nailbender
Flashlight Enthusiast
While at Ace Hardware today looking to see what mags were there I saw this Snap On 2D aluminum flashlight. It looked to be about the same diameter of a standard Mag so I picked it up.
Once home I had to check this out so I took it out of the wrapper and this is what it looked like.
I then began to take it apart. I did not have enough sense to get pictures of this but basically it has a reverse clicky switch held in by a snap ring. Once removed the switch is easily removed from the top not the bottom. Above the switch is a threaded piece of raw aluminum that screw down into the tube and has a hole in it into which the light bulb had fit. This provided the ground for the bulb as the bottom of the bulb was seated into a spring that was the positive.
This is the whole switch with a hot wire I soldered to the top contact after cutting off the spring that held the original bulb.
as you can see the switch is self contained and seem to be of good quality. it has only two contacts. The hot from the batter that I built up some solder on to accommodate flat celled batteries. The other contact that I have a wire soldered to is the switch hot. This I ran to the KD super P7 driver I used to regulate the two D Li Ion batts that I intended to use.
This is not as clear as some of the macro shots that show up around here but basically you can see there is little room above the switch that has been reinstalled. I have connected the driver to the switch hot on the middle peg of the driver, I connected another wire to the negitive whole on the in side of the driver.
I took a H2A heat sink and sanded off the edges that protrude up until they were flush with the sink body and all that protruded up was the emitter post and the emitter. I also drilled a hole on one side to run the ground wire up and attached the led wires from the driver and seated the sink into the tube and recessed it about 1/4 of an inch because this light has an aluminum plate that actually screws down into the tube and acts as a ground.
I left the ground wire stick through the top of the sink which I have coated with AA adhesive and left the stripped part of the wire protrude into the threads.
I then screwed the ground plate into the tube which makes contact with the AA adhesive. The bottom of the led is now flush with the top of the ground plate.
This is the light reassembled. The reflector is deep but smooth which lend to some artifacts but is one of the longest throw P7's I have built either smooth or lop. I also put a piece of UCL glass in the light.
The driver works great with the reverse clicky giving a great high, med., and low.
Beam shots you say.
The ceiling
The Wall and as you can see the hot spot has some artifacts in it and the hotspot is huge but when I stepped outside and shined on a neighbors house about 200 yards away it lit up like not many of the mags have.
Overall it was a pain to mod because of the limited machines I have but all said it came out neat, I love the looks of the light and it is a throw monster for a P7. Will I go get another and do it again
probably
Once home I had to check this out so I took it out of the wrapper and this is what it looked like.
I then began to take it apart. I did not have enough sense to get pictures of this but basically it has a reverse clicky switch held in by a snap ring. Once removed the switch is easily removed from the top not the bottom. Above the switch is a threaded piece of raw aluminum that screw down into the tube and has a hole in it into which the light bulb had fit. This provided the ground for the bulb as the bottom of the bulb was seated into a spring that was the positive.
This is the whole switch with a hot wire I soldered to the top contact after cutting off the spring that held the original bulb.
as you can see the switch is self contained and seem to be of good quality. it has only two contacts. The hot from the batter that I built up some solder on to accommodate flat celled batteries. The other contact that I have a wire soldered to is the switch hot. This I ran to the KD super P7 driver I used to regulate the two D Li Ion batts that I intended to use.
This is not as clear as some of the macro shots that show up around here but basically you can see there is little room above the switch that has been reinstalled. I have connected the driver to the switch hot on the middle peg of the driver, I connected another wire to the negitive whole on the in side of the driver.
I took a H2A heat sink and sanded off the edges that protrude up until they were flush with the sink body and all that protruded up was the emitter post and the emitter. I also drilled a hole on one side to run the ground wire up and attached the led wires from the driver and seated the sink into the tube and recessed it about 1/4 of an inch because this light has an aluminum plate that actually screws down into the tube and acts as a ground.
I left the ground wire stick through the top of the sink which I have coated with AA adhesive and left the stripped part of the wire protrude into the threads.
I then screwed the ground plate into the tube which makes contact with the AA adhesive. The bottom of the led is now flush with the top of the ground plate.
This is the light reassembled. The reflector is deep but smooth which lend to some artifacts but is one of the longest throw P7's I have built either smooth or lop. I also put a piece of UCL glass in the light.
The driver works great with the reverse clicky giving a great high, med., and low.
Beam shots you say.
The ceiling
The Wall and as you can see the hot spot has some artifacts in it and the hotspot is huge but when I stepped outside and shined on a neighbors house about 200 yards away it lit up like not many of the mags have.
Overall it was a pain to mod because of the limited machines I have but all said it came out neat, I love the looks of the light and it is a throw monster for a P7. Will I go get another and do it again
probably
