For heatsinking the AA Brinkmann's, it looks like I could get away with using a couple of pennies with the detail filed flat and then maybe solder them together.
Last night I prepped the LS/o's collumator by carefully removing the little "chunk" from the edge. It has a groove around the leading edge that nearly perfectly fits into the Brinkmann AA head (with the lens removed) using an R13 sized O-ring for a spacer behind it.
There isn't much room for a step-up circut in there, but we all KNOW that it can fit. Still, I think I'd prefer a direct drive instead of a step-up circut, so the 3 AA looks like the way to go for sure.. I figure that I could always throw in a 1 or 2 ohm resistor if it runs too hot.
The collumator "holder" was easy to remove from the original heatsink using a razor blade to separate the glue. I haven't decided yet whether or not to remove the Luxeon emitter and remount it on the copper slug. The thermal conductivity of copper has me leaning in this direction tho..