2aaa Dorcy with LD luxeon - custom

[gadget_lover]

I finally got a lathe and was able to finish a project I started a while back.

Introducing the "stretch" Dorcy 2aaa Lux I next to it's little brother.

The light started out as a 1AAA dorcy with 1 5mm Nichia led. About two montsh ago, I substituted a low dome 1 watt luxeon that I had bought as a batch of seconds and pulls. The reflector was simply bored out till the LD fit through the hole. I painted the exposed black plastic at the end of the reflector with silver paint. The reflector looks normal.

Running from one cell, I got about 7 lumens. That's not much for a flood beam, so I decided to make a 2 cell body. The two cell body was created from two 1AAA bodies. I shortened one and bored it out about .472 inches ID. I cut the threads off the other and turned it down to about .475 with a slight taper. I press fit the two ends together.... Well, I pounded them together with a hammer.

The stock electronics and reflector produce about 14 lumens with a hot spot of 554 CP at 1 foot.

This was my first use of a lathe. No other practice. I managed to scuff the anodizing on one part, and there is a spot where I marked a cut but stopped turning just short of the mark. Other than that, I'm pretty pleased.

Oh. The obligitory beam shot.

The stretch unit is on the left. Note the much brighter light pattern on the table top. The flood is about what I used to get from my SF L1.

Daniel

 

[PlayboyJoeShmoe]

Very nice, let me be the first to say!

Stuff like this is so far over my head I couldn't CLIMB that high!

 

[TrueBlue]

Oh, I LIKE IT. Great job! So you built a sleeve to mount the two bodies together? I was thinking along a similiar line except I was going to extend the body of the 2AA 4LED light so I could parallel another boost circuit in it. But I backed off last weekend because I had to think about how much heat would build up. My Dorcy 2AA Luxeon conversion with stock electronics does start getting warm after about 5 minutes use but my heat sink draws the heat away from the LED quite well.

Do you have any heat problems with your conversion?

Again...great job. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinser2.gif

 

[gadget_lover]

Thanks Playboy Joe.


Glad you liked it Haveblue. I started by making a sleeve, but that left the light too long for the batteries and was difficult to do without a lathe. It also looked funky. The sleeve would need to be about the diameter of the tailcap.

What I ended up doing was cutting away (boring) the inside of 'Body A' to increase it's inside diameter and cutting down the outside of 'Body B' to fit inside body A. Both were shortened about .3 inches to get rid of extra length that was originally occupied by the electronics of body B. If you look closely at the first picture you can see the seam where the two tubes are joined.

I've noticed my Dorcy 1AA luxIII @ 3 volts gets warm with extended use, but it doesn't get hot. In the Stretch 2AAA the luxeon is attached to a washer that seats against the barrel so it's heat sinked pretty well.

Thanks again for the kind words.


Daniel