Pelican M6 Xenon overhaul

[CanAm]

Today my first incan light since borrowing my parents' Mags and Streamlights back in the day arrived. (As an aside, I got my first LED light as a first-year university student and never really looked back.)




















It's a fairly early Pelican m6, 2320, with the threaded insert. I got it off the 'bay about three weeks ago and picked it up from the post office this afternoon. It sat in customs for a while because the seller mailed it with batteries, it was sent for a "dangerous/prohibited goods inspection" according to the tracking. I guess the seller thought leaving some old cells in the box was doing me a favor?

Anyways, as seen in the listing photos it was a little bit work and pretty dirty. It cleaned up well enough though, and there's a piece of UCL glass in the mail for it as well to replaced the scratched and slightly bowed plexi. I've included a shot of the beam artifacts caused by the scratches.

Well, once I wiped off all the crud it doesn't look too bad. Certainly not new, but I don't mind the wear. I also picked up a second xenon lamp module for it (a film production company happened to have them locally, I guess just back stock...) and some fresh batteries. It was working, and reasonably bright, out of the box, but there were some problems with the switch.
So, as planned, I tore it down, cleaned everything up, and applied a little lithium grease to the threads. It doesn't look much different, but it FEELS way cleaner and the beam is definitely improved with a clean lens.

I also tried the other lamp module, wondering initially if that was the source of the poor connectivity. It seems to work equally well with both, which is nice, and I couldn't notice a difference in brightness. Since the lamp module didn't seem to be the issue I partially disassembled the switch assemble and cleaned the contacts in there. That, combined with removing all the crud on the tailcap threads, put it back in good working order. Comes on every time now.

I like the beam, the color temp and CRI is good. The claimed 75 lumens is bright enough to light up a small room and the throw seems good. It's going to be my daily driver and worklight for the next little while since my girlfriend has taken my XL50 on a trip to her parents' house. Hopefully it won't suck down too many batteries :laughing:

I'm thinking, in the longer term, about trying to set it up with a drop-in, probably a Malkoff just because they have the tints and lumens I'm looking for. I've heard mixed things about P60 in Pelis though, so it may be an experiment for a rainy day. I'm also thinking of picking up some of the switch parts I have seen floating around while they're still available.

Overall, just wanted to share some first impressions and a few photos. It's a nice light, though I do agree with the comment I saw posted elsewhere on here "It seems like they designed a very nice light and then someone said 'let's make it cheaper.'" (Apologies but I can't remember the source)

Though I've heard the switches are often a point of failure for these lights it seemed like a robust enough system to me, this one was just a bit dirty.
One thing I don't understand is the two extra o-rings on the barrel. It's not a good storage location for spares, and it hardly seems like they would add grip...

Oh, and the holster included seems to be wrong. It looks too short for the space in the box, it's Uncle Mike's, not Peli OEM, and won't quite close over the light. I see Grainger's still has a few with the extra battery compartment though. Hmm...

See the photos on flickr here.

 

[bykfixer]

Thanks for your thoughts on the under rated Pelican 2320.

I put a Malkoff tailcap on my favorite M6. Works great.

A Malkoff module works, and so does a Sportac.

 

[ghostguy6]

Thanks for your thoughts on the under rated Pelican 2320.

I put a Malkoff tailcap on my favorite M6. Works great.

A Malkoff module works, and so does a Sportac.

Buy an aftermarket switch kit, this is a must. The switches that come on the M6 are absolute garbage. Believe it or not you actually have the improved version. The original's had a red boot and were even more prone to failure. When I carried the M6 2330 as my duty light I went threw so many switches that pelican gave me a box of 12 so I wouldn't need to make so many trips to their depot. In fact I was there so often that pelican gave me a free 1920 (2 AAA version) as a back up. They did this for many local police and security as well. I would estimate Ive gone through 20 switches over a few years before switching to a 6P. Its to bad they didn't improve the switches as it was a great light for its time.

If you lift one of the o-rings around the barrel you will likely find a tiny hole drilled into one of the grooves. This was the original gas purge system and was introduced in the second version of the body tubes. Judging by the bulb style you should have a 1st version body. If you do not have the hole I would suggest you drill one in as there have been reports of the M6 exploding with poor batteries. See https://www.candlepowerforums.com/v...CR123-Explosion-during-use-firsthand-account)

Lastly Pelican has discontinued all incan bulb modules. If you have a local supply I suggest you grab as many of them as you can. You can use the surefire p60 drop in bulbs but IIRC you need to add a washer to get proper contact with the springs. You can use LED drop in but be careful as the head does not dissipate heat well. Again you may need to add a modified washer to get proper contact with the body.

 

[bykfixer]

I was watching a tv show that showed a flashlight with a baby blue beam. Ugh! But it dawned on me CanAm speaking of extra bulb modules from a local movie production studio. Cool!!!

There's a member (yazkaz) who did some switch button covers for the Peli-M's like M3 and M6. He also did some parts to install an aftermarket switch. I don't recall for sure but think it was for Kroll's.
I did a kroll in my silver 2320 but scored a spare Pentagon switch and installed that instead. Pentagon and Pelican lights shared parts like switches and bulb modules. So the Pentagon B-X2 bulb module fits the Pelican M6. If you can find a busted 2330 or 2390 or Pentagon X2 those LED modules are plug and play.

To get a P60 to work an M28 (28mm ID 30mm OD) plumber o'ring between the lens and P60 pushes the module back far enough to achieve proper ground in the M6.

Thanks for the info ghost guy. Good to know. I've never seen a twisty M6, either version. I bought a couple made in 2014 that had an upgraded clicky according to Pelican. My silver one was second hand and had a busted clicky so I got it cheap and ended up fixing it.

 

[CanAm]

If you lift one of the o-rings around the barrel you will likely find a tiny hole drilled into one of the grooves. This was the original gas purge system and was introduced in the second version of the body tubes. Judging by the bulb style you should have a 1st version body. If you do not have the hole I would suggest you drill one in as there have been reports of the M6 exploding with poor batteries.

This is good info. Mine doesn't have the hole, so I will carefully add one this weekend. I can see where there would be some difficulty with venting, especially with the threaded bulb module having an O-ring between it and the body. One would hope that a few years of battery technology advancement and a little caution would minimize the risk, but better to be safe.

Re: the switch, I have heard this before. I believe what you're saying, but just can't figure out what's going wrong looking at it on the bench. Mine is the twisty version FWIW.

If you're looking for incan bulbs send me a PM, I would be happy to name the source but don't know if it's considered poor form to name a supplier publicly. They're in Canada so you won't even have to pay customs. I'm not sure if these lights were just popular with film crew in their heyday (I've never seen another Peli on set that I can think of, but wasn't in the biz when incan was state of the art) or if they ordered them in for niche use as part of the set lighting or in some kind of prop and now this supplier just has a bunch of leftovers. They do also have some Streamlight bits, but no other Pelican parts. Weird.

Well bykfixer, we could make almost any light almost any tint. Whether or not the art department would care or think to ask for our help with that is another matter. I'll admit part of my curiosity for an incan flashlight comes from working with their big brothers.

Thanks to both of you for the switch advice and the drop-in suggestions. I've seen yazkaz's switch parts and was eyeing them up even before having the light in hand. There's a little bit to investigate there for sure, I like the light so I'm going to try to keep it going. In the case of a drop in I would probably use the aluminum foil trick or even try to cast some thermal paste onto it for heat sinking, though the hottest drop-in I've looked at is the multi-mode malkoff which maxes out a little under 500. I'm not trying to build a pocket searchlight. Yet.

 

[ghostguy6]

As far as I know there never has been a version of the M6 with a stock twisty switch. Although when the switches fail in the on position they did work as a twisty. The 1st generation switches with the red boots were clickies but were much crappier than the ones with the black boots. As far as I remember the problem lies with the notched plastic piece with the tiny washer on it. Sorry dont know what to call it but if you look at this picture its the tiny piece at the end of the tweezers. https://i.imgur.com/vAWK6ww.jpeg . It wears fast and needs very tight tolerances to work properly. I was never able to repair one to my satisfaction, but the good news is Pelican stands behind their warranty so I just got replacements. I ended up switching to surefire before going to an aftermarket switch. I keep meaning to get a Kroll switch kit but never get around to it.

 

[bykfixer]

From what I remember reading the Kroll was first used to make the twisty into a clicky. Places like the Sandwich Shoppe and Flashlight lens dot com carried a custom sleeve to allow a Kroll to screw into the Peli tailcap. Trouble was the button stuck out like a hemerhoid so they weren't real popular.

Here's an early Malkoff when he used the Kroll.

I've never seen a 2320 with a twisty but do remember reading about them from back in the day.

 

[CanAm]

So, yesterday I received a Malkoff drop in for this light. The xenon bulb is great, but it eats batteries.

I dropped it in, everything went together just fine. Screwed the head down a little further than it goes with the bulb module and pressed the button...

Nothing.

My first thought was, maybe the module's not getting a good enough ground to the frame of the light. Busted out some copper tape, gave the drop-in and the threads a quick layer (careful to keep it far away from the spring and battery terminals) and put it back together.

Nothing.

Tried to bypass the switch -

Light.

So, there's some kind of issue in the switch. Which doesn't surprise me, as I've noticed that different levels of pressure cause different light levels with the xenon bulb, which suggests dirty contacts.

We may be getting into modding and LED discussion with this, but I'm trying to clean up the switch assemble and I cannot get this f°°°ing brown plastic washer out. Won't pry loose (and I'm wary of destroying it), can't pierce it with a hot tack (to get a pin spanner into the brass nut below). The nut below it is holding the switch plunger beneath the rubber boot in place, so I can't get at all the contacts in the switch without removing it.



Any advice?

Given that it works with the malkoff, I'm considering picking up an M3 (there's a NIB listing on a certain auction site right now). I'm also eyeing the Sandwich Shoppe PM6 Module for a set-up that would allow me to keep the larger-size stock reflector, though I'd have to get an LED and driver worked out.

My girlfriend is unimpressed (or at least thoroughly uninterested) with the new hobby. Though I'm sure she'd lend me here soldering stuff if I asked nicely... Does this mean I'm becoming a flashaholic?