Trial by fire: Haiku from the ashes

[RocketTomato]

Amazing to consider the heat it must take to vaporize that sapphire.

The sapphire would be siting in a pool of molten titanium long before it would even consider melting. It probably was forcefully ejected as the battery heated up and wound up shattering into several pieces.

[grnamin]

Liz, thank goodness you are alright. Don, you're one heck of a good karma kind of guy.

[octaf]

What a story !
The haiku looks wonderful & unique.

One question. Just curious.
Would Ti host survive the instant explosion of the rechargeable battery ?

[fyrstormer]

What a story !
The haiku looks wonderful & unique.

One question. Just curious.
Would Ti host survive the instant explosion of the rechargeable battery ?

Most likely. That light was softened by heat and it still wasn't damaged when the CR123 vented.

[grnamin]

What a story !
The haiku looks wonderful & unique.

One question. Just curious.
Would Ti host survive the instant explosion of the rechargeable battery ?

I think an explosion will always travel along the path of least resistance so the Ti would survive. I may be wrong, though.

[RocketTomato]

Yes it will survive, as evidenced by the pictures in post #1.

[jemab]

All, the Haiku arrived back in Texas today! I won't post any pics as I can't do better that what Don already posted. I am diggin' the gnarly dark finish it has. Took it out after dark to play with it for a while. Now its back to nightstand duty once again!
Thank you Don for giving new life to my survivor Haiku.

[octaf]

I think an explosion will always travel along the path of least resistance so the Ti would survive. I may be wrong, though.

I agree with you.
I just thought that the instant explosion like a bomb and the slow expansion in heated circumstance could be different.
Although I guess that Ti is stronger than the screw locked McClicky switch & LE, and the Orings sealed lens & rubber boot, I still cannot imagine the outcome of the instant explosion.

[McGizmo]

Hi jemab
Glad the light got back to you and that it is back again in service.

Would Ti host survive the instant explosion of the rechargeable battery ?

Clearly the Ti host survived this particular event. I would suspect that in some other form of battery event that the switch and front end would be expelled as they were in this case without damage to the titanium but if it were an instant explosion as you suggest, the ends taking off could certainly be dangerous projectiles!! In the case of a single cell I am not sure how an even could be triggered internally and if it was due to excessive heat externally like this case, I would expect similar results as this case.

I am no expert on such matters but I doubt that a battery contains the energy needed to actually blow up the titanium host short of an energy release at the atomic level. And I think you would need to cap off the ends of the light with something more capable of containing the energy released than is the case with the clicky switch and window retained by the O-rings.

[fyrstormer]

There are cases of super-high-power lights using packs of Li-Ion cells exploding when run on the highest setting, but those lights are all much larger than the Haiku -- and made of much weaker aluminum. Even so, the failure points are usually along threading or knurling cut-lines, where the metal has already been stressed by machining. I don't see a single Li-Ion cell -- or even two -- rupturing a Gizmo battery tube, not when there's a nice soft plastic switch at the back of the light.

[octaf]

Thanks for your insights Don & fyrstormer.

[SuPpAvIlLiN]

Go figure. I found this thred doing an image search on Trit flashlights and I saw this light and thought it looked awesome! I thought wow, Don did a rustic look Haiku, I want one. Haha, no joke. So who ever ownes this light being the way it came about getting its finish I would keep this light forever. I assume you are all ok and it can serve as a memory and proof of how badass you light is and how you survived aswell as "it" did.

[fyrstormer]

Go figure. I found this thred doing an image search on Trit flashlights and I saw this light and thought it looked awesome! I thought wow, Don did a rustic look Haiku, I want one. Haha, no joke. So who ever ownes this light being the way it came about getting its finish I would keep this light forever. I assume you are all ok and it can serve as a memory and proof of how badass you light is and how you survived aswell as "it" did.

If you really want one, you could buy a normal one, disassemble it, and stick the metal parts into the coals of a roaring fire. That should achieve the same temperatures as a house fire, just in a smaller space.

[Darell]

Wow. Spectacular story, and a typically generous offer from Don to rebuild!

The warm-fuzzies of the original CPF live on.

[Robe]

One haiku you'll never see in the marketplace! Such character. Great story.

[Barefootone]

Wow. Spectacular story, and a typically generous offer from Don to rebuild!

The warm-fuzzies of the original CPF live on.

Darell,
I agree with you this is truly in the spirit of what CPF started like. Don and Wayne helped me out years ago when my Aleph 3 exploded and caught fire. The parts were replaced at no cost to me and I rebuilt the light.
Folks like Don, Wayne , Darell , PK and others are truly the best of what CPF is .

[tobrien]

i hope the owner's health has recovered. what a great read