Z
z_2manypigs
Guest
Let me first start this post off by saying that I live on a small ranch in Texas that's over-run with feral hogs and coyotes. Since I was a kid I've seen the damage done by both animals and I take every opportunity to rid our state of these two species. In Texas it's totally legal to hunt both of these animals 24hours a day 365days a year. So, in my quest to moderate the damage caused by these varmints I have become very accustomed to night hunting.
One light I use constantly when walk hunting and calling for coyotes is my 2c maglite with a red terralux dropin running 2- 18650's, I've added a supplemental heatsink to keep it cool for the extended periods.
My buddies that I hunt with have really been interested in my light, so I decided I would make a few, since I can't find the red terralux dropin anywhere anymore. Here is how I built this first light:
First I did some planning and made my heatsink and used arctic aluminum adhesive to bond the emitter. The bonding surface of this led is (+) so I thought I would give this a try and see if it shorted out. It seems to work fine.
To center the led while bonding I built a small delrin(I think?) jig that would center on the heatsink pedestal and then engage the dome of the led and hold it centered. This also allowed me to hold pressure as the epoxy cured without damaging the led.
Notice the third hole from the bit I broke off :shakehead.
I next cut the switch and soldered leads on to attach to the driver. For a driver I used a luxdrive 700ma buck driver, since I wanted to run it on 2-18650's for the extended runtime. This driver had to be slightly trimmed on the corners so it would fit in the body. I also had planned on adding thermal past to the heatsink but I didn't have any so I put a layer of foil on it to hold it in place.
Here is a battery spacer I turned
Here is the finished light
Here is a whitewall shot at about 3ft
The light works good. I took it out the night after I finished it and called up 2 coyotes. I could see their eyeshine at about 250yards. I can also see hog eyes at about 50 yards with this light but they are very faint. Still have 2 more lights to make so I better get busy............
No I think I better finish my Dad's Christmas first its an SSR-90 Red in a Rebel reflector..... Pics to come :devil:.
One light I use constantly when walk hunting and calling for coyotes is my 2c maglite with a red terralux dropin running 2- 18650's, I've added a supplemental heatsink to keep it cool for the extended periods.
My buddies that I hunt with have really been interested in my light, so I decided I would make a few, since I can't find the red terralux dropin anywhere anymore. Here is how I built this first light:
First I did some planning and made my heatsink and used arctic aluminum adhesive to bond the emitter. The bonding surface of this led is (+) so I thought I would give this a try and see if it shorted out. It seems to work fine.

To center the led while bonding I built a small delrin(I think?) jig that would center on the heatsink pedestal and then engage the dome of the led and hold it centered. This also allowed me to hold pressure as the epoxy cured without damaging the led.

Notice the third hole from the bit I broke off :shakehead.
I next cut the switch and soldered leads on to attach to the driver. For a driver I used a luxdrive 700ma buck driver, since I wanted to run it on 2-18650's for the extended runtime. This driver had to be slightly trimmed on the corners so it would fit in the body. I also had planned on adding thermal past to the heatsink but I didn't have any so I put a layer of foil on it to hold it in place.

Here is a battery spacer I turned

Here is the finished light

Here is a whitewall shot at about 3ft

The light works good. I took it out the night after I finished it and called up 2 coyotes. I could see their eyeshine at about 250yards. I can also see hog eyes at about 50 yards with this light but they are very faint. Still have 2 more lights to make so I better get busy............
No I think I better finish my Dad's Christmas first its an SSR-90 Red in a Rebel reflector..... Pics to come :devil:.