anybody want more lights available with ready to go trit slots?

would you like to see more manufactures offer lights with pre machined trit slots?
like for instance say a maker released a light with 10 to 15 trit slots positioned around the light just awaiting your personal customizing desires,so you could put specific color combo's and make a neat and cool light.
or say a maker released a light with multi trit slots,and multi trit slot sizes.
so you could put 1.55x5.5mm,2x6mm 1x8mm and 3x23mm trits on a single light
i know 3x23 is pretty big but doable isnt it?
feel free to chime in on your trit light desires and idea's

YUP! I do wish that more came with slots. However it doesn't make sense to add them to lights that are commercially sold in mass quantities as we are the only ones putting trits on our lights and we are a teardrop in the ocean compared to the others who buy the lights.

Also it doesn't help that tritium is illegal/banned for recreational use.

There are a lot of custom makers that will add trit slots by request to their lights. And there's also __________ i forget his username now, who machines slots onto any light.
I'm planning on putting a few red trits on my SF A2L-red when time and $ permits.

jamesmtl514 said:

YUP! I do wish that more came with slots. However it doesn't make sense to add them to lights that are commercially sold in mass quantities as we are the only ones putting trits on our lights and we are a teardrop in the ocean compared to the others who buy the lights.

Also it doesn't help that tritium is illegal/banned for recreational use.

There are a lot of custom makers that will add trit slots by request to their lights. And there's also __________ i forget his username now, who machines slots onto any light.
I'm planning on putting a few red trits on my SF A2L-red when time and $ permits.

Click to expand...

That would be Barry (Precisionworks), here is his thread. He does fantastic work.

I would love to see more makers put tritium markers, or slots for tritium vials on their lights.
I have had a Traser watch for 8 years and it is great under low light, when the battery died on it a few years back i hated going back to a timex "indiglo" light and having to press a button (and having a very bright light come on in the middle of the night)
The traser is bright enough to quickly and easily read, but not so bright as to make me squint

I have GITD powder/epoxy rings on a few of my nightstand lights, and it makes the lights easier to find at night, but trits wouldnt need charging when i got to bed

Trit slots as standard would make me very happy (i do intend trying to find a veleno tailswitch when i eventually get a v10rti)

yah good points you made there for sure,i know about the tear drop in the ocean thing,however its a wonder that no one has made a light in tribute to CPF members in a very limited run of say a thousand or less units,the word of mouth from flashoholics to non flashoholics and upon seeing such marvels might stir up more of the general publics intrest and in turn lead to more sales for said manufacturer....ford,chevy ect build show cars,to showcase and instill passion,and interest which in turn feeds their domestic sales..sorry maybe i am just rambling,anyway solid points you made.
and i am aware of precision works and their quality and pricing.its just that $10 a trit slot in aluminium and $20 a slot in titanium seems really expensive for the guy who wants 5 or more trits on his quark or neutron (however giving the nature of machining and labour,time and setup,precision works is probaly a deal and a honest price for such works) to bad there wasnt another CPF member who had a ball end mill and good skills that would offer a poor mans rate of say $5 a trit slot..

jamesmtl514 said:

YUP! I do wish that more came with slots. However it doesn't make sense to add them to lights that are commercially sold in mass quantities as we are the only ones putting trits on our lights and we are a teardrop in the ocean compared to the others who buy the lights.

Also it doesn't help that tritium is illegal/banned for recreational use.

There are a lot of custom makers that will add trit slots by request to their lights. And there's also __________ i forget his username now, who machines slots onto any light.
I'm planning on putting a few red trits on my SF A2L-red when time and $ permits.

Click to expand...

I think those prices are fair. You have to chuck the light right, and it's not like a quick zip-zip and then the milling is done. Esp. for titanium, consider the guy's hourly wage, including the time spent dealing with the customer, packaging and shipping.

Look at post 368 of this thread http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?315290-Surefire-boring-service/page13
Precisionworks, a cpfer who does trit slot machining says that each slot requires 22 passes and each pass takes 60 seconds to do. That's 22 mins per slot! So i think the price is fair. A machinist can do other things during the time it takes for customer service, shipping, packing you know?

Also, depending on the light, there are plenty of add ons from Places like Oveready, or from Ronac. True, a lot of this is focuses on the P/C/Z series of lights, but there are plenty of tailcaps, bezels, and bezel rings with pre-milled slots..

Machining trit slots is not that difficult if you got your machine setup. I have recentlly had 14 trit slots machined into a Sunwayman V10R Ti and it was a lot easier than I thought it would be. On this torch the time taken was not for cutting the slots but the time it takes to position the torch for the milling head.

To cut a 1.55mm slot 1.8mm deep takes my guy 9 passes - not 22 passes.My local guy is comfortable that 9 passes is all it needs. Each pass mills 0.2mm off material (which is miniscule if you think about it) and the feed rate is set a reasonable rate of 20mm/min and cutter is spinning at 4000 rpm. This rate does not cause the tool any stress. Each pass takes about 20 seconds (5mm to travel) Each slot takes approx 4 minutes (when you factor in opening doors, blowing off coolant, pressing buttons etc) . I can upload a video if anybody wants to see the slot cutting in progress.

What takes time and is repetetive is to rotate the torch on the indexing head for the next position. This takes about 2 minutes (time to open the CNC doors, blow the coolant off, rotate the indexing head, clamp the head, close the doors and press the 'Go' button).

All together you are looking about 6-7 minutes per slot. It took about 2 hours to cut 14 slots in 2 different axis on the Sunwayman. There are CNC machines out there that will rotate the torch in the Z axis (along the axis of the torch) but my local guy doesn't have such a machine. If you have a CNC machine that rotates the torch on the Z axis it would take less than 45 minutes to mill all the 14 slots in my estimate and it would be unattended.

My local CNC machine costs are approx $50 per hour. I got charged $100 approx in Sterling pounds for 2 hours work. That worked out $7 dollars a slot. It would make no difference if the slots were longer, or if there were several along the same axis as the machine would only take a few minutes longer. If the machine can be left unattended the costs will be half of this as the operator can get on do other jobs and it would be just the cost of using the machine and some machine operator time.

I have now started to mill the slots by hand. It takes a lot of concentration but it is fun to do... if you are careful the end result is pretty good and not really far off the result of the CNC.

Mohan