What's the best way to take apart a QIII with out damaging it?

What's the best way to take apart a QIII with out damaging it?

Heating it up with a hairdryer for 60-90 seconds works well, I used a towel to grip the body and it came apart without any fuss.

I too used a hairdryer, but it took more like 10 minutes and I had to use leather fireman's gloves..

A lot of people (myself included) have had success by boiling the light in a plastic bag (for added protection) for about 90 seconds before soon opening the bezel and/or removing the Torx screws holding on the clip. You may need to repeat the process.

I used a heat gun for a minute or so and it came apart with a strong twist.

Will a heat gun bubble up the paint?

The Q3 is type II anodized and won't bubble, any hairdryer will do the job fine.

I use a pair of strap wrenches and it's worked every time on all Q3s. No marks at all since the strap wrenches are just rubber.
Only problem I had thereafter was on 1 Q3 where the retaining ring holding down the circuit/LED was stuck (possibly accidentically loctited also).

I've been trying to open the head of my big QIII for ages. Been using boiling water (with the light in a bag for 10 minutes) and two strap wrenches. It just wont budge!

A section under the clip came unglued though. However, this doesn't let me access the LED at all, just the top of the battery tube.

I don't have a hairdryer or heatgun, does anyone have any other ideas?

Mr. Bombastic said:

I've been trying to open the head of my big QIII for ages. Been using boiling water (with the light in a bag for 10 minutes) and two strap wrenches. It just wont budge!

A section under the clip came unglued though. However, this doesn't let me access the LED at all, just the top of the battery tube.

Click to expand...

Same happened to me. The small section on the bottom of the head came apart by hand (really twisting), but no matter what I did, the head would not loosen by hand, and I made my hands hurt and bruised for a day ( I do not bruise easily!) trying. Until I broke out the strap wrenches. It is not easy to do the first time, because you have to take some care to tighten them very well so they don't slip. But then... twist (make sure you are UN-screwing - easy to mix it up with all the tools covering the entire head/bezel) it just comes apart. There is NO WAY the head will stand up to properly tightened strap wrenches. It would have to be soldered or welded together. You just have to pull the straps as tight as you can get them, and they will get it open. I've opened my Q3 and my Big Q3 this way.

I took your advice. I pulled the strap wrenches so tight I thought I was gonna break something and after the count of three I called on the powers of Greyskull and managed to twist it open!

Was a bit of an anti climax... now that I can't get the darn reflector out. I think I'm gonna need to go and buy some needle-nose pliers.

All I want to do is clean the inside of the lens!

Boiling water? Hair dryer / heat gun? You guys are way too sophisticated for me. I used a RCR123 cell. Turned the QIII on. Wrapped it up tight in an old rag and shoved between the sofa cushions. After 5 minutes and no free air, it was plenty toasty. It still put up a little fight, but I won in the end.