2AA Maglite into a 3AA Thrower? Another crazy mod

Well, this is what I do for fun. Modding (mangling) lights.

I try not to do it the easy way, since it's all about using up time instead of paying for therapy.

This was a 2AA incan Maglite, now I don't know what it is. I figured I would put up a few photos of how not to mod a 2AA.

First I start off with the essentials:





Got to have a little copper in it and that switch turned out to be the one I am Not using...

First step is to mangle the barrel, so I cut it with a hacksaw



Now I am going to do my rendition of the "Human Lathe" I want to use a piece of copper tube as the extension for 3AA.



The cutter is a Dremel cutter and the stone is a waste. Stones do not work well with Aluminum, but I had to try. The cutter worked very well. I used it in my variable speed drill with a very low setting. I held the pieces in a vise and worked the cutter around inside the barrel. I used a small washer between the back end of the cutter and the chuck of the drill, as a backstop, to keep the depth even. Now I feel more confident about tackling the 2D.



This is really practice for a cut down 2D that I am going to do, so I wanted to learn how to open the ID and this was a fun way to try it.

Next is the copper sleeve


The tube is 1/2" Type M copper. Type L will not work due to the ID being too small to allow for an AA battery to fit. The outer sleeve is two 1/2" couplings soldered together. Looks ugly doesn't it?

Looks better now...

I think I will leave it with the "brushed look"

I jump around a lot, so I decided to work on the end cap and add a clicky switch. I ended up using a Romsen forward clicky and I cut/groung off the threads to make a smooth switch that would fit in the enlarged ID of the stock tailcap.




I will use a two part epoxy (stick form) and fill in the inside edges of the tail and then fit the switch in. Once it hardens it will stay very secure.

That's all for now, stay tuned for more later........
:wave:
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Re: 2AA Maglite into a 3AA Thrower? Another crazy mod - DOA now

Well, I got to do some more work on this light. I decided that having a copper center between the two black ends of the barrel didn't look as good as I thought, but not to worry. I found a way to make it nicer looking and more unique:



First I clearcoated the copper with Krylon Crystal Clear Acrylic. It helps seal and protect the copper. Then I laid out a strip of masking tape and cut very thin strips. I just put them on by eye. I didn't measure anything, so it's not perfect, but it looks good. The next layer was to coat the whole barrel with Rusteoleum Textured Metallic and a final coat of Krylon again.



Here's a close up.



Here's the tail cap.




I really like this paint. It has copper flakes in it and it is rough, so it grips good in the hand.


I've also been working on the heat sink. There's not a lot of room for a heat sink, but I came up with this.


It still needs more finishing, but you can get the idea. It's a 3/8" copper end cap with a 1/4" copper end cap inside and the rest is solder.


The positive wire will go up through it and the negative will touch the barrel.



The heat sink will be press fit into the barrel and the positive will be isolated with a plastic washer and be soldered to the brass washer, which will be the positive terminal that the batteries touch.




That's all for now.

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excelent work there, looking farward to beamshots, that central copper area works well with the patern

Well, I got it finished. DOA. The switch is bad, but I'm not going to do it all over again. I'll leave it for some rainy day or something. I did check out the beam by grounding without the tail cap and it wasn't impressive. The XR-E with such a small reflector looked sick. Oh well, live and learn. That's the second AA mag I've messed with and I haven't liked either one. Don't think I will ever mess with one again. Just don't like the looks of those long skinny lights.