anarchistpetey
Newly Enlightened
After reading about the Bucklite mod made from an $.84 Wal-Mart flashlight, and becoming inspired, I decided to visit the ol' Wally-World and have a gander at what was available.
After all, I have never actually paid attention to the cheap lights.
I was looking for a possible easy, first-time mod.
I had already planned on using a MAG drop in L.E.D. module for the bulb, I just needed to find a good, cheap, smaller-than-a-mag candidate.
I scanned the rack for a few minutes and decided to take a gamble on a $5 Garrity that used a krypton bulb.
The reflector was textured and the light had kind of a nice look to it overall. This is what I bought:
When I got home, I busted open the package and was pleasantly surprised by how easy this mod was going to be.
As you can see here, the bulbs are similar in size, though the L.E.D. is a bit longer and a bit wider.
I actually ended up doing more work than I had to with the dremel... After I had already bored out the bulb holder, I figured out that you can just toss it in the crapper.
All one needs to do is bore out the reflector just a little and push the L.E.D. module right in.
However, you do not want to grind down the little brass contact ring in the bezel, remove that along with the outer contact cover.
The outer contact cover should be able to just slide off. Some twisting or slight prying may be required.
The contact ring will come right out after you take the contact cover off. Once both are removed, you can use a sharp knife or a dremel with a small barrel sander attachment
to remove some of the plastic from the reflector to make the hole big enough for the L.E.D. to fit into.
Take your time here as you don't want to mess up the reflector.
Once that's done and the contact ring and cover are back on just slide the L.E.D. module into the hole.
The contact ring should hold it in place well enough.
Now just screw the bezel back on and try out your new light!
Something to keep in mind is that this light is made entirely of plastic.
It would be a bad idea to leave this thing running for any prolonged period of time, especially considering the utter lack of any sort of heat-sinking in either the light or the L.E.D. module. It's just fun to do.
I was unable to get any sort of acceptable beam-shot with my digital camera, so, sorry guys, no beamshots.
But it appears to be at least twice as bright as it was with the original bulb. I would say it's somewhere in the Fenix L1P ballpark.
The beam has some dim peripheral light and an even hotspot, with little to no blending from the hotspot into the peripheral light.
Anyway, just wanted to let you all know about my first mod.
It was fun, but I will probably be buying a 2D mag here soon to use this module in... lol, although, I don't see how it could be any brighter than this, unless the reflector would make a really big difference.
I would have hoped that this L.E.D. module would have given off more light than this, but, I had no idea.
Sorry for the big pics by the way... Thumbnails next time... :thumbsdow
After all, I have never actually paid attention to the cheap lights.
I was looking for a possible easy, first-time mod.
I had already planned on using a MAG drop in L.E.D. module for the bulb, I just needed to find a good, cheap, smaller-than-a-mag candidate.
I scanned the rack for a few minutes and decided to take a gamble on a $5 Garrity that used a krypton bulb.
The reflector was textured and the light had kind of a nice look to it overall. This is what I bought:
When I got home, I busted open the package and was pleasantly surprised by how easy this mod was going to be.
As you can see here, the bulbs are similar in size, though the L.E.D. is a bit longer and a bit wider.
I actually ended up doing more work than I had to with the dremel... After I had already bored out the bulb holder, I figured out that you can just toss it in the crapper.
All one needs to do is bore out the reflector just a little and push the L.E.D. module right in.
However, you do not want to grind down the little brass contact ring in the bezel, remove that along with the outer contact cover.
The outer contact cover should be able to just slide off. Some twisting or slight prying may be required.
The contact ring will come right out after you take the contact cover off. Once both are removed, you can use a sharp knife or a dremel with a small barrel sander attachment
to remove some of the plastic from the reflector to make the hole big enough for the L.E.D. to fit into.
Take your time here as you don't want to mess up the reflector.
Once that's done and the contact ring and cover are back on just slide the L.E.D. module into the hole.
The contact ring should hold it in place well enough.
Now just screw the bezel back on and try out your new light!
Something to keep in mind is that this light is made entirely of plastic.
It would be a bad idea to leave this thing running for any prolonged period of time, especially considering the utter lack of any sort of heat-sinking in either the light or the L.E.D. module. It's just fun to do.
I was unable to get any sort of acceptable beam-shot with my digital camera, so, sorry guys, no beamshots.
But it appears to be at least twice as bright as it was with the original bulb. I would say it's somewhere in the Fenix L1P ballpark.
The beam has some dim peripheral light and an even hotspot, with little to no blending from the hotspot into the peripheral light.
Anyway, just wanted to let you all know about my first mod.
It was fun, but I will probably be buying a 2D mag here soon to use this module in... lol, although, I don't see how it could be any brighter than this, unless the reflector would make a really big difference.
I would have hoped that this L.E.D. module would have given off more light than this, but, I had no idea.
Sorry for the big pics by the way... Thumbnails next time... :thumbsdow
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