Improvised Tail Switch

As some of you may remember I recently had a tail switch start playing up on my TK10 (which has now been fixed) but during that time i was thinking "what would I do if this was an emergency situation and I needed it working".

Anyway, one of the suggestions to test it i found on here was to put a wire across from the body to the back of the battery, and sure enough it lit up, but it would sure be a pain to have to try and hold that there while actually using the light for anything.

So, the best thing I managed to come up with was a 4 layer thick (folded over) piece of tin foil over the end of the torch held in place by a rubber band. Put pressure on the foil, light comes on, take pressure off the foil, light goes off.

It wasnt perfect, sometimes the light was stay on and i would have to play a bit, but it was actually pretty good for an improvised job..

Has anyone else done this or something similar?

lol never had to improvise a swtich yet...1 is none 2 is one and 3 is key blah blah blah. so havnt had that problem yet. i'll keep this in mind though
Thanks

Even if the tailcap was non-functional, it could still mash the tinfoil inside the battery tube and make a solid connection. That should work pretty well.:thumbsup:

This "field repair" idea did occur to me when I was checking a light's current draw with an ammeter going from the negative battery terminal to the body of the light. I figured you could hold a paper clip or coin or something on there if the switch failed and you really needed light.

Sure beats my idea of licking the battery and the light!

I'd like to figure a way to turn a forward click into a momentary twist, do you guys think it's possible?

defloyd77,

Yeah, if you can short out the switch mechanism so that it conducts all the time, that should work (if it's a Fenix style or similar, with non-conducting threads). But it'd be twist on/off only; not sure if that's what you're looking for.

I'm thinking of something like Inova's X series or like Surefire's momentary twist. It'd definately take a lot of creativity to do this with the original clicky/tailcap.

Hm, haven't heard of a momentary twist before. Do you mean a "momentary-on push switch, twist for constant on" style?

In any case it looks like it would take some mods to the tail cap. You might be able to cut off the detents on the click switch so that it doesn't lock in the on position, but having that plus the twist/on might take some doing.

Stress_Test said:

Hm, haven't heard of a momentary twist before. Do you mean a "momentary-on push switch, twist for constant on" style?

Click to expand...

Yes, that's called a momentary twist or momentary/twist.