$425 conus
The goal of this project was to make a good thrower with a tight beam and plenty of power. A nailbender D36 module with a 5700K SST-50 and OP reflector was the starting point. The three-level ShiningBeam driver was juiced up from 2.8A to 4.2A with the addition of a parallel 4x7135 board.
The current draws at the tail cap from a fresh IMR 26650 are 4.2A on High, 1.1A on Medium and 160mA on Low. It draws 4.15A from an AW 2600mAh 18650.
I've run it on High for 18 minutes while tailstanding on the desk. The body heats up quickly, which is a sign of good thermal management. At the end of the run, the light was very warm - right at the "hot potato" stage.
The bezel and tail cap are 416 stainless steel that was bead blasted to a nice satin finish. The body is polished 6061 aluminum. The plan was to powder coat the body but when I saw how nicely the bead blasted stainless goes with the bare aluminum, the plan changed. It could still be powder coated if desired.
Here's what one of these things looks like at the outset: just a big hunk of metal.
After skimming it to get a smooth surface to work from, we're off and running.
The D36 reflector was machined to a very smooth surface. The purpose of this was to mate it closely to a tapered bore in the body. The machinists out there will understand how to best do this: the reflector body is finished with the compound and then a taper is cut in the bore without changing the setting of the compound. The result is a perfect match between the two parts. This is important in this light because the thermal path from the light engine to the body is through the reflector. For the really picky among us, it should be noted that there is a copper ring inside the pill that seats between the brass body of the pill and the base of the reflector. This creates a thermal path from pill to reflector in addition to the connection at the threads that attach the reflector to the pill.
Here is the tapered bore that the reflector seats against:
The UCL glass is in a Delrin carrier so that it doesn't bear directly on the rim of the reflector. This isn't ordinarily a problem but the glass that was available was just a tad too small in diameter to match well to the rim.
The extra 7135 board fits into the standard pill beneath the ShiningBeam board.
The switch is a McClicky, of course.
The body is bored to fit the IMR 26650....
....and a sleeve is provided for an 18650.
The tail cap has a couple of lanyard holes that are chamfered on both sides to help prevent rapid wear of the lanyard.
Here are some beam shots. A lot of people have been impressed by the quality of the beam that Dave gets out of his D36 modules and this one is no exception. The hot spot is very concentrated and the corona is reasonably bright and very even.
The extra light that you get by upping the amps is really noticeable. The roof shown below is about a half block away and this light illuminates it quite nicely, actually better than suggested by the photo. I also have to say that the amount of light that squirts out on Medium is very useful and it is very reasonable to consider that to be the normal setting, with High reserved for impressing the neighbors and scaring away the garbage bear that shows up here regularly.
The goal of this project was to make a good thrower with a tight beam and plenty of power. A nailbender D36 module with a 5700K SST-50 and OP reflector was the starting point. The three-level ShiningBeam driver was juiced up from 2.8A to 4.2A with the addition of a parallel 4x7135 board.
The current draws at the tail cap from a fresh IMR 26650 are 4.2A on High, 1.1A on Medium and 160mA on Low. It draws 4.15A from an AW 2600mAh 18650.
I've run it on High for 18 minutes while tailstanding on the desk. The body heats up quickly, which is a sign of good thermal management. At the end of the run, the light was very warm - right at the "hot potato" stage.
The bezel and tail cap are 416 stainless steel that was bead blasted to a nice satin finish. The body is polished 6061 aluminum. The plan was to powder coat the body but when I saw how nicely the bead blasted stainless goes with the bare aluminum, the plan changed. It could still be powder coated if desired.
Here's what one of these things looks like at the outset: just a big hunk of metal.
After skimming it to get a smooth surface to work from, we're off and running.
The D36 reflector was machined to a very smooth surface. The purpose of this was to mate it closely to a tapered bore in the body. The machinists out there will understand how to best do this: the reflector body is finished with the compound and then a taper is cut in the bore without changing the setting of the compound. The result is a perfect match between the two parts. This is important in this light because the thermal path from the light engine to the body is through the reflector. For the really picky among us, it should be noted that there is a copper ring inside the pill that seats between the brass body of the pill and the base of the reflector. This creates a thermal path from pill to reflector in addition to the connection at the threads that attach the reflector to the pill.
Here is the tapered bore that the reflector seats against:
The UCL glass is in a Delrin carrier so that it doesn't bear directly on the rim of the reflector. This isn't ordinarily a problem but the glass that was available was just a tad too small in diameter to match well to the rim.
The extra 7135 board fits into the standard pill beneath the ShiningBeam board.
The switch is a McClicky, of course.
The body is bored to fit the IMR 26650....
....and a sleeve is provided for an 18650.
The tail cap has a couple of lanyard holes that are chamfered on both sides to help prevent rapid wear of the lanyard.
Here are some beam shots. A lot of people have been impressed by the quality of the beam that Dave gets out of his D36 modules and this one is no exception. The hot spot is very concentrated and the corona is reasonably bright and very even.
The extra light that you get by upping the amps is really noticeable. The roof shown below is about a half block away and this light illuminates it quite nicely, actually better than suggested by the photo. I also have to say that the amount of light that squirts out on Medium is very useful and it is very reasonable to consider that to be the normal setting, with High reserved for impressing the neighbors and scaring away the garbage bear that shows up here regularly.
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please PM your PP addy :thumbsup:
