How to Destroy an inova X03 while trying to mod it

I should first state that I am not a modder. I want to be, I have the skills, but said skills do not pay the bills. I have tried twice and failed twice. First an inova X5 and now an inova X03. Granted these are not the friendliest first and second mods, but apparently I like destroying my favorite lights.

I have followed others who used the freezer pop method, and in the end I did succeed in taking the light apart.

However, those with a keen eye may notice there's an extra piece by the tail cap. This was my first mistake.
A few months ago I bored out a number of my lights to accept protected 181650s, including this one. while the others went smoothly this one required me to leave very little material where the threads were. I rationalized that while I really was making the wall too thin, these threads are never going to see any stress. That is until I tried to freeze pop the front off.

yes those are the threads that I removed from inside the cap. The ice cracked them right off. Brilliant.
Well now I didn't have any way to seal the light to finish the freeze pop. I tried to hammer a small diameter pipe into the light. this is what I did with the X5, and it worked perfectly. Only the X5 has an entirely metal slug for the front office. the X03 has a soft black gooey substance on the back of the led/board/heat sink. wouldn't budge and I destroyed the little springy thing.
Finally, I used a chisel-- figuring what more damage could I do?
Amazingly, I took it off with the chisel in about 8 strikes, without so much as scratching the metal.
Maybe I will find new an innovative ways to destroy my remaining inova T2?

doh, but lesson learned

wonder how You could bore the body to accomodate the 18650 before You got the front part out.

PS: why not use a "T" model --> forward clickie, perfect
PPS: did You ever try to disassemble the tail cap?

Could be worse!!!

yellow said:

doh, but lesson learned

wonder how You could bore the body to accomodate the 18650 before You got the front part out.

PS: why not use a "T" model --> forward clickie, perfect
PPS: did You ever try to disassemble the tail cap?

Click to expand...

I didn't use my T model because I like it:naughty:

Why would I need to get the front part out for the 18650? It was a little weird chucking it up with the flared head. the thing that screwed me up is the protected cells are about 20mm in diameter not 18. after boring it out some I then measured the cells and well kept going.
there's a saying around my lab, "I've cut it twice and it is still too short."

I am curious about the tail cap so I am going to disassemble it

greenlight said:

Could be worse!!!

Click to expand...

on the plus side every other piece is perfect, even that monster aspheric.

all my cells measure 18.2-.3 mm,
have the T1 (and the 6P) widened to 18.5 mm and the cells fit in snugly, without rattle
Still have some 0.7-1 mm material at the body
(but not enought for hard contact or another freeze-pop, as You example showed)

Thanks for sharing your mistake, it will save lots of Inova.