Why not stainless steel?

[Stingray]

Why doesn't anyone use stainless steel in their custom flashlights? I was just looking at a pill container I bought about a year ago for 5 or 10 bucks. It's stainless, has been carried in my pocket with all my keys for a year, and still looks good as new. Out of curiosity, I popped a 123 in it and it's almost a perfect fit. The top screws off, the threads are nice and smooth, it's o-ring sealed. The whole thing is light and easy to carry. The bottom might make a nice power pack for a mod. Here's a couple of pics, I put it on my scanner so they're not so great but you can get the idea. It looks nicer in person than in these scans.

 

[fivemega]

Stainless steel is about 3 times heavier than aluminum and can be used only on small flashlights. But if you want to make a 3D or 4D, then you will need a dolly to carry it around !!!

 

[Stingray]

I was thinking in terms of pocket sized lights, about the size of this pill carrier. It's stronger, so you can make the walls thinner, it doesn't need to be anodized or plated. I guess it's probably harder to machine, but yet this pill box is well made and was really cheap. It's almost the perfect size for a 1-123 light too. Hmmm....I may have to make my first mod. Now if only I had a decent workshop /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

 

[unnerv]

I think the reason that no one uses stainless besides the machining issues is that it not very thermally conductive compared to aluminum. This would be no biggie for a hotwire mod, but for luxes you need somewhere to sink the heat out unless running below spec

 

[Wildcat]

Stainless is more expensive than aluminum and harder to machine.

 

[idleprocess]

Any flavor of stainless that can endure years of pocket carry is a tad costly to obtain and machine.

EDIT - er, what Wildcat said

 

[Stingray]

I dunno, this pill container has endured way better than my HA AAA Arc. It still looks brand new. And it only cost 5 or 10 bucks at the most. I've seen some nice guns machined out of stainless, and considering the complexity of the gun, the price was pretty cheap for what you get relative to a custom aluminum flashlight.

 

[arewethereyetdad]

It's the same reason John DeLorean went out of business. Remember the stainless steel automotive beauty known as The DeLorean? It went the way of the Edsel.

 

[Jets22]

Well ....that and he built his plant in North Ireland

 

[The Yeti]

To me this doesn't look machined, it looks punched. like the way they make cheap spoons. or think of an aluminum soda can. The head may have been cast. There are other ways to make tools besides machining them. But there are also problems with those methods. Many of them have to do with heat transfer and disipation, as well as precise fastening.

 

[idleprocess]

It looks like it might have been drawn or forged somehow - generally cheaper than machining something out of an ingot.

Are you absolutely sure that it's stainless steel, and not, say, nickel-plated steel?

 

[sotto]

[ QUOTE ]
Jets22 said:
Well ....that and he built his plant in North Ireland

[/ QUOTE ]

And he was involved in a huge coke scandal.

 

[Jets22]

Hey...it wasn't coke he had in that briefcase (filmed by under-cover DEA agents)...it was powdered sugar bundeled in neat 2.2 pound bags and only $20,000.00 per bag...it was REALLY good powdered sugar /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/naughty.gif...

John Delorean was a great designer though... especially when he was the man behind getting the Pontiac GTO off the ground for GM in the 60's
(among other things)

Sorry...back to the pill case.. I believe those are cast in china and are actually nickel plated ..at least the one I had eventually started to wear the plate off the cap..Looked much like the one in the picture.. Stainless holds heat in.. if you take a match and heat a piece of stainless and a piece of aluminium.. the stainless will take much longer to release the absorbed heat versus aluminium. So...thermally the stainless would not be a good choice for a light..

 

[Stingray]

It's the second one down on this page. It was 10 bucks or less at Walgreens I think. web page
It says stainless steel. I'm no expert so I can't be positive. I tried to gently thread it onto my firefly head, the diameter is perfect, but the threads are different and the length is a tad too short. They probably make longer ones.

There are certain times when I need a good reliable pocketlight but I know it's going to get all scratched and banged up (like with kids or non-flashaholics) so I hate to bring a $100++ light. This could be a viable solution for a cheap mod, maybe with a copper head for heat management like my FF. I dunno, just thinking out loud here, I have no real custom mod experience. I just noticed how well this thing has held up to abuse with no care at all.

 

[BentHeadTX]

Peak LED Solutions has stainless steel lights in the works. They should be available in the next month or so. They use 5mm LEDs driven at 23mA or 30mA (Hi Power versions) for the SS, I would go with 23mA to keep the heat down.
Correct me if I am wrong, but the stainless versions should come out in 1, 3, 5 or 7 LED heads (depending on battery type) If you want to cut weight, tell them to give you an aluminum head with a stainless body and keep the threads lubricated.

 

[Stingray]

I was thinking more along the lines of an inexpensive stainless 3W Lux using cheap parts already available from these pill containers. Kinda like a disposable firefly for those times I don't want my real firefly to get all banged up in rough use.

 

[Stingray]

I was thinking about all the stainless and titanium luxeon lights available now, not to mention the exotic metals, and it reminded me of this thread, back when aluminum was the only material being recommended and used. I still have that pill carrier, and it still looks new despite EDC with keys, knives, coins and HA3 lights (the finishes of which got trashed when pocket carried)

 

[London Lad]

H22A made some SS lights, they were great but very heavy.

 

[AndrewL]

I didn't know stainless steel was wasn't as good as aluminium for heat conduction

how does nickle silver compare?

 

[gregw]

I still have some Exolion SS (Stainless Steel) available, and yes, these do seem to stand up to abuse much better than the Exolion Ti in the first run. :) Just click on the link in my signature if you want one..