my hands a few times and fell on concrete or tiles a few times. (The tiles successfully made a dent, not the concrete)

I dropped it (or was it my PD20?) inside a film processor (big machine that develops film) in the rack of the fixer tank (basically vinegar) once when the tank was empty but the rack dripping all over my light, the other time the tank was full of fresh chemicals. Quick rinse and it was fine.

Dropped my TK40 on old bumpy asphalt three times and on gravel twice.

Tried to kill a cheap battery in my E0, which can take months as a midnight toilet call light, and it leaked in it, rusting the surface of the spring (I was supposed to post a thread about that...)

 

[horizonseeker]

2 light had alkaline in them, this was supposed to be a temporary thing and batteries removed as soon as the tasks at hand was complete. Forgot about them for a few month. By the time I found them again, both had the dreaded battery leak, but fortunately was not so bad they could not be restored with a good cleaning session.

 

[scout24]

I'm still carrying my EO1 from last winter's EO1 abuse thread on my keys. Recently, someone here asked about running over one with a plane, but it didn't come to fruition... Where I work, we have a truck affectionately known as a "Jet", used for clearing jams in storm drains. Freshly topped off with water, it's 46,000 lbs. Ran over said EO1 twice with the driver's front wheel, and once with the outer dual on same driver's side. Body suffered a bit of deformation from the pavement, right at the threads. Light still worked, but the threads were pinching at one point in the rotation. I took a steel pick and ran it repeatedly in the threads at the offending spot for a few minutes, good as new. Still waterproof, still works fine, and looks even better than it did before.

Credit to run4jc for posting to Picasa photos I had texted to him!

 

[NeonLights]

I used to keep a 3D Maglite in my car years ago, and I would often use it to pound tent stakes into the ground when camping, if the ground was too hard to just push them into by hand, as I usually forgot to bring along a hammer.

 

[nickortizzle1035]

i baby most of my lights except my 4D maglite. i have used it as a hammer on more than one occasion. i even had to use it to "dispatch" a baby canadian goose that got hit my a tractor trailer... thank god it got the job done quick and painlessly.

 

[varmint]

Years ago my Streamlight SL20 was new at $115 US, that was unheard of for a light but I had to have one for duty use. Dropped it in a lake while on the 1st weekend I had it, went in and got it back, easy to find when on, and was cold and at night. Then loaned it to the Red Cross lady who loaned it to someone else and it took forever to find it again, I still use it some , still going from 1979. No more loaning lights!!!

 

[guyg]

i took a D cell Kel lite and rolled over it with a semi. the weight on the axle end was about 8500 lbs. The head was bent, but it still worked until i lost it at the river years later.

 

[enomosiki]

Use my TD-15X as a hammer.

 

[CallmeSleeves]

Went to feed and water my dogs in the middle of winter. Didn't have a hammer to get the ice out of the water bowls. But I did have a Fenix LD20.

 

[Taschenlampe Dude]

I neglected to keep the tail cap threads of an old Kel-Lite lubricated when I upgraded to newer, brighter technology. I ran across it recently and it's like the tail cap is welded on.

 

[bwcaw]

Duplicate, please delete.

 

[bwcaw]

Used my TK11 as a headlight on my snowblower for two seasons (so far). Its been duct taped to the handlebars for 2 years and been through numerous blizzards and still going strong.

Lost a SF L4 once out in the woods. It went through a whole winter out there in the snow and ice and I found it the next spring. It fired right up like nothing had happened.

 

[MCFLYFYTER]

I used a 6P as a dog bone to hook a tow strap to my truck. I really didn't think it would hold, so I removed the 18650. It survived. I also chipped slag off of welds with my L1.