*With Pictures*18650 in Brinkman Maxfire/BOG 3W

Not sure if this has been covered, but I put a BOG 3W drop in in my Maxfire then replaced the metal battery tube sleeve with a same size piece of .002 brass shim stock. An 18650 unprotected cell fits perfectly and has no apparent loss in output using the eyeball meter. The only problem is you have to load the batt from the top unless you remove the small lip from around the inside of the switch end of tube.
Here are a few pictures to help.

.002 shimstock


Battery sleeve with ring partially removed


Sleeve removed from light


Ring removed from sleeve


New brass sleeve soldered to ring


Lip on end of light removed so you can insert 18650 from bottom

Re: 18650 in Brinkman Maxfire/BOG 3W

Sounds like a lovely light! A great plan!

But of course we'd need a BOG 3W and an 18650 and a way to charge it, and I'm more often than not

Re: 18650 in Brinkman Maxfire/BOG 3W

Well, I run my modded BOG on 2 3.7V R123 cells and absolutely LOVE it!

When I first used it, it was in a Maxfire and I thought of using a 18650. It wouldn't fit initially and when I received a Vital Gear body, I lost interest in getting the 18650 in the Maxfire body. Still it is an interesting alternative.

Re: 18650 in Brinkman Maxfire/BOG 3W

ledaholic said:

...in my Maxfire then replaced the metal battery tube sleeve with a same size piece of .002 brass shim stock. An 18650 unprotected cell fits perfectly...

Click to expand...

Any chance you could get us a pic of how you fit an 18650 in the Maxfire? I'm having a tough time imagining what you've described.

Re: 18650 in Brinkman Maxfire/BOG 3W

TY, if you remove the top bezel and the tailcap and look inside the tube from the bottom, you will see a silvery metal insert. You can push the insert out through the top using a small flat tip screwdriver. On top of the insert is a ring that pulls off with a little effort. Get some brass .002in shimstock from your local hardware store and roll up a new insert to replace the original. An 18650 will just go through the ring so you have make sure the new insert goes on the outside of the ring. It helps if you use a little solder on the brass to hold it together. If I get a chance, I'll try to get some pictures in the next day or so.

Bob

Excellent photos. That explains everything. I already removed the sleeve from my Maxfire, and figured out the ring bit. I just had no idea how a brass shim was going to help.

I'm wondering if I even need the brass shim. What happens if I pull the ring off the existing sleeve, cut the sleeve shorter, and solder the ring onto the top?

How well does solder conduct? I don't want it melting under the stress of a two amp load.

Edit: Never mind about that "reuse the old sleeve" bit. It's not that it's too narrow only at the ring end. It's too narrow all over, and to make things worse, there's those bumps in it. Off I go to the hardware store to see if I can find some of this brass shim stock!

How waterproof is the Maxfire?

Kryosphinx said:

How waterproof is the Maxfire?

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There are o-rings both fore and aft, so I'd expect it to survive at least a brief dunking. I wouldn't trust it as a dive light.

There is a thread discussing the use of the Scorpion lamp assembly with the Strion 3.7v bulb in a Surefire E2e. I'm wondering if the same could be dremeled to fit in the Maxfire. I'd love to have a 3.7 volt li-ion powered xenon flashlight without spending a fortune.

Edit: jump to post #88 for the good bit

Ty_Bower said:

I'm wondering if I even need the brass shim. What happens if I pull the ring off the existing sleeve, cut the sleeve shorter, and solder the ring onto the top?

Edit: Never mind about that "reuse the old sleeve" bit. It's not that it's too narrow only at the ring end. It's too narrow all over, and to make things worse, there's those bumps in it. Off I go to the hardware store to see if I can find some of this brass shim stock!

Click to expand...

It always feels weird when I quote myself. Anyway, here goes...

I've converted my Maxfire to lithium ion. I first tried to find some of this magical brass shim stock, but the Sears hardware wanted something like forty-five bucks for a sheet big enough to build a doghouse. I quickly gave up on that idea.

So, I took out the stock sleeve, and used the Dremel cutoff wheel to snick out the bumps. Then I built a custom sanding drum out of a couple inch long piece of wooden dowel and a small sheet of 60 grit. The screw tipped mandrel for the buffing wheel holds my custom drum, and about 45 minutes later the Maxfire is bored out for 18650. Instead of loading the metal sleeve inside the ring, it sits around the outside. The whole thing slides in the plastic body, and there's plenty of room for an unprotected 18650.

I'll be bringing pictures shortly. Hopefully you can follow what I've done. I'm still running the stock 6v Xenon lamp, and it is about as dim and yellow as you would expect for 3.7 volts. For my next trick, I'm going to try to stuff a Scorpion socket base in there with a Stinger lamp. I figure it will make an interesting alternative to ledaholic's LED mod. If I can make it work, I'm thinking of it as the "poor man's Strion." Wish me luck!

ledaholic, great mod :bow:

Will

I received the Scorpion sockets from Lighthound. It doesn't take too much dremel work to get them to fit. If you're holding the socket with the lamp contacts pointing up, you should see an edge (like a lip, or a wall) around the outside that sticks up. Dremel that whole edge all the way down, and also dremel off the little bit that's around the central socket tower. If you install the Stinger or Strion lamp and load the assembly into the Maxfire, you should see that it isn't quite in focus. Be sure you have your 18650 cell in there. No sense frying a six dollar lamp because you forgot to take out the primary cells.

To get it in focus, you need to continue sanding down the disc portion of the socket. You want it to get pretty thin. You don't actually need to take anything off the central socket tower. Just keep sanding down the disc part so the top is flat and the whole thing is relatively thin. I took mine down enough to eliminate the hole in the beam, but I probably could stand to go a little more.

Overall, it's been an interesting and inexpensive project. The Maxfire was $16, the socket was $3.99, and the Stinger bulb was $5.80. The cells were free (gutted from old laptop packs). It isn't as well machined as a nice aluminum xenon light, but all things considered it could have turned out a lot worse.

Here's the pics:


The weapon of destruction


The modified sleeve


Make sure the sleeve fits around the outside of the ring


Here's the sleeve installed inside the body


You know you've bored out enough when the gap is straight


Another look at all the parts


The 18650 cell just barely fits in