Sunwayman L.E. V10R Ti2 Gold (or black)...what was your "out of the box" condition?

[Chrisdm]

Re: Sunwayman L.E. V10R Ti2 Gold (or black)...what was your "out of the box" conditio

Yes, the Ti2 button grinds & sticks unless it is depressed straight down. Bummer. At first I was hoping this would cure itself after use, but instead I put a kuku electronic switch in it.. And yes, there was obvious machining done after the finish was applied: Particularly the grooves in the handle, but also the numbering/lettering. This is a likely point where the blemishing to the finish occurred. But of course I'm sure Sunwayman already realized this, if in fact they are looking into the problem (I hope they are!)

Regarding titanium in general, it is easier to appreciate if you look at an unfinished sample side/by/side with aluminum: Not only is it much more visually appealing, but it feels smoother and it wears much better (finish marks etc can be rubbed out). Regarding the black Ti2 specifically, this type of coating (AlTin) is unique to titanium and from what I've read is even more durable than the typical hard anodizing performed on aluminum, plus is MUCH nicer looking IMO.

Out of the box condition of my V10R Ti2 Black some more observations and questions.

* Grinding crunching sound from the button. None when the button is pressed straight down. I get the sound when my finger is off to one side. It sounds like the button is rubbing on the inside when depressed at an angle.
* Did any one else look closely to see how the shiny groves were made it looks like these were polished after the anodize process as small burrs were left and can be felt by running your finger along the barrel. The scratches the "Goldies" have may be part of the post anodize machining process.
* Light color this one is even colder compared to my V10A, my V10A has warm tint compared to the Ti2.
* Hot spot on Ti2 is tighter and more defined than V10A. V10A is a smooth flood the Ti2 is more of a spot. The spot came at a cost there is now a dark shadow around the corona. Comes under the category of being careful what you ask for. There were many complaints about the floody beam of the XML compared to the XPG. I see this as an attempt of SWM to give more throw. My comment to those who were whining about the XML vs. XPG did you even compare the size of the active area of the emitters?
* Clip still needs to go through a tumble polisher before the finish is applied to remove burrs.
* Running the V10A and Ti2 side-by-side both on LiCo 16340 & 14500 the Ti2 appears brighter, via ceiling bounce test. The cells were straight off the charger.
* The V10R-AE neutral is considerable dimmer compared to Ti2.
* I need to buy new 18650's for my V60C so I think I will try IMR 16340's for my two V10R's.
* This is my first Titanium flashlight and first impression is other than the "bling" factor I'm not sure the extra cost is worth it.

=D~~ Kilted

 

[Kilovolt]

Re: Sunwayman L.E. V10R Ti2 Gold (or black)...what was your "out of the box" conditio

Black Ti2 #74/99 received today from Flashaholics.co.uk - the outer finish has no blemishes or scratches, the only complaint is the grittiness of the button which however does not get stuck.

BTW the output of this light is awesome.

 

[threethrty]

Re: Sunwayman L.E. V10R Ti2 Gold (or black)...what was your "out of the box" conditio

Who is that standing next to the Dalai Lama ...?

Whoa! If my eyes aren't deceiving me, that looks like Mr. Rogers!

Anyway, after all this, I'll be keeping my lights. On the bright side (pun intended), I do have 2 new lights to incorporate into my EDC setups as they do actually work. Not sure if I'll use just 1 or both.

Yes, I'm still very disappointed in SWM. I'm not sure I'll look their way for a while, especially for any kind of limited edition lights. My SWM itch has been scratched... out. If the product wasn't going to be as nice as advertised, there was no reason to take advantage of fans like me & create the expectations that it did. SWM could've just said the finishes of the lights would vary based on the manufacturing/anodizing process... or something like that. At least consumers would be walking into the transaction with more "open eyes" & have a better idea of what they might expect. Of course, I think the better business decision would've been to deliver what it promised or not deliver until it could, but hey, I'm not SWM. In this case, I'm not a fan of the current "all or nothing" decision. Send my lights back for refinishing? Ok... here, hold my $400.00 for a while until you're done. Really? Maybe a complete refund "makes me whole" if I return the lights, but the opportunity to generate goodwill is wasted. Thinking about it, I guess I did get a bonus with these L.E. SWM lights: another a reminder of caveat emptor.

For someone like me who gives his word & will take someone at his/her word, the bottom line is that SWM didn't deliver what it said it would deliver.

 

[Lou Maan]

Re: Sunwayman L.E. V10R Ti2 Gold (or black)...what was your "out of the box" conditio

I have to think this is a troll. Saying sunwayman's qc is worse than jetbeams because there were some scratches on a super premium offering, vs. jetbeams that actually fail to work? Seriously? You are a troll if that is what you are saying.

Again, I understand the disappointment if you received one of these lights and it was scratched, but how many actual people had scratches?

But comparing a light that is sent out with scratches vs a light that is sent out that doesn't work is ridiculous. I have personally had jetbeams that didn't work. I have read accounts of jetbeams that didn't work. Quality control is not pefection, it is a numbers game. I have also read of problems with ra lights, and everybody seems to love ra lights. Every manufacturer will have issues, including light manufacturers, even on special runs. It happens. It doesn't mean that manufacturer has shoddy qc. It does highlight the fact you are a troll, so we did at least get some useful information out of your post.

Being upset that you misread scratch-resistant as scratch-proof should be your problem, stop making it everybody else's. The same thing goes when you read stainless steel. That doesn't mean that steel will never rust, just that it is less rust prone than regular carbon steel.

Show me where on the marketing info it ever said 'this item will NEVER scratch'.

Whoa! Take it easy there kkeyser! Are you an agent for Sunwayman? What is your deal, man? You wanted this thread closed on page 3 and you're still here over the holidays calling people trolls? Where is your family and your goodwill towards others dude?

 

[Lou Maan]

Re: Sunwayman L.E. V10R Ti2 Gold (or black)...what was your "out of the box" conditio

I've been looking at a V10R Ti as the light looks a real good buy,i own a few more expensive lights & it must be said the lights i already own have travelled from the U.S to the U.K & when they've arrived
everyone of them was in a perfect condition.It doesn't matter to me how sorry SWN are, there quality control is now provern to be very poor.So there in no way i would be buying a high end light from a
company that doesn't inspect it's product thoroughly.I feel really sorry for the people who have bought one of the gold Ti2 thinking they had a great collectable, only to end up with a refund & no light at
all.At the end of the day we think we get what we pay for & usually this is reflected perfectly with flashlights.The quality of a $200 edc light should be something to be really proud of.One of my favourite lights
is a Jetbeam BC10 a quite cheap edc light to buy.I recieved that in perfect condition & i would buy from this company again no problem because of this light.I think SWN have blemished what was a growing
reputation in a very bad way,after all the V10R Ti2 was there flagship light.:shrug:

Yep! This light drew a lot of attention and marred SWM's reputation of QC. VERY damaging indeed. I'm sorry but I don't care how much money one has, $200 should have been gold/platinum plated. I'm saying you could sponsor some kids with that kind of money. So everyone here has a right to their opinion and for me, that light is being thrown in my pocket every day. Mine isn't perfect but heck I'm gonna use it now because in a short amount of time, there will be smaller, more powerful and prettier cooler lights with tritium, etc on the market for half the money. I don't think you can blame the dealers though some are dishonest and some are sweating about the refunds right now and yes, some do scratch test them and keep the best ones. But that is a minority I hope. I like Sunwayman and I'll continue to buy their lights for now but the QC needs to improve soon because lighting up isn't the sole purpose of a LE light or any Sunwayman light for that matter. People buy Sunwayman for QUALITY.

 

[notsofast]

Re: Sunwayman L.E. V10R Ti2 Gold (or black)...what was your "out of the box" conditio

Just because someone in the chain of command at SWM decided to ship a portion of the collector edition of the Ti V10R doesn't say to me they have a quality control problem. Does anyone really think some factory QC person had the final say on the condition of the lights that went out?

The reality is out side of the the V10R Ti2 very few posts reporting problems with SWM lights have been made. Judging SWM's ability to produce flashlights based on this collector edition is what happens when humans get too emotional.

 

[Kilovolt]

Re: Sunwayman L.E. V10R Ti2 Gold (or black)...what was your "out of the box" conditio

Out of a total of about 200 Ti2 lights it appears that only a limited number of the gold ones has surface finish problems and an even smaller number of the black ones. Probably a good percentage of the total is in the hands of CPFers.

It think it is now time to try and quantify this problem but personally I am at a loss as to how (poll?). Would someone who is better than me at these things please come forward and propose a way.

 

[Lou Maan]

Re: Sunwayman L.E. V10R Ti2 Gold (or black)...what was your "out of the box" conditio

It IS a QC issue. The head of the chain of command is responsible for everyone underneath. There are very few posts complaining? Well there were enough for SWM to publicly apologize so I think it's significant. Then there's those like myself who can live with the imperfections who don't want to send it back. It's a nice enough light and I intend to use it. Not everyone complains but it is sad to open something and go: "huh! what's this? oh well...".

There's no point in quantifying the problem. Surface finish is what Sunwayman excels at as well as aesthetics. This is the first time there has been a real issue. But with functionality, there have been issues in the past and most people only buy one light of a type and yes, it works. However, when you start to purchase more than one of the same, you realize there are many strange anomalies even between the supposed same light. There are huge differences in output, focus of the beam as well as reflectors, tints, beam patterns and throw. They all WORK. But there are huge differences. Is it just a casualty of modern day manufacturing? Probably to a great degree yes. Do companies have a final say in what goes out to the public? Of course the do.

 

[BLUE LED]

Re: Sunwayman L.E. V10R Ti2 Gold (or black)...what was your "out of the box" conditio

I have 67 / 89 in gold. The finish is ok, but I do like the output and cool white U2. The switch is not very good and gets stuck. I may buy a replacement.

 

[stoli67]

Re: Sunwayman L.E. V10R Ti2 Gold (or black)...what was your "out of the box" conditio

Black and gold both perfect!

 

[skatenut]

Re: Sunwayman L.E. V10R Ti2 Gold (or black)...what was your "out of the box" conditio

Guess I was very lucky, as far as these flashlight were concerned. Ordered a black one from the US, after I had nearly given up waiting for the 'Add to Cart' button to appear. Unfortunately, the lights were limited to one per buyer, otherwise I would have bought a black and a gold light.

Found these lights again nearly two weeks later at an Italian website, purely by luck, and ordered a gold light after a surprised double take. Mistake, should have ordered one black and two gold lights, while they lasted. They were gone just a few minutes later.

They are both fine, the gold variable brightness ring has a slightly different hue from the rest of the body. I'm not complaining, I'm celebrating!
Two safe-queens!

 

[egrep]

Re: Sunwayman L.E. V10R Ti2 Gold (or black)...what was your "out of the box" conditio

Did you know Fred Rogers was a Presbyterian Minister and a Vegetarian? Did you know that His Holiness, the Dalai Lama is a master watch craftsman and an avid collector? He not only has some of the rarest and finest watches, he's among the extremely few who can completely overhaul and repair those watches.

My background image is 'randomly' rotated every 5 minutes from various images in a folder. That one just happened to pop up when I took the picture. There are no coincidences however, only Karma. :devil:

Okay egrep since you posted that pic I've got to ask .... Who is that standing next to the Dalai Lama

Whoa! If my eyes aren't deceiving me, that looks like Mr. Rogers!