T.U.R.D. tactical urban reduction diffuser, or,common items you use with your light.

i recently bought a surefire l1 and forgot to order a beam shaper. i was at work and , with a little too much time on my hands, wanting a light to read and or write reports in the dark without blinding myself i took the cap off my 20 oz mountain dew bottle and stuck it on my l1. it fit perfectly and produced a wide soft beam which i could use from 8 to 20 inches away from the paper and evenly lit up my 8x14 logbook.

i was wondering if anyone else had tips for using common items to enhance their flashlight usage.

I've heard about people using paper or frosted tape to get similar results.

Re: T.U.R.D. tactical urban reduction diffuser, or,common items you use with your light.

Nice T.U.R.D.

Adapt, improvise, overcome.

I have used the following:

Scotch tape over the lens.

Toilet paper taped over the lens (best match with the theme of the title).

Paper (cheap Office Depot copy paper) taped over the lens.

I can't wait to test some news paper, or maybe a candy wrapper. The important thing is to have some EDC Scotch tape to apply the mods.

Just depends on how bright your low setting is. My U2 is pretty bright on low, so I find the copy paper is best in a very dark enviornment.

You can stick a 20oz sized plastic bottle cap on the end of a 1" bezel Surefire. It blocks quite a bit of light though, but it turns a too-bright L4 at close range into a soft reading light (or a night-vision light if you use the red cap off of a Coke bottle).

Re: T.U.R.D. tactical urban reduction diffuser, or,common items you use with your light.

Not exactly the same thing as a diffuser, but I needed a red filter recently ...

Stretched a bit of clear plastic wrap over the lens, secured it with a rubber band, and "painted" it with a red felt-tip marker.

Re: T.U.R.D. tactical urban reduction diffuser, or,common items you use with your light.

I referenced an example of a home-brew diffuser for an X1 at :

http://candlepowerforums.com/vb/showpost.php?p=1228090&postcount=32

I also referenced a home-brew spare lamp holder in several posts :

One of those flat plastic toothbrush holders available at camping stores fits over the hard plastic piece at the end of the standard Princeton Tec 40 lanyard .

The translucent water bottle covers also work for the X1 and since they extend beyond the end of the flashlight, turn it into somewhat of a mini-lantern.

Re: T.U.R.D. tactical urban reduction diffuser, or,common items you use with your light.

I use a film canister on an ARC-P as a lamp:

Re: T.U.R.D. tactical urban reduction diffuser, or,common items you use with your light.

That's some cool stuff!

Cool, Luxman !!!!

arnold ziffle said:

i was wondering if anyone else had tips for using common items to enhance their flashlight usage.

Click to expand...

Hell ya!

I don't bother with all that creative thinking, I go out an buy more flashlights!

:wave:

Hah, what a great thread! My wife is in bed by 10:00 pm (me at around 2:00 am due to our different morning work hours) so I have to sneak into bed at night.

Lately I've taken to putting my E2e into the black microfiber sock that came with my Oakley sunglasses. It fits well and subdues the light greatly.

Re: T.U.R.D. tactical urban reduction diffuser, or,common items you use with your light.

Luxman, I love the Arc AAA lamp idea !!

I'm currently using a cap from a vitamin pill bottle as a dust cap for my M3, it also happens to be red, so it's a filter as well.

I have a Surefire L1, and I think that the F04 diffuse should be included as standard with the light, the beam is far too tightly focussed for close up reading use (one of the reasons I got the L1).

Re: T.U.R.D. tactical urban reduction diffuser, or,common items you use with your light.

I have used the film canisters as well. I have also used M&M mini tubes for traffic wands or color changers. Add a delrin tailcap cover, and you have a unique looking table lamp.

Re: T.U.R.D. tactical urban reduction diffuser, or,common items you use with your light.

I saw this in a store and decided to try it out.

I don't care for the V12 light, but the rest of the stuff is fun to use. I find that my ARC LSH-P with the 2 X AA battery holder works great with the lamp shade and stand. The Kroll switch wedges into the base and keeps things pretty stable and the lamp shade just rests on the bezel of the light.

The base fits inside the lamp shade for packing, and, you can use the lamp shade as a cup...

Tom

Re: T.U.R.D. tactical urban reduction diffuser, or,common items you use with your light.

RAF_Groundcrew said:

Luxman, I love the Arc AAA lamp idea !!

I'm currently using a cap from a vitamin pill bottle as a dust cap for my M3, it also happens to be red, so it's a filter as well.

I have a Surefire L1, and I think that the F04 diffuse should be included as standard with the light, the beam is far too tightly focussed for close up reading use (one of the reasons I got the L1).

Click to expand...

Thanks all, The ARC AAA lamp works surprisingly well..
I also put a Minimag filter on my L1 to diffuse its light. I fine sanded the filter and it works great!