gadget_lover
Flashaholic
This light is the first one that I've made more or less from scratch. I call him 'Slim. It was supposed to replace the modified Dorcy 1AA that I EDC. The modified Dorcy uses a cell pulled from a CRV3, so it's nice and bright but not always practical. Slim uses a CR123A and puts out about 22 lumens.
I had two objectives. Making it thinner than the stock Dorcy (it's got a huge head and thick body) and make it work off a CR123A. This was actually a mule for practicing techniques. A little turning, boring, threading, knurling and finishing went into it. It's made from 6061 aluminium. It gave me some good practice in making parts to fit other devices.
Slim and his grandfather.
I made one piece at a time, starting with a Dorcy 1AA and replacing each piece as it was completed. I kept the electronics from the Dorcy including the spring contact. The head fits on a stock 1AA or 2AA light and works! The body fits into a stock 1AA 3 led head. The tailcaps are not stock.
The tailcap on the left is a 'tactical twistie'. It has a pushbutton for momentary use. You can tighten it down all the way for constant on. The tailcap on the right is a normal twisty.
The Kroll was added as an afterthought. It required an adapter because the inside threading was .75 mm pitch and just a touch wider than a CR123A. The Kroll requires a 5/8 x 28TPI thread.
The Lux III is thermal epoxy'ed to the heatsink. The luxeon is actually fairly well centered. The optic is an NX05 that I had in my parts kit. I may change it with a Fraen LP. It gets warm after a few minutes of use, but not hot.
It puts out the same beam as my ARC LSH-P, with the same measured brightness. Beamshots would be redundant, as everyone has seen what an ARC beam looks like.
For comparison, some other 1 cell lights;
The parts (doesn't look like a Dorcy, huh?)
And the twisty cap
The body will eventually be replaced with one that's a little better made. It won't be compatible with the Dorcy, so I'll have a bit more lattitude as far as shape, length of threaded section, etc. I'll probably upgrade it to a badboy at 500ma to get a bit more light. I still want long runtime, so I'll figure out a way to make it two stage too.
Daniel
BTW, I was not going to post about this light, but my wife sort of goaded me into it. I guess she's tired of me coming into the room after each improvement and saying 'See!!!'.
I had two objectives. Making it thinner than the stock Dorcy (it's got a huge head and thick body) and make it work off a CR123A. This was actually a mule for practicing techniques. A little turning, boring, threading, knurling and finishing went into it. It's made from 6061 aluminium. It gave me some good practice in making parts to fit other devices.
Slim and his grandfather.
I made one piece at a time, starting with a Dorcy 1AA and replacing each piece as it was completed. I kept the electronics from the Dorcy including the spring contact. The head fits on a stock 1AA or 2AA light and works! The body fits into a stock 1AA 3 led head. The tailcaps are not stock.
The tailcap on the left is a 'tactical twistie'. It has a pushbutton for momentary use. You can tighten it down all the way for constant on. The tailcap on the right is a normal twisty.
The Kroll was added as an afterthought. It required an adapter because the inside threading was .75 mm pitch and just a touch wider than a CR123A. The Kroll requires a 5/8 x 28TPI thread.
The Lux III is thermal epoxy'ed to the heatsink. The luxeon is actually fairly well centered. The optic is an NX05 that I had in my parts kit. I may change it with a Fraen LP. It gets warm after a few minutes of use, but not hot.
It puts out the same beam as my ARC LSH-P, with the same measured brightness. Beamshots would be redundant, as everyone has seen what an ARC beam looks like.
For comparison, some other 1 cell lights;
The parts (doesn't look like a Dorcy, huh?)
And the twisty cap
The body will eventually be replaced with one that's a little better made. It won't be compatible with the Dorcy, so I'll have a bit more lattitude as far as shape, length of threaded section, etc. I'll probably upgrade it to a badboy at 500ma to get a bit more light. I still want long runtime, so I'll figure out a way to make it two stage too.
Daniel
BTW, I was not going to post about this light, but my wife sort of goaded me into it. I guess she's tired of me coming into the room after each improvement and saying 'See!!!'.