Easy 3d 9aa adaptor

[R@ndom]

When a fourteen year old finds a 3d maglite in Australia for American prices what does he do?

Make a mag85 of course.

And then come the problems. I needed the parts. So I got some cheap glass lense and a reflector from kd. Suprisingly fast service. Then there's the problem of batteries. Everything is so expensive! I almost settled on 3 of those black trustfires in a tube till my auntie, who owns a milkbar (grocery shop for you yanks) told me the chance to get new enegizer 2450's for about a buck each I jumped on it.

Now I have the problem of battery adaptor. The good looking ones by fm, modamag and modcod are out of this world expensive for a high schooler. The kd ones looked about as conductive as a tonne of insulator. The third option is to follow modcod's scary difficult instructions. Not okay for a 14 year old who had about 7 woodworking classes.

I settled for the kd ones due to my cheapness then in the shower an idea came to me.

I could make a cheapskate's battery adaptor.

My current design is to have two wooden rounds 36mmx12mm on each end. The cells are held secure(ish) with the pressure of the spring and 2 thin cardboard disks with holes for the buttons of the cells. I would wire them with screws and copper strips.

Any comments?

 

[tx101]

I think you need something stronger than cardboard

 

[R@ndom]

Mhm... How about laminated cardboard, balsa mayby? This is just to keep the cells in 3 lines.

 

[allburger]

I would check out some PVC pipe if you get the chance. 3/4 PVC couplings fit awesome in the D-Mags. It is much more rigid than cardboard. Another options is what i do. Add copper to the KD adapters to lower resistance.

http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=193811

I did a write up on them when i used it for my ROP about a year ago. It works great. One time i short circuited it because my copper pieces were too big and shorted across. Once I fixed it, there was never an issue again and it worked great.

I bought the copper at a craft store. It is used for crafts and what not. Its a great conductor too.

 

[R@ndom]

Well I went and brought the aluminum strip, timber, bolts and nuts just then. Then I came the the other problem. How am I meant to stop the cells from rolling around?

The copper at the hardware store was 30 dollars a meter. Go figure.

 

[R@ndom]

Mod was a total failure. I lost my cutoff wheel for my dremel, the wood was incredibly hard to cut into a nice round. By the end of the day it looked like this

[URL=http://s622.photobucket.com/albums/tt309/geoman888/?action=view&current=Image090.jpg][/URL]

Thanks to the incredible generosity of another CPF'er, I have some nice adaptors now anyway . :grouphug:

 

[Illum]

its getting there, I'm sure Mdocod shared the same fate before he found Delrin to work with.

Mag85 breakdown

• 9AA NiMH cells [:thumbsup:]
• 9AA to 3D battery holder that can handle at least 3 amps [:thumbsup:]
• Borosilicate window
• Metal reflector, smooth for throw, orange peel for artifact reduction
• 1185 lamps, if potted lamps can be found you can ignore the PR to G4 adapter
• PR to G4 pin adapter
• Battery Charger, are you planning to charge them in series as with a hobby charger or are you planning to do a complete disassembly at every cycle? [:thinking:]

The only value KD has in this equations is probably the reflector and the glass.

The reflector from FM works well, but yes its expensive. I think Litho123 may have reflectors but I'm not sure if they are cammed. [cam gives you the focusing ability, a camless reflector would be the same as the stock mag reflector with the neck cut off]
I dunno where can you get a PR to G4 pin adapter to run an 1185 without going to FM:shrug:

Lighthound sells borosilicate windows for $6.25, but I'm not sure if shipping to Australia is available.

As for the charger, I find this charger to be ideal, just remember to stick the thermal probe somewhere touching a battery, if there was something wrong with the cells it'll cut out rather than creating a thermal runaway.
Once awhile though, depending on usage I will take apart the battery holder and charge the cells individually on my eneloop charger to compensate for unbalanced cells.

I hope you receive those lamps soon:thumbsup: