Night Shift

[bykfixer]

So now for a few beam pix.
I enjoy checking out a beam characteristic without distractions by nearby objects at times to see how a light can throw, spill and both. So I spent my lunch break shining the quiver of flashlights down an unlit gravel road. The light colored gravel allowed my celcam to capture the details in low light better. It also aided in determining why the HL4 was the correct tool to help light the hole full of water mentioned in the previous post.

Some free lumens provided by diesel powered sunshine light plants and nearby street lights.

To me the ones that stood out most were lights with aneamic output in todays 4 digit lumen technological electric candles. The Pentagon L2 and Malkoff MD2 with an NL showed me what all the fuss must've been about back when LED tech was just approaching the 200 lumen bar. I really like the Pentagon L2 (and similar Pelican 2390) beam. Like the Bones and Bravo their beams are pretty similar. The MD2 with an NL is just a sweet flashlight. But not having a wrist lanyard meant my Kroll era Malkoff stayed safely stored in the truck. Aint like there's a whole bunch of vintage Malkoffs on eBay waiting for me to lose mine. SN 1271 means it aint one of the first batches but it still one I'd prefer to not lose on a construction site.

Not bad for under 200 lumens

The X3 with a prototype LED was also impressive. Mine has a twisty and Pentagon chose mega-stiff springs so thumb fatigue becomes an issue for short term lighting times. Unlike SureFire and others the Pentagon twisty is a brute force number my thumb aint real fond of. Plus it gets real hot real fast.

Sweet. Now to find a clicky for it.


Now it was obvious why police like a Stinger so much. It can be a retina sizzler when needed or a mighty fine search and rescue light.

It sucks to be on the wrong end of that beam.
But great for finding a lost kitty cat or checking the back yard for burglars.

I brought a SOG with me that also has a pretty potent beam for such a small light. Another retina scorcher.

Yikes that thing makes you squint.

The Elzettas were compared and as the photos show have a good combo of spot and spill.

The Bones was aimed more in the air to show max throw potential where the Bravo was aimed to compare spot to spill.

And last but not least, theProTac HL4 and it's tidal wave of floody beam.

Lots of light without the urge to squint.

 

[Monocrom]

Have to agree, Ven would likely make it an exciting shift.

As for a good Maglite being squandered, I know what that's like. Five years ago, worked with an older security officer as part of a two man team keeping America's future safe at the (mostly Freshman) dorms of Marymount Manhattan College. Only security job I actually miss because I was part of a team that guarded something important.... sleeping young students.

Anyway, noticed that my partner didn't have a good light on him. Gifted him my 1st Generation LED 2AA Mini-Maglite. After a few weeks, he told me the "funny" story of how he lost it. So normally most security officers change into their uniform at work. Some of us will wear the lower part of the uniform before arriving. Black pants, black shoes, black-colored belt. So all you have to do is change your shirt. Even those who change into their full uniform will keep a belt already in the loops of their uniform pants.

Well, not the guy I worked with. He'd change his entire outfit. Including taking his belt off before the start of his shift, and looping it through his uniform pants. At the end of the shift, he did that again; only back onto his casual pants. This uniform change took him forever! So one night, he forgot to hold onto the light's belt pouch while taking his belt off. Light went tumbling down and ended up at the back of a table in the locker room. And for some bizarre reason, he didn't notice that. When he came back the next day, it was gone.

The whole thing was just so stupid, but what can you do. I even told him immediately after gifting it to him that it wasn't some cheap light. That all he had to do was once in awhile change the batteries. No need for a bulb change. And the light would last him many long years. I didn't bother gifting him another light after his "funny" story.

 

[Chauncey Gardiner]

So this one character was trying to find something with a shovel and asked his helper for some light.

PKDL PR-1 on medium.

:shakehead It never matters how bright your flashlight is. The guy with the weak light will always keep shining his. :laughing:

 

[bykfixer]

Amen CG.
After a few minutes I just walked away.

Mono, when I gave that guy the package I kinda felt like it was not going to end well for that flashlight. But I did not realize he'd blind everybody with it.
Good thing he aint smart enough to wear a headlamp.
Good gosh.

He did tell me at one point he liked my headlamp idea. I remembered having a spare and though for about 0.0008 seconds giving it to him, but then he blinded me once again with his Maglite.
One of the workers said "holy $**+ that guys a monkey with a Maglite". lol
That's where that came from.

Most of the fellows out there are off spring of dudes my age that like me, used a minimag way back in the day. So these lads been brain washed into thinking celphones and those "atomic"'numbers are proper lighting tools. The Maglite brand is foreign to many of those folks. And Streamlight? What's that?

I enjoy telling them stories of some of the shinanigans I used to get into with their dads back in the day.

 

[bykfixer]

I started working the night shift recently. Paving.

Now us flashaholics get all twisted when we see folks using celphones for lighting. These cats didn't even have celphones. As in a group of ten chaps who work the midnight shift for a living and none had any lighting tools at all.

The paver broke and nobody had a flashlight, except me. Now I could have whipped out three lights on my person and offered assistance. What I did instead was walk back to my truck and grab a brand new nip aaa minimag and hand it to the foreman.

Now as for me I failed as a flashaholic. Yeah my 2D Maglite, my headlamp and my edc lights had fresh fuel but my Bones had low batteries (and no spares with me) so an incan minimag was probably brighter.
I'm still kicking myself.

 

[id30209]

I started working the night shift recently. Paving.

Now us flashaholics get all twisted when we see folks using celphones for lighting. These cats didn't even have celphones. As in a group of ten chaps who work the midnight shift for a living and none had any lighting tools at all.

The paver broke and nobody had a flashlight, except me. Now I could have whipped out three lights on my person and offered assistance. What I did instead was walk back to my truck and grab a brand new nip aaa minimag and hand it to the foreman.

Now as for me I failed as a flashaholic. Yeah my 2D Maglite, my headlamp and my edc lights had fresh fuel but my Bones had low batteries (and no spares with me) so an incan minimag was probably brighter.
I'm still kicking myself.

Savage... I would have done the same LOL

 

[cp2315]

lol
I am sure that you will be back, over prepared this time!

I started working the night shift recently. Paving.

Now us flashaholics get all twisted when we see folks using celphones for lighting. These cats didn't even have celphones. As in a group of ten chaps who work the midnight shift for a living and none had any lighting tools at all.

The paver broke and nobody had a flashlight, except me. Now I could have whipped out three lights on my person and offered assistance. What I did instead was walk back to my truck and grab a brand new nip aaa minimag and hand it to the foreman.

Now as for me I failed as a flashaholic. Yeah my 2D Maglite, my headlamp and my edc lights had fresh fuel but my Bones had low batteries (and no spares with me) so an incan minimag was probably brighter.
I'm still kicking myself.

 

[bykfixer]

yup, I was locked and loaded with batteries and spare lights then "rumble, rumble, rumble" rain out.
My lawn liked it though.
So after sleeping all day and being coffee'd up by sundown I'll just clean and lube up a few favorites and charge up my RCR's and Eneloops…… while binge watching the old 90's tv show Crime Story. Love, love, love the authentic scenery and those classic cars of 1963.

 

[bykfixer]

So do you really need a flashlight with all these free lumens around?

Hmmm, perhaps shadows are an issue?

You betcha, and I needed all 650 lumens from my Bravo to see this issue of a blemish in the new asphalt mat.

 

[bykfixer]

In the land of free lumens shadows are ridiculous. So I dusted off an old thrower that used to be the one I used a lot when I first joined here.

The Coast HP7R.
A light that can be plugged in via micro usb or the battery pack could be recharging while you ran it on supplied aaa cells while it charges.

It stated 400 meter throw.
Well that's pretty optomistic. It'll light a reflector easily at that distance but is really useful to about 150 to 200 meters. Rated at 250 lumens that was still pretty good considering.

If you adjust the head just right you can cast that awful square a couple hundred feet on a wall if you choose to.

The deal with this light is that it cuts through thick humidity and free lumens for a 100 feet or more, so I can see an issue at a distance and decide if it warrants addressing up close. After a few evenings I realized a zoomie would be very handy but my Coast HP7 beam did not cut through the night quite as much as I'd like. So it dawned on me the 7R was much better at it because it zooms out farther and create a more narrow beam.

Yeah, tint and corona etc are not pretty but it's function over flashion at times like this.

 

[aznsx]

Personally, I'd come up with an excuse to use that light just because it says 'Mugen' on it!...but that's just me.

 

[bykfixer]

^^^^^ this from a person with "nsx" in the user name?

More Power……

 

[bykfixer]

The past week at work on Main St USA the lighting needs were more about competing with various lighting from many directions. Shadows, shadows, shadows. It showcased why a modern flashlight is a great tool to have. On night one I was the only person with a flashlight. By weeks end there were a few with one.

The cool beam light was the most useful at cutting through the light pollution. My 600+ lumen Elzetta Bones with it's fairly neutral tint seemed weak at times. To confirm I used a Bravo AVS and saw the same result. Yet my 6200 kelvin PKDL FL2 looked much more potent even though output and beam style are practically the same.

Once things are done on the Dirty Boulevard we will move to a more normal after dark setting. Less Vegas, more stars. So I look forward to using some warmer lights in the country side where moon light can be enough to guide your foot steps.

 

[bykfixer]

The most recent night duty is to watch over a tractor that eats asphalt and drinks jet fuel.
Paving some roads involves removing the old top layer with a "milling machine". It's kind of like a tractor operated wood planer. Only much larger. The material removes goes onto a conveyor on the front of the tractor that deposits the ground up asphalt into dump truck beds.

My job is to observe traffic, watch the depth of material cut off, ensure no weakened thin layer is left over, general cleanup when done and a few other things. It's not a bad gig. And the location at this point is a country road that goes past ginormous houses on the James River about a half mile from the road. Put it this way, in the 1.2 miles there are 4 houses. Each lot is about a quarter mile wide and one was owned by country singer Jimmy Dean when he was alive. I'm actually sitting at the entrance to that estate as I type this. Ordinary folks driving down this road would likely think it's just another paved driveway as there is nothing fancy at a glance.

Being out of the metropolitan means stars and darkness. The city is a glow off in the distance. It's the kind of place a barking dog can be heard about a mile away. So with an asphalt eating tractor, lots of dump trucks and cleanup equipment moving about it's probably the most noise this area has heard since the last big "ho-down" Jimmy Dean put on.

Aside from my EDC lights and helmet lamp I brought a new one to my collection. A SOG DE-01, which is a 1x 123 thrower. At only 188 lumens on high it has a fixed beam not unlike a Maglite ML 25. It used an XPG R5 LED when they were produced. In the dark conditions it does a great job.

A couple of photos:

What it looks like as the train approaches

What my DE-01 does to darkness

The asphalt being deposited into the dump truck

The giant planer machine

 

[bykfixer]

The other night a surefire lego got the nod to battle light pollution.

E2D LED body with a 350 lumen 3600k Tana module
Incan head, scout tail cap, long two way clip, primary fuel.

Same crew, different location. The location was a semi-dark cut through between Main St USA and Maple Ave USA at the outskirts of Metropolis. An interstate is also nearby. The places that were lit up were gas stations with cool white parking lot lighting. The kinda place that closes at 10pm but you can still use your plastic to get fuel. But in between you can look up on a clear night and see satellites moving across the sky if you look hard enough.

So the incan looking beam from my flashlight was spot on this time. At one point I needed to show a fellow something about 100 feet away so I deployed the E2 from my trouser pocket, aimed it in the direction and the warm beam acted like a light orange sharpie on a white piece of paper through the cool white light polution. "See, over there" I said. The foreman's response shocked me. "Is that a SureFire E2?" he says. My kid boss with his celphone for light says "what's a SureFire?" The foreman says "if you gotta ask you can't afford it" lol. The foreman is a guy I've known for 25+ years. He remembers when an incan minimag was a super good tool to have at night and he thought my lego was actually an incan light. The conversation quickly turned back to work related but it was pretty neat to have a construction worker recognize the famous E2 flashlight.

The incan looking beam did the trick.

Without a flashlight

 

[bigburly912]

This is being done all up and down US23 Mr.Fixer. Stay safe out there. I've seen 3 horrible wrecks within a few miles of my workplace the last couple weeks. Don't know why people can't slow down in a work zone.

 

[greenpondmike]

Is it just my android or is a lot of those pictures not showing up? Hello to you bykfixer. I would have enjoyed being out in the country with a bunch of flashlights- especially incans. The only picture I saw on that area was the one with the train in it.

Edit: I got back on the page and all the pictures showed. I always enjoy your flashlight beam pictures.

 

[PhotonWrangler]

Is it just my android or is a lot of those pictures not showing up? Hello to you bykfixer. I would have enjoyed being out in the country with a bunch of flashlights- especially incans. The only picture I saw on that area was the one with the train in it.

I'm seeing all of the pictures. Your browser security settings might be blocking photos hosted on third party sites.

 

[greenpondmike]

Thanks, but it somehow got fixed when I got back on the page.

 

[Jean-Luc Descarte]

[snip]

The incan looking beam did the trick.

Without a flashlight

There's something magical about warm white LEDs illuminating the dark between two cool white lamps. Love the photos, fixer :twothumbs