Can you run the low ROP with plastic reflector?

Lobo

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Dec 31, 2005
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Sweden
I got most of my parts to a ROP but havent got the metal reflector yet (seems to be hard to get at a good price shipped to sweden...), so I'm tempted to try the low bulb with the stock Mag reflector. Is that a big no no? And how many lumens is the low roughly?
 
There was a thread a while back where someone did a continuous run test of the ROP low with the stock lens and reflector. IIRC, they started getting some distortion around 20 minutes and ended the test at 30 minutes. The distortion in the lens was permanent and the reflective layer had begun to seperate from the underlying plastic. Personally, I have used stock parts with the ROP low for 5 minutes or so at a time with no noticable effect.
 
I found the stock reflector started to smell after a minute or so, but didn't show any signs of damage. Only ran it for a few minutes at a time so not sure how far you can go.

If a minute or two is OK then no worries.
 
If you defocus the beam almost all the way, the light concentrates right on the lens. I melted a stock lens in about 15 minutes this way, producing a neat little hole right in the center of the lens. The reflector seemed to be alright, however.
 
Thanks for the answeres, guys. I was just gonna run it for a couple of minutes, so I guess I'm safe then.
 
Used in 5min bursts or less, you will be fine. I had my ROP low on once for about 10-15min. while walking my dog, and noticed that it started to melt the reflecter just a tiny bit. I have replaced it, and since only used it 5min or less at a time. Everything looks great so far....make sure you have your glass lens though, as I hear that melts faster than the reflector.
 
Hi,


Have run a stock reflector with LO bulb that was sprayed with hair spray, let one coat dry and repeated 5-8 times.

The hairspray smooths out the beam some and others have use acrylic clear spray perfering it's effect. Have to give credit of this "mod" to some old timer which I found in ROP archives.

I may have 45min. to one hour accumalated on it now, longest run 2-3 min. at one time. No adverse signs yet.
Jim
 
I have a ROP Low in a 2C on 2x18650 cells. It has a reflector that I sputtered and a UCL lens. I've had it built for over a year and there is no damage to the reflector at all that I can see. I doubt that I've ever run it for quite 10 minutes straight though I've run it countless times for 1-5 minutes at a time.
 
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