Minimag aa upgrades?

[bykfixer]

There no way around the donut hole except just don't twist the head until a donut hole appears.

A few years ago I used a can of clear coat engine enamel to lightly fog a reflector for a light orange peel of an extra reflector for an ML25 to compare to the acrylite lens. I ended up preferring the acrylite lens but that light orange peel reflector did help clean up the beam some. Throw was better with the acrylite.

Basically it involves spritzing a mist of spray paint over the lens and letting droplets of paint gentley land on the lens. The can is about a foot away horizontally and 18-24" vertically. Just push the spray tip breifly. Maybe twice. Let dry a while and try it out. Apply a second time and you're done. Anything beyond that and throw is greatly reduced.

BTW I did some test sprays to dial in the method.

 

[Megalamuffin]

Clever idea byk. Do you get a donut hole on your acrilyte lens when first turned on, before you twist to focus? That’s where I’m still getting a donut. I guess you could call it max flood mode or something. Maybe the extreme thickness of the lens has something to do with it. I don’t count getting donut holes when you twist the head past the most focused point. I don’t use it past that point.

I’m going to contact flashlightlens and see why these are so thick, and if they make one about the same thickness as the stock lens.

On a fun side note I tried the acrylite in my led minimag. It removed the little ring that is normally in the beam and looked just slightly more clean overall.

 

[bykfixer]

I do not have an acrylite in a AA minimag but I do get a donut hole when starting my 90's AA and aaa minimags and a gen 1 ML25 LED and the incan.

I have acrylites in ML25's, an incan aaa minimag and a couple of older lights like a 2D 2nd Kel-Lite.

Now, the donut hole can be your friend at times. When focused to throw the light bulb can place too much light on a close up object like a shiney coin you need to see better or inspecting inside a shiney object. Focus to add some donut hole and viola, object is lit without too much intensity.

Here's what I mean.

In picture 1 my camera did not see enough light to bring the watch into focus without a long (1 second) shutter speed. So the picture is partly fuzzy.

In picture 2 bulb is focused to throw and "geez, my eyes, turn down the light!"

In picture 3 the donut hole was used as a tool to achieve the desired affect of a detailed, in focus object.

My aaa incan minimag with an acrylite.

Just don't drop it in a swimming pool.

 

[Megalamuffin]

I am thinking I could grind down the face of the reflector to allow more room for the acrylite lens. It doesn’t look like it would hurt anything as long as I don’t grind so thin that it would break.

 

[Incandescent]

My frosted CD case lenses do quite a bit more diffusion than the acrylite. The donut hole is more of a dim spot rather than hole, even at widest focus. At medium focus, there's no dim spot at all. Also not quite as thick as the acrylite, since my bezel only has a very slight gap. I recommend trying some d-c-fix if you want something more like this, and that also wouldn't give you a bezel gap. The throw is greatly reduced, but it makes one heck of a nice short range light.

Still a huge acrylite fan for when maintaining more throw is desirable, though.

 

[Megalamuffin]

Well it took me a while to get around to it, but I finally took a shot at grinding down the reflector to make up for the ultra thick acrylite lens. It was easy to do on the belt sander. I left it at this for now but may take more off later so the bezel tightens down all the way, however this is certainly acceptable.