Nothing says budget like a freebie

The other day at work I was crawling under a house to fix some water lines and found this unbranded el cheapo. It was muddy and still worked, so today I cleaned it up and bought new batteries. It takes three aaa's and even with fresh batteries is still pretty dim. Now we will see if it can hold up. I don't have high hopes but it will be fun to play with.

The 3 batteries may have been more than the value of the light

Seems like a decent host to play around with some amateurish/experimental modding.

Single emitter or shower-head style? Looks like the lights typically found in the bargain bin near the checkout isle for a buck or two apiece.

3_gun said:

The 3 batteries may have been more than the value of the light

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Haha probably. I bought some cheap rayovac alkalines since I'm not wasting any of my lithium aaa's on it.

Stress test, it has a shower head style emitter. I would be surprised if the light sold for more than a dollar. It is very cheesy.

I remember one night at a construction sight a foreman had handed out those to his crew. He bragged how he scored 12 flashlights for $8 and man was he proud of that.

At first they looked nice and bright. Say 35 or so lumens. But by midnight a lit match would put out more light than those things. He quickly understood his cost savings would be quickly gone due to having to constantly feed those things batteries.

bykfixer said:

I remember one night at a construction sight a foreman had handed out those to his crew. He bragged how he scored 12 flashlights for $8 and man was he proud of that.

At first they looked nice and bright. Say 35 or so lumens. But by midnight a lit match would put out more light than those things. He quickly understood his cost savings would be quickly gone due to having to constantly feed those things batteries.

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Jeez, no wonder you bring so many of your own lights to the night shift! 😄

yes all of about 30 bluemens with a steep drop in minutes.
i punch out the guts,install 9 ebay high cri photo light panel leds,and fold over enough - leads to make a very tight press fit.
then i press it in but only about half way.
this is to give clearance for the length of an 18650.
secure the reflector with ca after getting it straight and making sure your free flat top laptop pull fits.
then mix some jb qwick and apply around the outer edge of the board and to that area of the tube.
now you have a decent light with just a bit of work.
the leds might be hard to get now but there are several sources for similar high cri 5mm.
dont forget rolled up cereal box for a battery spacer.

i have a bunch of such lights, great loaners. i actually do not ask for them back, when ppl borrow them, if they bring it back, good, if not, i do not care.