Another interesting experiment with RS aluminum flashlights

As some of you know, the Radioshack aluminum flashlights have the ability to unscrew the battery tube. Why the maker designed it that way I don't know. Anyway, if you take the battery tube off, the tail cap will screw onto the switch section. So the idea came to me to take one 5mm Nichia, and 2 CR2016s and place them onto the lead where the + end of a C batter would have gone. Then, the tail cap, when screwed onto that section would make contact with the - terminal.

I realize that people like to go smaller, but I saw that the RS flashlight, regularly around a foot long, was shortened by half it's length. Ah, the fun with cheap discontinued aluminum flashlights!

It because it's a Nordic flashlight, but the recently went out of buisness. Wait, it doesn't do it because they went out of buisness...let me explain.

All Nordic flashlights (This is just rebadged) come apart in 3 sections--Switch, battery tube, tail cap. This is for 2 reasons, first it facilitates (On the smaller AA sized ones anyway) adding accessories, like a special flexable head, and second it makes it much easier to get out a stuck cell.

Well on the AA sized Nordics the switch and tail-cap are both male threaded so you can't stick them together (watch it) but you can flip the battery tube around...there is a Nordic logo on one end of the battery tube and you can have it up by the switch where it's supolst to be, or down by the tailcap.

On the C and D sized lights they decited to make it so the battery tube would only go 1 way, but in the process they made it so that you can (as you said) screw the tailcap and head right together or do as many others do, and put 2 or 3 or 4 or....battery tubes together to have a 8 foot tall flashlight.

My brother worked for the company that made them in the graphics department (He helped put the instruction booklet to together ). I was talking to him and the thing about the battery tube is just coincidence, they didn't mean to do it. What I suppose happened is that they decited to use the same thread size on the head and tail because it was easier to machine, without thinking about the fact that that would make it possible to put 2 or 3 bodies together.

So there you have it, a little history on this diccontinued flashlight

They are really nicely made flashlights. I wonder why they discontinued them? I took a 3.6v Xenon bulb and put it in one of them and it has a very nice beam quality.

Now, I do have to say that the first one I got, I could never get a focused beam out of it. I always got a bigger spot with dark circles. However, it didn't matter because I modded that one with a cyan LS. It is BRIGHT! TOO bright, in fact, . . . . . .let me rephrase that. I may be pushing it too much with 3C batteries running the LS directly. I need to get some resistance in there.

Great flashlights! I will be making more mods with them, or putting Xenon bulbs in them and giving them to friends and/or family.