\"Mini-Blaster\"
The Blaster II is a great light, with just the right amount of light for most of my purposes. However, I've always been a fan of C-sized lights for carry convenience.
So, I made a "Mini-Blaster" based on the Blaster design and components, including 1W LD and 30mm optics. The Blaster weighs in at 30 oz. while the Mini weighs 12 oz.
Here's a Blaster with the Mini. The Mini body is a Mag 2C, with the emitter, heat sink, MicroPuck, and 30mm optics packed into the area that used to contain the focus assembly. The bezel is a very much cut down Mag reflector holder. (Those of you with lathes would laugh in pity if I told you how I did this.)
I got the 1W LD Luxeon Star kit from LED Supply, including the MicroPuck, and 30mm optics from Elektrolumens. This shows the heat sink with MicroPuck attached, spacer ring, and cut down Mag switch.
Here they are stacked up ready to be pushed into the 2C body. Not shown is the C ring that locks everything into place. The 30mm optics need to be cut down to an actual 30mm to fit inside the bezel.
While it looks like I got messy with the Artic Alumina epoxy (which I did), this was intentionally done in an attempt to reflect stray light back into the 30mm lens.
It's a nice compact carry light. If I used a BadBoy instead of the MicroPuck, I assume the light output would equal the Blaster II. As it is, it comes close, and I'm trading some brightness for runtime with the relatively limited 2C power source.
5W 2C-size and 2D-size versions are already in the works.
The Blaster II is a great light, with just the right amount of light for most of my purposes. However, I've always been a fan of C-sized lights for carry convenience.
So, I made a "Mini-Blaster" based on the Blaster design and components, including 1W LD and 30mm optics. The Blaster weighs in at 30 oz. while the Mini weighs 12 oz.
Here's a Blaster with the Mini. The Mini body is a Mag 2C, with the emitter, heat sink, MicroPuck, and 30mm optics packed into the area that used to contain the focus assembly. The bezel is a very much cut down Mag reflector holder. (Those of you with lathes would laugh in pity if I told you how I did this.)
I got the 1W LD Luxeon Star kit from LED Supply, including the MicroPuck, and 30mm optics from Elektrolumens. This shows the heat sink with MicroPuck attached, spacer ring, and cut down Mag switch.
Here they are stacked up ready to be pushed into the 2C body. Not shown is the C ring that locks everything into place. The 30mm optics need to be cut down to an actual 30mm to fit inside the bezel.
While it looks like I got messy with the Artic Alumina epoxy (which I did), this was intentionally done in an attempt to reflect stray light back into the 30mm lens.
It's a nice compact carry light. If I used a BadBoy instead of the MicroPuck, I assume the light output would equal the Blaster II. As it is, it comes close, and I'm trading some brightness for runtime with the relatively limited 2C power source.
5W 2C-size and 2D-size versions are already in the works.
