kongfuchicken
Flashlight Enthusiast
This is my class 2 entry for the H&M light contest.
I realize this may partially belong in class 4 as a goofy light but I already submitted something silly over there...
Ok, the details: I took one of these 99cents Eveready 2D lights (according to Craig, everyone has seen one of these once) from the entrails of the storage room. I swear, the deeper you dig into this room, the more you go back in time /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif.
Anyway, as soon as I saw that Surefire banner, I wanted an A2 aviator. This thing just looks so cool and usefull. But since I'm one dollar short of having... well one dollar, I had to improvise.
This mod is basically the poor man's A2.
Making a two stage switch and making the head would be the hardest parts in this but in order to preserve my essential laziness, I went ahead and skipped the complicated switch and everything involved in that and just salvaged another switch that I epoxied on the side /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif, giving me time to /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/sleepy.gif.
The head was the PITA part; Since the stock reflector was laughable, I used a mag reflector that I modified to accomodate the 5mm leds.
A stock mag D o'ring was epoxied on a stock magcharger lens that was epoxied on this reflector that was previously epoxied on the head (ok, let mental-replay that sentence /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon15.gif). The o'ring prevents the lens to break when the lights falls on its head. I also decided to use separate batteries for the two modes because one won't affect the use of the other... and also because it's much easier to do it that way.
The high mode is a kpr118 driven by a special pack of 3 CR123s and the low mode is an array of 3 12000mcd leds driven by 4 LS14500 lithium cells in parallel(which should give a huge runtime).
Using the best words I can find, the beams are utterly horrible!
Somehow, the camera makes the incan beam look a lot better than it is and the led beam look a little worse than it is /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thinking.gif but you get the idea...
By now, you guys must be wondering why I called it the SpiderLight, well I borrowed... ok fine! I stole the idea from the maker of some of the finest lights I have, Eternalight; I epoxied a steel ring on the bottom of the light so I can install a magnet on it.
That permits the light to be stuck on any iron or steel surface or objects. Only epoxying the piece of steel allows the magnet to be removed if you want to use it near computers of magnetic field sensitive hardware...
Overall, I would describe this light as an ugly, solid, funny and patent-infringing light /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/nana.gif. The magnet on the tail was actually usefull when in the car because you can stick on the hood when checking the oil level at night.
The cost of this mod? Well, let's see:
one 99cents light, one kpr118, 3 white leds, a switch from a busted flashlight, a mag reflector and lens, a whole mess of leftover leftover leftover epoxy, a few wires and batteries, some glowpaint, and a magnet.
The only tools I used were a $2 soldering iron, my SAK and my hands. Modifying the reflector took me two days!
Thanks for looking! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/hahaha.gif
I realize this may partially belong in class 4 as a goofy light but I already submitted something silly over there...
Ok, the details: I took one of these 99cents Eveready 2D lights (according to Craig, everyone has seen one of these once) from the entrails of the storage room. I swear, the deeper you dig into this room, the more you go back in time /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif.
Anyway, as soon as I saw that Surefire banner, I wanted an A2 aviator. This thing just looks so cool and usefull. But since I'm one dollar short of having... well one dollar, I had to improvise.
This mod is basically the poor man's A2.
Making a two stage switch and making the head would be the hardest parts in this but in order to preserve my essential laziness, I went ahead and skipped the complicated switch and everything involved in that and just salvaged another switch that I epoxied on the side /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif, giving me time to /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/sleepy.gif.
The head was the PITA part; Since the stock reflector was laughable, I used a mag reflector that I modified to accomodate the 5mm leds.
A stock mag D o'ring was epoxied on a stock magcharger lens that was epoxied on this reflector that was previously epoxied on the head (ok, let mental-replay that sentence /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon15.gif). The o'ring prevents the lens to break when the lights falls on its head. I also decided to use separate batteries for the two modes because one won't affect the use of the other... and also because it's much easier to do it that way.
The high mode is a kpr118 driven by a special pack of 3 CR123s and the low mode is an array of 3 12000mcd leds driven by 4 LS14500 lithium cells in parallel(which should give a huge runtime).
Using the best words I can find, the beams are utterly horrible!
Somehow, the camera makes the incan beam look a lot better than it is and the led beam look a little worse than it is /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thinking.gif but you get the idea...
By now, you guys must be wondering why I called it the SpiderLight, well I borrowed... ok fine! I stole the idea from the maker of some of the finest lights I have, Eternalight; I epoxied a steel ring on the bottom of the light so I can install a magnet on it.
That permits the light to be stuck on any iron or steel surface or objects. Only epoxying the piece of steel allows the magnet to be removed if you want to use it near computers of magnetic field sensitive hardware...
Overall, I would describe this light as an ugly, solid, funny and patent-infringing light /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/nana.gif. The magnet on the tail was actually usefull when in the car because you can stick on the hood when checking the oil level at night.
The cost of this mod? Well, let's see:
one 99cents light, one kpr118, 3 white leds, a switch from a busted flashlight, a mag reflector and lens, a whole mess of leftover leftover leftover epoxy, a few wires and batteries, some glowpaint, and a magnet.
The only tools I used were a $2 soldering iron, my SAK and my hands. Modifying the reflector took me two days!
Thanks for looking! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/hahaha.gif
