mosport
Enlightened
Savumaki got in touch the other week about upgrading his Lux-III PR-T head with a P4 and here's the freshly completed mod. I've modded a few McLux PD's before but not PR-T heads, this swap also applies to the PR head since the internals are basically the same. This one had a TV0K emitter, McR-27 and DB917 converter installed onto a SureFire E2E body. PR/-T heads can be difficult to find these days and since I couldn't find any modding references, here's what to expect when taking yours apart.
First step is unsoldering the emitter wires, the Lux is attached to the heatsink bulkhead with thermal epoxy and needs to be removed using needle nose pliers. With the emitter board lifted off, any remaining thermal epoxy debris can be scraped away using a dental pick, jewelry screwdriver tip, etc... Clean any remaining solder from the board to prepare for re-assembly.
When re-mounting the key detail is to position the emitter board with slug exposed, ensuring good slug contact against the aluminum body. Apply AA thermal epoxy thinly, center the board mounted P4 and re-attach to the bulkhead heatsink. The P4 board was bar clamped for pressure during curing then soldered, clear nail polish was also applied over the solder joints to prevent shorting out against the reflector base.
Finished mod! It's also possible to shim the P4 using 0.030" copper discs together with McR27-S to tighten the hotspot, but I've really grown to prefer the mismatched 'un-focussed' beam. Past mods using McLux Luxeon reflectors (such as McR18) with a P4 resulted in a larger spot and corona, with slightly less spot intensity as the tradeoff. Mailed back the light to Savumaki without taking any nighttime shots, so the beam profile is the only one available for now. I'll let him do the honours and post up some comparisons with other SureFires he owns. Personally I've only owned single cell 123 lights with smaller reflectors, so with a 27mm reflector directing light from a P4 @917mA it's more than adequate
Happy modding,
Derek
First step is unsoldering the emitter wires, the Lux is attached to the heatsink bulkhead with thermal epoxy and needs to be removed using needle nose pliers. With the emitter board lifted off, any remaining thermal epoxy debris can be scraped away using a dental pick, jewelry screwdriver tip, etc... Clean any remaining solder from the board to prepare for re-assembly.
When re-mounting the key detail is to position the emitter board with slug exposed, ensuring good slug contact against the aluminum body. Apply AA thermal epoxy thinly, center the board mounted P4 and re-attach to the bulkhead heatsink. The P4 board was bar clamped for pressure during curing then soldered, clear nail polish was also applied over the solder joints to prevent shorting out against the reflector base.
Finished mod! It's also possible to shim the P4 using 0.030" copper discs together with McR27-S to tighten the hotspot, but I've really grown to prefer the mismatched 'un-focussed' beam. Past mods using McLux Luxeon reflectors (such as McR18) with a P4 resulted in a larger spot and corona, with slightly less spot intensity as the tradeoff. Mailed back the light to Savumaki without taking any nighttime shots, so the beam profile is the only one available for now. I'll let him do the honours and post up some comparisons with other SureFires he owns. Personally I've only owned single cell 123 lights with smaller reflectors, so with a 27mm reflector directing light from a P4 @917mA it's more than adequate
Happy modding,
Derek
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