Wack a palm flashlights

[vicv]

I've seen these mention before in various places including the California cop light thread. But I've never come across one in real life and I'm curious about them. What was it that made them this way? Like what engineering shortfall required you to hit them to make them work? Any light that I've ever seen, it has batteries in it and they're held in place with springs. I can't see how hitting a light can make it work. So I'm curious about some examples of these. Plus I think vintage lights are cool and want to see your pictures of them

 

[bykfixer]

This might become my favorite thread here.
A wak-a-palm flash light was generally a low quality flashlight with crummy batteries available at the time. Usually corrosion on copper or cheap metal parts in the switch or where ever electrical contacts occured caused a higher resistance in the circuit thus causing a dim yellow output. A whack to the palm would often cause the light to become brighter.

Typical examples would be known as "fridge mount" lights where a 2c or 2d light had a fairly strong magnet and folks stuck them to the side of their refrigerator. Often months would go by between uses so the light would not work properly at the time it was called into action.

Lights back then had a spring in the tail cap that would rust, a fixed "button" at the bulb fastener and a sliding switch.

I'll post some pix later.

 

[bykfixer]

Some photos:

Here is a potential wak-a-palm flashlight.

A BMG 2D from the 1960's

Here's what the beam of a wal-a-palm looks like

A 1917 Ray-o-lite with dirty parts.
With some modern marvels like de-oxit the light has a nice bright beam but this one has sat for about a year so tarnish has set in.

The spring and spring contacts are tarnished.

Or you can have a tarnish issue elsewhere.

Or worse……alkaleak……

Items featured are a minty fresh 2D Eveready from the mid 1970's, a very nice working original condition 2D BMG from the late 1960's, a restored 2D Ray-0-Lite nickel plated miner light and an old Radio Shack alkaline plucked from a Maglite 2D I rescued.

 

[vicv]

Ah. Thanks for the pics and explanation. I thought it was a switch thing not an oxidize thing

 

[hsa]

Whack a palm was an early form of modern day Anduril, the highly popular UI created by "Toy Keeper". Flashlights in question were mostly slider switches.
Slide the switch, nothing happened.
One whack, the light came on but dimly..
Two whacks= brighter.
Three whacks= brighter, dimmer or off again, crap shoot.

 

[snakebite]

whack too hard=parts flying and darkness.

 

[bykfixer]

LOL I had forgotten about the third whack crap shoot game. You're right.
Then you shook it, right?

 

[hsa]

Shake and repeat. Correct.

 

[bykfixer]

I remember as a kid the neighbor's dad had one of those black 2D cop lights. He never had to give it a good whack. It was a Kel-Lite.
They were $20!! In 1974 that was a lot considering most flashlights were $4.99 or less.

My dad's first non-wak-a-palm was a 3D Kel-Lite knock off from Radio Shack. They were $8.99 iirc. Later my mom had a 4C Maglite.

 

[hsa]

I never heard of or saw a Kel-Lite or I would have bought one. They are really cool looking. Once Maglite came on the scene I got one and was hooked ever since.

 

[bykfixer]

Maglite changed the game forever.

The dirty Harry movies depicted Rayovac Sportsman lights that were pretty reliable but could become a wak-a-palm if not kept clean. One of the movies shows Harry picking a lock and you see a big ole dent in the head. Being it was dirty Harry's light led one to believe the dent did not come from driving a nail but rather adjusting the attitude of a dope smoking hippie. lol

 

[Olumin]

Wack-a-Lite™

 

[Lynx_Arc]

I grew up with whack lights. About every light I had back then you had to occasionally take apart and clean contacts. I found the slide switches if you couldn't take them apart were often a culprit and the lights with a push button in the slide switch for. Even expensive nice lights could develop the mole symptoms and require cleaning with perhaps 75% positive results as I've cleaned some lights 2-3 times before I 'got it right'. It may be the coating or plating of contacts was either non existent or poor on some lights. I have a few incan lights still in service with LED dropins in them that I almost never use that haven't developed the mole problem. My one favorite 2D is a Rayovac Roughneck modded to accept a 2D Mag LED dropin. I never use it and the batteries in it are around 15 years old no leakage either but I'm not overly concerned if they do leak as I don't plan on wasting money on batteries for lights that I never use. I've replaced one 3AA cheap luxeon LED light that had a alkaspew in it with a $10 2AA LED Energizer floating light. For the price I somewhat recommend this nice light for an almost cheap plastic light with a nice beam for general use and a clicky switch I put a carabiner in it and hung it on a nail in the garage so I can grab it with dirty oily hands and use it when needed and easy to wipe off. I have the original alkaleaks for now not sure I want to waste L91s in it with my tight budget.

 

[raggie33]

Some photos:

Here is a potential wak-a-palm flashlight.
View attachment 17907
A BMG 2D from the 1960's

Here's what the beam of a wal-a-palm looks like
View attachment 17908
A 1917 Ray-o-lite with dirty parts.
With some modern marvels like de-oxit the light has a nice bright beam but this one has sat for about a year so tarnish has set in.
View attachment 17909
The spring and spring contacts are tarnished.

Or you can have a tarnish issue elsewhere.
View attachment 17910

Or worse……alkaleak……
View attachment 17911

Items featured are a minty fresh 2D Eveready from the mid 1970's, a very nice working original condition 2D BMG from the late 1960's, a restored 2D Ray-0-Lite nickel plated miner light and an old Radio Shack alkaline plucked from a Maglite 2D I rescued.

how many lumens was these?

 

[bykfixer]

Depends on how many times you had smacked 'em against your hand. See post 5. lol

 

[Lynx_Arc]

Depends on how many times you had smacked 'em against your hand. See post 5. lol

I've had a few that I almost needed to get an Xray on my hand from smacking it so much.

 

[bykfixer]

I've never thought of needing an x-ray but have had "frisbee finger" a few times. The kind of wound where you busted a blood vessel on the inside and it feels like broken glass is stabbing you from the inside for a little while. Sometimes the finger swells like a sausage link too.

 

[Lynx_Arc]

I've never thought of needing an x-ray but have had "frisbee finger" a few times. The kind of wound where you busted a blood vessel on the inside and it feels like broken glass is stabbing you from the inside for a little while. Sometimes the finger swells like a sausage link too.

I haven't seen anyone playing frisbee since the early 80s, even frisbee golf is now disc golf. I even picked up a lighted frisbee it has 3 color LEDs and runs off coin cells.

Back to mole lights I've found that LED dropins help demole-ify lights the lower power requirements and larger voltage input range can negate small voltage drops due to contact resistance.

 

[Lark Hunter]

I have an old Bright Star 2D Liberty Torch (Bicentennial themed) that's one of two from my childhood; I remember my Dad beating them mercilessly trying to get the light to either come on or stop flickering. I dunno what ever happened to the second one, but I keep the one I have on the kitchen table in its decrepit condition, ready for whatever... mostly to wow friends with its teensy dim spot of light. I do use it a bit for light painting when doing night photography, and try to keep the whacking down to a slight jiggle or tap since it's older than I am.

 

[AstroTurf]

Smack Calibration... It Just Works!!!