My plan lately has been to purchase a Sure-Fire 6PD Defender and run either a Sure-Fire P90, Lumens Factory SR-9 or a Malkoff P60/D26 style LED drop-in in it. Despite all the flashlights I have, I do not like to carry any of them at work for various reasons. I was in desperate need of a work flashlight.
I read a thread last night where somebody mentioned Target having Brinkmann Maxfire LX's on sale for $12.99. So today on my day off I decided to go down and grab one. Went straight to the flashlight isle and it looked like they were out. Well I couldn't believe it.. so I kept looking and found the empty rack. I thought oh crap, so I looked at the other Brinkmann's, the 3W and 1W LED racks and one of the xenon's was in the wrong rack on top of the 3W Brinkmann's, so I grabbed that, the last one.
Got it home and immediately swapped out the stock lamp and reflector for a Laser Products P90 I had in an SC1 carrier. That's the easy part. Kids play actually. Now I knew I had to somehow get the dimples out of the metal insert on the inside of the body so that a couple of AW's protected R123A's would fit. I grabbed hold of the inner sleeve with a small pliers and yanked it out. I'd done this once before actually. The hard part is getting the dimples out of the sleeve.
First thing I tried was attempting to run a nail through it with a hammer to start a hole so that I could cut out the dimpled lines. That was a no go.
Next I went out to the shed and found one of my electronics toolboxes behind some junk and grabbed a really sharp cutter than looked like a tin snips. I decided I would just cut from the end, but as soon as I put pressure on to cut, one end of the snips exploded and launch across the room. Luckily, it didn't hit me in the eye! Or I would be in serious trouble right now.
So I was getting a little frustrated. I decided to get my dad's ancient dremel set down from the top of one of the shelves. I looked at it a bit and there was no cutting wheel at all! Everything but that. So I made a trip to Sears and picked up a 6 pack of Craftsman cutting wheels for $6.99. When I got home I wasn't sure they would work, but I figured out how to put them on. Then I took the sleeve, the dremel and a pair of leather gloves out to the garage and went to work on top of the freezer cutting out the grooves. After I was done I went over the sharp edges with the pliers and then used a stone polishing wheel a tiny bit.:sick2:
Went back inside and put the sleeve back into the light. That was harder than I thought it would be. But eventually got it back pretty much in place after a little pounding with a flat head screwdriver and hammer.
Result? Rechargeable 9 volt 120+ lumen light that fits in my Sure-Fire V20 holster. :twothumbs And I won't cry if it gets banged up or lost. This is not my first flashlight mod, but my first that got me this involved..
I read a thread last night where somebody mentioned Target having Brinkmann Maxfire LX's on sale for $12.99. So today on my day off I decided to go down and grab one. Went straight to the flashlight isle and it looked like they were out. Well I couldn't believe it.. so I kept looking and found the empty rack. I thought oh crap, so I looked at the other Brinkmann's, the 3W and 1W LED racks and one of the xenon's was in the wrong rack on top of the 3W Brinkmann's, so I grabbed that, the last one.
Got it home and immediately swapped out the stock lamp and reflector for a Laser Products P90 I had in an SC1 carrier. That's the easy part. Kids play actually. Now I knew I had to somehow get the dimples out of the metal insert on the inside of the body so that a couple of AW's protected R123A's would fit. I grabbed hold of the inner sleeve with a small pliers and yanked it out. I'd done this once before actually. The hard part is getting the dimples out of the sleeve.
First thing I tried was attempting to run a nail through it with a hammer to start a hole so that I could cut out the dimpled lines. That was a no go.
Next I went out to the shed and found one of my electronics toolboxes behind some junk and grabbed a really sharp cutter than looked like a tin snips. I decided I would just cut from the end, but as soon as I put pressure on to cut, one end of the snips exploded and launch across the room. Luckily, it didn't hit me in the eye! Or I would be in serious trouble right now.
So I was getting a little frustrated. I decided to get my dad's ancient dremel set down from the top of one of the shelves. I looked at it a bit and there was no cutting wheel at all! Everything but that. So I made a trip to Sears and picked up a 6 pack of Craftsman cutting wheels for $6.99. When I got home I wasn't sure they would work, but I figured out how to put them on. Then I took the sleeve, the dremel and a pair of leather gloves out to the garage and went to work on top of the freezer cutting out the grooves. After I was done I went over the sharp edges with the pliers and then used a stone polishing wheel a tiny bit.:sick2:
Went back inside and put the sleeve back into the light. That was harder than I thought it would be. But eventually got it back pretty much in place after a little pounding with a flat head screwdriver and hammer.
Result? Rechargeable 9 volt 120+ lumen light that fits in my Sure-Fire V20 holster. :twothumbs And I won't cry if it gets banged up or lost. This is not my first flashlight mod, but my first that got me this involved..
Last edited:
