pentagonlight X3 / P90 / L3 + 18500 cells

Starting February I am going to be very poor for a little while so I decided to see if I could make my most-used light rechargeable and ease myself off of 1.75$ primary cells. I decided to bore out a pentagonlight X3 body to take the fat 18500 cells. All I needed was a drill, two drill bits (23/32 and 3/4) and about an hour of time. Right now I can run the X3 lamp assembly for 70 minutes, the P90 lamp assembly in an X2 head for 72 minutes or the L3 luxeon head for a long time (it stays regulated for more than an hour, then I got bored so the test ended.) All for free!

The tools:


The results: Bored light on the left, stock on the right.



Fully charged 18500 Li-ions on the left and new pentagonlight 123 batteries on the right both are X3 lamp assemblies:


crappy beamshots:





odd that the P90 looks whiter than the X3, it actually looks yellower to me in person that the X3.

Nice job. What size is that drill bit. THinking about boring out my Surefire 6P.

I won't do it, but I'd LOVE it if my Vital Gear light could accept a unprotected 18650 but the body is so thin I'd be afraid I'd compromise the strenght. And of course, I'd lose the nickle plated interiod.

Anyone ever mod an E2 or L4 to accept an 18650?

depusm12 said:

Nice job. What size is that drill bit. THinking about boring out my Surefire 6P.

Click to expand...

The bit pictured is a 3/4 bit from home depot. I ended up having to use a 23/32 inch bit first in order to open up the body a little because the 3/4 bit kept jamming when I used it. Although I suppose if you have access to a drill press there won't be any problem since it would have much higher speed and torque than my lowly dewalt 18 volt.