My Cree'd Makita Worklight **Now With Beamshots**

I had this Makita 18V Li-Ion worklight laying around rarely used because of the typical lousy output, and overall poor beam profile. I had ordered a 10 pack of Cree optics with holders a while back for some Mag mods I was doing and decided I couldn't get enough of them to fit in the Mag's so I put them on the shelf. I was looking at the Makita light one afternoon realizing I could use the optics in it!:twothumbs So the project started.

Stock Makita


I started with a piece of .125 aluminum plate and cut a circle to fit inside the light head. Then I took a pretty hefty heat sink and cut and shaped to fit in the head behind the circular plate. Then I attached the plate to the sink with screws and thermal glue. Then I mounted 6 Cree Q5 WC small stars to the plate and installed the optics.



I backed up the Cree's with a Shark/Remora board and then I drilled a bunch of holes in the top and bottom sides of the light head for convection cooling. The holes were drilled by hand so they're not perfectly aligned but I think they will do. You can see some of the heat sink fins behind the cooling holes.





And finally, I read on the forum where someone (Luminescent in this thread https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/179280&highlight=diffuser) suggested using the back side of a thin CD case for a great diffuser, well I did and he was right. The CD case was cut to fit and it does a great job, very little loss and great diffusion of light!



I have a few 5 emitter Mag mods all running @ 1A and this Makita light spanks them all. I can't believe the difference between them. And with the diffuser material installed, it lights up my whole yard! Sorry I dont have any beamshots, my camera doesn't allow for any manual settings so comparison shots would not look right.
Overall, I am really pleased with this mod and I think it will see a little more use now.

The trees in the distsnce are about 120 ft. The camera is in auto as that is all it will do. As someone else said, "Bad beamshots are better than no beamshots" so here they are.

Mag mod- 5 Q5 @ 1A


Makita with no diffuser, I may have aimed a little low.


Makita with diffuser.


Bob

Re: My Cree'd Makita Worklight

Great job ledaholic!!!

I have been looking at my Bosch and a really old Porter-Cable light in the garage lately and thinking about the same thing. Just the stupid Terralux droppin in a Mag pretty much tells all of us how worthless these lights are and I don't know about the rest of you, but just as I really get into something (under the car) these stupid things start crapping out. If I could get slightly better light with twice the run time that would be great.

Wonder what a 3 or 4 cree setup would do.........

Bob E.

Re: My Cree'd Makita Worklight

Nice mod. I'm quite keen at seeing what effect the CD case has on the beam pattern.

ledaholic said:

Sorry I dont have any beamshots, mt camera doesn't allow for ant manual settings so comparison shots would not look right.

Click to expand...

My camera has a panorama mode for stitching photos together later. It locks the exposure settings at whatever the first photo is taken at. Do you have anything like that?

Re: My Cree'd Makita Worklight

Uh, so that would make it a MaCreeta? Sorry... it needed to be said.

Seriously, though, nice work. :twothumbs

Re: My Cree'd Makita Worklight

Nice job!

Someone at work wants me to mod their Ryobi light. It sure looks like a fun project. Did you find any resistors inside the light when you opened it, or was it straight DD?

My camera isn't really great for doing beam shots either (an old 2.5MP sony), but bad beam shots are better than no beam shots right???

Re: My Cree'd Makita Worklight

Hey, I've got that same Makita light, would you be interested in doing that same mod on mine? If so, what would it cost?

Re: My Cree'd Makita Worklight

9volt said:

Hey, I've got that same Makita light, would you be interested in doing that same mod on mine? If so, what would it cost?

Click to expand...

same here

-chris

Re: My Cree'd Makita Worklight

TorchBoy said:

Nice mod. I'm quite keen at seeing what effect the CD case has on the beam pattern.
My camera has a panorama mode for stitching photos together later. It locks the exposure settings at whatever the first photo is taken at. Do you have anything like that?

Click to expand...

I'm not sure, I'll have to check.

Ty_Bower said:

Uh, so that would make it a MaCreeta? Sorry... it needed to be said.

Seriously, though, nice work. :twothumbs

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I like that one.

bluecrow76 said:

Nice job!

Someone at work wants me to mod their Ryobi light. It sure looks like a fun project. Did you find any resistors inside the light when you opened it, or was it straight DD?

Click to expand...

This light has a voltage sensing circuit that turns off the power to the bulb @ around 13V. It is also adjustable. It seems to be able to carry the load I have put on it with the 6 LEDs with no problem. The pass transistor is of a T0-220 type with a fairly large heatsink attached. I ran the light on high for 10 minutes or so and felt no heat from the sink. So basically, yes it is direct drive with a low voltage cutoff.

9volt said:

Hey, I've got that same Makita light, would you be interested in doing that same mod on mine? If so, what would it cost?

Click to expand...

I'm sorry, this one was enough. The hardest part was cutting and trimming the heatsink to fit inside the head. I have some of the sink material left that I would be willing to send you, you'll have to do your own trimming.

Re: My Cree'd Makita Worklight

Very nice.:thumbsup:

thats a sweet mod
ive got a dewalt 18v one i would like to do and also trying to get my hand on a 14.4v makita

anyway mate you got some pics of the insides mainly the heatsink etc
thanks

Jenova said:

anyway mate you got some pics of the insides mainly the heatsink etc
thanks

Click to expand...

Sorry, I didn't take any pics till I was done . My hindsight is usually 20/20

ledaholic said:

Sorry, I didn't take any pics till I was done . My hindsight is usually 20/20

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any chance of taking out the heatsink or bit to hard ?

Jenova, When I finished up the light, I put a bead of RTV around the inside of the head to seal everything up. I really don't want to open it up. Here is a pic of the heatsink I used, just use your imagination as to what it looks like trimmed to fit. Basically, I cut it to a square a little larger than the head, then rounded off the corners and the outside fins to where it would just sit all the way down inside the head.

You'll need to add a fan to it.

glockboy said:

You'll need to add a fan to it.

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I love that design! I saw it when you first posted it and thought I needed one. I'm going to go with convection cooling for now and watch the temp of the sink. If it gets too hot, I have a small fan I can mount on top.

Sorry for bringing this thread back from a few months back, However i'm doing the same with a Ryobi light i had laying around.

I noticed tonight that as soon as the battery starts to drain it drops from 18-19 Volts to around 12volts.

I was originally going to use a BuckPuck 3023 to drive 4 LED's, but if the voltage drops too quick it wont work at all

should i add another cree in there and use a Boost puck - like the Shark? or should i keep with the BuckPuck and run 3 or 4 LED's

mds82 said:

Sorry for bringing this thread back from a few months back, However i'm doing the same with a Ryobi light i had laying around.

I noticed tonight that as soon as the battery starts to drain it drops from 18-19 Volts to around 12volts.

I was originally going to use a BuckPuck 3023 to drive 4 LED's, but if the voltage drops too quick it wont work at all

should i add another cree in there and use a Boost puck - like the Shark? or should i keep with the BuckPuck and run 3 or 4 LED's

Click to expand...

If your battery is dropping 6-7 volts quickly, I would say your pack has some bad cells.
As far as weather you should use buck or boost, you need to determine weather you want less light/ more runtime or more light/less runtime. Generally speaking, using a buck converter will give better runtime, and just the opposite with a boost converter.

Bob

Nice Mods. I got an 18v Skil tool set for Christmas that included a light.
It has the worst beam of anything I have ever seen, looks like a spiderweb.

I thought I saw a thread a few months back about drop-in LED bulbs for these kind of work lights but have not been able to find it.

the battery is getting old, so i think it just looses its charge towards the end of its recharge cycle. maybe i'll pick up a new battery just for the flashlight.