Help me with my Maglite

I have a 3 D cell maglite that doesnt have the bulb nor the reflector. It is the old version that used the incandescent bulb. I basically want to get a reflector for it and a cree bulb to make it shine again. Here is what I've found.
REFLECTOR
http://cgi.ebay.com/MagLite-C-or-D-...ryZ20760QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

CREE
http://cgi.ebay.com/TERRALUX-CREE-L...yZ106987QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

ANOTHER CREE
http://cgi.ebay.com/TERRALUX-CREE-L...yZ106987QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

The reflector seems pretty cheap but my question is is it compatible with the cree's. Secondly, do they have to be so expensive or can I buy my own cree and somehow make it work with my mag? Thanks.

There are many drop-ins that can make your maglite shine; not just cree based ones. One of them you linked to; the Terralux's TLE-6EXB. It uses a soul LED instead of a cree, but has a wider beam pattern and will work better with the stock maglite reflector you also linked to then a cree. It also has decent output and runtime to boot.

Thanks. Would I be able to assemble a DIY Seoul dropin for my standard mag? I just don't want to pay the 20+ bucks for the drop-in. I'm more of a DIY guy who likes to know how his things are made and likes to make them himself. Any links to these Cree or Seoul dropin mods for mags would be appreciated if a generous how-to cannot be provided. Thanks again for the help.

How about a ready-made Seoul dropin?? About the same price as hacking your own together, but properly heat sinked, and MUCH brighter.

http://www.lighthound.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=2857

That sounds good, but lighthound sells it for 25 excluding shipping, this ebay link
http://cgi.ebay.com/TERRALUX-CREE-L...yZ106987QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
sells it for 24 shipped. They are both Model TLE-6EXB.

While I doubt that it would cost me the same to make it all myself with raw materials, I will probably have to but the heatsinked version which would be more reliable. I'll most probably go with ebay then.

Notsure Fire said:

That sounds good, but lighthound sells it for 25 excluding shipping, this ebay link
http://cgi.ebay.com/TERRALUX-CREE-L...yZ106987QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
sells it for 24 shipped. They are both Model TLE-6EXB.

While I doubt that it would cost me the same to make it all myself with raw materials, I will probably have to but the heatsinked version which would be more reliable. I'll most probably go with ebay then.

Click to expand...

Just so you know, that's advertised as a Cree dropin, not SSC.

I would not buy from that seller, as he is selling a Cree dropin, but the picture shows otherwise (not a Cree emitter). Just seems shifty...

Alright this link,
http://cgi.ebay.com/TERRALUX-BRIGHT...yZ106987QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

sells it for the same money with the proper writing and picture. Hmm, its even the same city...Same feedback.....! Lol I don't know who he's fooling. Anyway I'll probably get it from him then, any sketchiness?

Notsure Fire said:

Alright this link,
http://cgi.ebay.com/TERRALUX-BRIGHT...yZ106987QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

sells it for the same money with the proper writing and picture. Hmm, its even the same city...Same feedback.....! Lol I don't know who he's fooling. Anyway I'll probably get it from him then, any sketchiness?

Click to expand...

the same city, feedback, items, etc. with a different screen name seems sketchy to me. But then again, I don't buy electronics off Ebay, too much risk of getting burned, and near impossible to get a replacement or warranty work. Best of luck.

How much are you willing to spend?

If you don't mind spending a chunk of money, Malkoffdevices has both drop-ins(many would say the best drop-ins, they sell out within hours) and reflectors.

The terralux drop-in isn't too bad from what I've heard. Batteryjunction also has them for sale.

Yeah several times I've been to the malkoff website but I was always put off by the high prices. I just ordered the reflector for $5.76 from ebay for a start. I'll wait for it to come, see how it works with my mag, and then probably go on with the purchase of the Terralux LED. It's going to cost me $24 shipped and will provide 140 lumen, or 150 as battery station describes their TLE-6EX. Doesn't make sense to me to pay about 50 more bucks for 50 more lumen. lol that's like a buck per lumen, and I'm not even counting the shipping costs for malkoff's website. Anyway, I just have this mag laying around mocking me so I need the two parts to get it to work. Thanks for all your help.

Notsure Fire said:

Yeah several times I've been to the malkoff website but I was always put off by the high prices. I just ordered the reflector for $5.76 from ebay for a start. I'll wait for it to come, see how it works with my mag, and then probably go on with the purchase of the Terralux LED. It's going to cost me $24 shipped and will provide 140 lumen, or 150 as battery station describes their TLE-6EX. Doesn't make sense to me to pay about 50 more bucks for 50 more lumen. lol that's like a buck per lumen, and I'm not even counting the shipping costs for malkoff's website. Anyway, I just have this mag laying around mocking me so I need the two parts to get it to work. Thanks for all your help.

Click to expand...

Ah, a truely frugal person at heart...trust me I understand. But with that said, the Malkoff drop-in cannot simply looked at as "$50 for 50 more lumens". First off, it's more like 90 more bulb lumens because the SSCP4 emitter is rated to output 240 lumens at 1 amp and that's what the MD drop-in operates at. The next thing is that a Maglite bulb tower has no thermal path to the aluminum body for the heat to travel. Like any other electronics components, LEDs don't like heat. While Terralux has probably done what it can to address this, it really doesn't give enough heatsinking for the LED and this may shorten the life the emitter. The MD drop-in is a large solid piece of aluminum that actually makes full contact with the body and therefore provides really good heatsinking (which is why it can operate at 1 amp). While the Terralux provides simplicity in installation and more than ample performance for the average Joe, I don't even put it in the same class as the Malkoff Devices drop-in...and there's always the old adage that "you get what you pay for".

Still, if you're inclined to do it yourself, 3rd_shift has some excellent tutorials and here's one of them:

https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/144921

Flashlight On! :rock:

Thanks for that response.
I noticed that using the Malkoff drop-in I would also lose the ability to focus.

I am an actual "Average Joe" about this Mag. I do not need the 200+ lumens because as I've said, I just need to have this mag working.

About the heatsinking, I am sure that the malkoff cools the LED much better than Terrulux, but instead of the 50,000 or 100,000 hours of LED life, how much less does it become? 10,000 even? I don't think that it would get anywhere near the life of incandescent bulbs, which is all that matters for me (average joe).

That tutorial looks great. I have two questions. Does that mod make the focus of the mag unadjustable? If not, then where can I get all the parts!?

Notsure Fire said:

Thanks for that response.
I noticed that using the Malkoff drop-in I would also lose the ability to focus.

I am an actual "Average Joe" about this Mag. I do not need the 200+ lumens because as I've said, I just need to have this mag working.

About the heatsinking, I am sure that the malkoff cools the LED much better than Terrulux, but instead of the 50,000 or 100,000 hours of LED life, how much less does it become? 10,000 even? I don't think that it would get anywhere near the life of incandescent bulbs, which is all that matters for me (average joe).

That tutorial looks great. I have two questions. Does that mod make the focus of the mag unadjustable? If not, then where can I get all the parts!?

Click to expand...

You can still focus without the cam on the reflector. It's just not a quick focus anymore, and focuses the same way as a MiniMag.