Cheap+Easy mods for 3D mags?

[cranphin]

Hi!

I rescued 3 3D mags from the the trashbin (S3DO16, antique :D).
Seems there's still a few webshops selling them (google, affraid to put links to shops :D), but they are old :)

Now I've already got several good led lights (DX MTE SSC P7 900-Lumen easily my favorite, so much light :D). In fact a few too many XD

I have to say, maglites are beautifully put together, so solid, nice big sturdy parts :) It would've been a waste to condemn them to the trash gods ^.^

So I'm wondering if there's any interesting mods I can do on these maglites, since plain old incandescent bulbs just don't do it for me anymore ^_^
But keeping the following in mind:
- Better half will murder me if I spend any more money on flashlights, so low to ultra low budget would be good, especially since I have three of these things :)
- Soldering usually ends up with me putting things on fire, or worse :) And I lack most tools, so something easy to install 'd be nice, also I'd feel a bit bad about breaking the existing parts for a mod, tho I -guess- they were already gonna be trashed :)
- I live in europe, holland even, this for example makes the official magled dropins a problem since their either expensive locally, or I can't get them shipped or only for a large premium from the US.

Sooo, any suggestions ? :) Mayby I'm asking too much tho ^_^
I'm willing to donate too, but again not a US resident, and the dutch postal service has pretty high pricing for packages XD

Cheers! :)

 

[Yoda4561]

Since these are apparently the older style maglights, the more popular Malkoff drop-ins won't fit. Your best bet for LED is going to be the bulb style replacement dropins, like the MagLED and teralux TLE-6exb (these are around $20 usd). For incan upgrades the only point is super-high power, but if you're interested in that there's lots of info in the incan forum on maglight modding.

 

[Kestrel]

So I'm wondering if there's any interesting mods I can do on these maglites, since plain old incandescent bulbs just don't do it for me anymore ^_^
But keeping the following in mind:
- Better half will murder me if I spend any more money on flashlights, so low to ultra low budget would be good, especially since I have three of these things :)

Sorry if this might not be exactly what you're looking for, but for ~US$8 and 4 C cells, you can get ~250 (incan) lumens or so (stock Mag 3D's are ~75 lumens or so), a better beam shape, and about the maximum heat level for the plastic Mag parts, using the Pelican 3753-H. That's about as 'budget' as possible. ;)

http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=245689

Hope this helps,
K

 

[Tony Hanna]

If you've already got some 18650s, the cheapest route would be to make a sleeve (rolled up cardboard, PVC pipe, etc) and a spacer (bolt with a piece of rubber hose or electrical tape around it) and run a 5 cell krypton or 6 cell xenon bulb. I guess this might fall under the category of "plain old incandescent bulbs" but with a nice bump in output. The beauty part is that most people have the materials for the sleeve and spacer laying around so the batteries and bulbs are the only true cost. If you already have the batteries then it should be pretty easy to hide the cost of bulbs and avoid a domestic quarrel.:)

 

[hyperloop]

Cheapest, easiest mod i ever did was to get 3 of these, 9xAA NiMHs, a 6D bulb and replaced the lens with this one and it was all good to go. I should have changed the reflector to either this one for a nice beam shape or this one for better throw but i didnt.

You'd be surprised at the output from the 6D bulb especially when it comes from a 3D. i never used it except for brief spurts of light but i'd strongly recommend getting the aluminum reflectors unless you want to see the plastic reflector melting