finished my custom mags, had fun building these (beamshots added)

[netprince]

I've been a flashaholic all my life, but just found CPF a few months ago. (while googling to find out what a cree is ) I have since then done tons of reading, and spent way more money than I'd like to admit! I recently finished these three lights and thought I would post some pictures and details.

Before I started, I came up with some basic requirements. I wanted to build some interesting lights that are seriously bright. I also wanted them to run on AA cells only. As an added benefit, I dont have to worry as much about breaking them because I can rip them apart and fix them myself.

Here is the first one:

Here are the specs:

Standard 2D Mag host
Cree MC-E 5A, wired in serial
Orange P7 heatsink, sanded smooth
FM2 MOP aluminum reflector, modified
maxflex3 driver, set for 700ma
fivemega 6AA -> 2D battery adapter, filled with eneloops
tested runtime: 80 minutes on high
estimated lumens: about 600?

This is my favorite of the three lights. In my experience, the 5A emitter is great for indoor use. The low setting doesn't disturb my eyes in the middle of the night. The warmer color doesn't leave me blinded when I turn the light back off. The tint is also great for flipping burgers and other routine outdoor tasks.

The MOP reflector does a decent job of smoothing out the beam. I can still see artifacts in the hotspot when up close, but after about 5 yards it smooths out nicely. In general, this light is best for up close work because the hotspot is somewhat large.


Here is the second one:

The specs:

Bored and Finned host, made by Jesus Hernandez
Cree MC-E M-WD, wired in serial
Orange P7 heatsink, sanded smooth
Aspheric lens from Melles Griot
maxflex3 driver, set for 1000ma
fivemega 8AA -> 2D battery adapter, filled with eneloops
estimated lumens: about 1000?

This light is REALLY bright. I found out the other day (completely by accident) that it will trick the streetlights on my street into thinking its daytime, and they shut off. It does get warm, but I think the finned head does help to keep it cool. It does run on high for extended periods, I'm impressed with how well the mag host dissipates heat. I did buy an extra emitter though, just in case I manage to ruin this one.

I designed the head so the light focuses from flood when tightened down, to spot when unscrewed to the O ring. The flood mode is great for searching for items, in the car or grass or whatnot. The spot mode focuses almost all the light out front into a square pattern which resembles the 4 dies on the emitter. (The dies are in sharp focus just a few turns before the optimal throw position)

Here is the last one:

The Specs:

Standard 2D Mag host
Cree XR-E R-WH
Green P4 heatsink, sanded smooth
Fivemega Chrome-plated Throwmaster, modified
maxflex3 driver, set for 1200ma
mdocod 6AA -> 2D parallel battery adapter, filled with eneloops
estimated lumens: about 300?

With this light, I wanted to match the performance of a dereelight DBS. I would have bought the DBS if not for wanting to stick with AA cells. Let me just say, the throwmaster reflector is _nice_. It has had a rough life though. I had to enlarge the hole for the reflector to fit over my heatsink.

That went fine, but of course it had dust all over the reflector, and my air can couldn't remove it. I recklessly wiped the reflector with a cloth to remove the dust. The surface was no longer perfectly reflective, and I felt sick to my stomach. I then spent many hours researching the best way to recover. I eneded up sanding it with 2000 grit sandpaper, then polishing it with my dremel. Its no longer VLOP, but very smooth. I am thoroughly impressed with how reflective it turned out. I'm sure its not as reflective as stock, but it works great. I will just have to remember to re-polish it should it ever start looking dingy again.

This light is a serious thrower. Its almost annoying to use up close, because the hotspot is so small. I can easily search for cows on the hill about 200 yards from my parents house. I dont actually own a DBS for comparison, but that would be fun.

What a great hobby for the last few months! I am impressed with the CPF community, friendly people, and also some creative engineers! Thanks to everyone for posting the detailed information that allows projects like this to happen!

 

[Greg G]

Re: finished my custom mags, had fun building these

Great work and welcome aboard! :naughty:

You have been assimilated. :twothumbs

 

[toby_pra]

Re: finished my custom mags, had fun building these

Great work!:thumbsup:

How about some beamshots? I would like to see espeically the MC-E aspehric...:twothumbs

 

[maxspeeds]

Re: finished my custom mags, had fun building these

Darn. I just went outside to try and shutoff several of my street lights with my XR-E aspheric. No luck :tinfoil:. Are you on a hill shining the top of the street lights? I would love to see a video

 

[maxspeeds]

Re: finished my custom mags, had fun building these

That went fine, but of course it had dust all over the reflector, and my air can couldn't remove it. I recklessly wiped the reflector with a cloth to remove the dust. The surface was no longer perfectly reflective, and I felt sick to my stomach. I then spent many hours researching the best way to recover. I eneded up sanding it with 2000 grit sandpaper, then polishing it with my dremel. Its no longer VLOP, but very smooth. I am thoroughly impressed with how reflective it turned out. I'm sure its not as reflective as stock, but it works great. I will just have to remember to re-polish it should it ever start looking dingy again.

Did you remove the bezel prior to sanding and polishing?

 

[Icarus]

Re: finished my custom mags, had fun building these

Very nice mods! :thumbsup:

Which Melles Griot lens did you use (MG 01 LAG123 or MG 01 LAG 010) and where did you get the bezel?
The bezel seems long enough to stand up the light without the lens touching. :thinking:

 

[netprince]

Re: finished my custom mags, had fun building these

toby_pra: I will try to get some beamshots tonight.

maxspeeds: Yes, my driveway is elevated. I'd guess the light was about half way up to the height of the streetlight. I would guess they have the sensors covered pretty well to prevent headlights on cars from turning off the streetlights.

I did remove the bezel on the throwmaster. I used two strap wrenches, one locked into a vice, and the other in my hand. The bezel is on tight, but not glued. It also tightens up again a few hours after putting the bezel back on. Must be a result of the finish or something.


Icarus: This lens is the 01 LAG 010. The bezel came from cfromc in CPFM. It does just barely allow the light to stand. This is because I used my dremel to grind the outer lip off the lens until it would fit all the way down into the mag head. I then cut a spacer from PVC pipe at just the right height to allow the flood to throw adjustment. I used an extra large O ring to secure the lens. I was really suprised to see how well it turned out, I got pretty lucky.

 

[tx101]

Re: finished my custom mags, had fun building these

Very nice lights, 2Ds are abit large for my taste :nana:
I prefer 1D Mags
I need to build myself a MCE Mag now.
Whats the beam like on the aspheric MCE ?
Does it have a BIG cross in the middle ?

 

[netprince]

Re: finished my custom mags, had fun building these

There is definitely a visible cross in the aspheric model. I have found that it tends to fade away the further I unscrew the head, but then the outer edges of the hotspot turn blue. Personally I dont mind the cross compared to the blue outer edges.

 

[Aircraft800]

Re: finished my custom mags, had fun building these

I'd like to see how you wired the MC-E in serial, I couldn't find enough room to fit the wires and still look clean, so I scrapped the project and just wired it parallel.

Great looking builds!

I may have to grab one of those bezels up,l he is not making anymore after this run is done.

 

[f22shift]

Re: finished my custom mags, had fun building these

Great work!:thumbsup:

How about some beamshots? I would like to see espeically the MC-E aspehric...:twothumbs

ditto

 

[netprince]

Re: finished my custom mags, had fun building these

I love seeing beamshots as much as anyone else, so here we go...

(just to note, it was 23f outside, and my fingers were numb. All groups of shots were taken with aperture, exposure, and white balance locked.)

First, the red mce 5a reflector:

Next the mce wd aspheric:

Finally, the xre wh throwmaster:

Up next, a small clearing, I'd guess about 50-75 yards to the first trees.

This is a shot I'd guess is about 100 yards to the barn:

Finally, this shot we guessed is about 200 yards, over a small valley.

 

[netprince]

Re: finished my custom mags, had fun building these

I'd like to see how you wired the MC-E in serial, I couldn't find enough room to fit the wires and still look clean, so I scrapped the project and just wired it parallel.

I dont know if this will help. This is a shot of the extra MCE drop-in I built. I used a pair of wiring clips to hold each wire while I soldered it to the contact on the MCE. I held the heatsink/emitter in my left hand, and the iron in my right hand. It was surely a test of patience. Sometimes the lead would just come off after threading the wire through to the other side. I figure if it didn't come off after threading, then I made a good connection.

 

[LittleBill]

Can you provide links for your red mag parts? that flood is perfect for what i need, and think it looks flawless...

how did you decide what to drive the emitter at? im fairly new at this

 

[toby_pra]

These beamshots are really awesome!!! Many thanks my friend! :twothumbs

I like especially this MC-E aspheric...perhaps not as useful as your other
mods, but very very likely!

Did you mounted tha mags on a shaft for the beamshots? And how did
you fasten them?

 

[netprince]

LittleBill:

Sure, but we are not supposed to post direct links I thought? The driver is a maxflex3 from taskled.com. The heatsink is the orange p7 heatsink from 4sevens.com under upgrades. I also got the thermal epoxy and compound from 4sevens. The emitter I got from eprom in the B/S/T section of CPF. The reflector is a fivemega FM2 from the B/S/T section, and the battery adapter is a fivemega 6AA->2D from B/S/T. I also got teflon wire from mudman_cj in B/S/T section.

For that light, I tried running it at 1000ma, but it got a little too warm for my comfort, and it zapped the 6AA cells a little too fast for my taste. 700ma seems to work better for my preferences.

toby_pra:

Thanks. The mags were secured in a low tech manner! We used a sandal to keep them from rolling around, and set the sandal on a bar stool. Sometimes we had to prop the sandal with a glove. Its the best I could come up with at the time.

 

[cheetokhan]

Sure, but we are not supposed to post direct links I thought?

I think it's OK to post links. Here is what I found in the Rules&Policies section.
5. Posting articles and links

Articles from other sources are welcome. Links to other websites are welcome. Do NOT post the entire article on CPF! 9 times out of 10, this would be an infringement on copyright. Limit what you post to around 100 words and then post a link to the original source. Always post a link to the original source!

When posting links, please take a moment and have some consideration for the other members of CPF. Do not post links or URL's that are so long that they cause horizontal scrolling of the pages. Use the regular reply page instead of Quick Reply and follow the directions/prompts for posting or inserting hyperlinks.

And one other thing. If the link that you post leads to something of mature content and/or something that perhaps some of our members may not want to see, post a warning with your link.

 

[toby_pra]

toby_pra:

Thanks. The mags were secured in a low tech manner! We used a sandal to keep them from rolling around, and set the sandal on a bar stool. Sometimes we had to prop the sandal with a glove. Its the best I could come up with at the time.

Form follows function...:thumbsup:

 

[LittleBill]

LittleBill:

Sure, but we are not supposed to post direct links I thought? The driver is a maxflex3 from taskled.com. The heatsink is the orange p7 heatsink from 4sevens.com under upgrades. I also got the thermal epoxy and compound from 4sevens. The emitter I got from eprom in the B/S/T section of CPF. The reflector is a fivemega FM2 from the B/S/T section, and the battery adapter is a fivemega 6AA->2D from B/S/T. I also got teflon wire from mudman_cj in B/S/T section.

For that light, I tried running it at 1000ma, but it got a little too warm for my comfort, and it zapped the 6AA cells a little too fast for my taste. 700ma seems to work better for my preferences.

toby_pra:

Thanks. The mags were secured in a low tech manner! We used a sandal to keep them from rolling around, and set the sandal on a bar stool. Sometimes we had to prop the sandal with a glove. Its the best I could come up with at the time.

Did you have to use a lathe? i was doing some reading it appears one guy to do a p7 dropin required a ton of milling?

 

[netprince]

No lathe, just a dremel and the dremel stand. You could probably find a more suitable heatsink than that one, then you wouldn't have to sand off the top so the MCE would fit flush against it.

I wouldn't mind having (or better, just knowing someone who has) a lathe though, that would be fun.