A secret flashaholic ???

I ran into this page while looking for something else entirely. The gentleman who created the page had broken a plastic flashlight he liked and made himself an aluminum replacement. Nice job, actually.

Replacing a flashlight

Superb job on that one. Looks like a rebranded Pelican.

I thought that the original torch looked ;like a Pelican Products Mini Mitylite...I recognised the bulb assembly!
The finished torch is certainly a fine piece of equipment!

That is my flashlight. I originally had one of the Hubble electric yellow flashlights. Nice, but it eats batteries. The new one is made of 6061 aluminum with the original bulb assembly, plastic lens, and even o-ring.

As the story says, the original was molded with the center out of adjustment. One wall was double thickness, one was paper thin. When it broke, it broke the end completely off.

I had a 3/4 inch piece of aluminum, the right equipment, and said "I can do this."

Took me two days to do it, the next time (for presents for the inlaws) I made two, had them engraved, it took me about a day to do two of them, or perhaps a day and a half....

The website says how to do it, and then ... things not to do, IIRC.

Thanks for the kind comments.

Thanks for the kind comments.

Welcome to CPF, Madyn!

Hello madyn. When I read this post and looked at your work, I emailed you with this site. This is the place to be for great information about flashlights. Combined with your machine skills, you can have a double WOW factor showing them to people.
Where are you in Alabama, if you don't mind me asking?

Harvey, a quick look at your pictures shows you might have Central Machinery lathe. Did I guess right? I'm looking to get one myself and researching on the web. I'll peruse your website later on and see what you have. Gotta run.

Hmm, let's see. Birmingham, Alabama. About as much in the middle of the state as you can get e/w, and about a little more north than half way.

Thanks for the invitation, Sunspot, and also Bushman. It's an interesting group, and shows me that people are doing far more with flashlights than I thought.

In fact, I do have an HF lathe. I'd rather have gotten a Grizzly, but there's a Homier lathe that's now equivalent for about 299 at their shows, good luck in finding them, but they will email you with show notices. They're all essentially the same lathe, now, but the Grizzly and Homier are 4 inches longer in the bed than the HF.

For doing a flashlight with a AAA series of batteries, you're going to want the largest through bore on the chuck possible, and you will find that a 4 inch 3 jaw chuck is a good idea. A 4 jaw chuck (also 4 inch) is a good idea for the off center stuff. A good place to buy is www.littlemachineshop.com which is a reliable source for spare parts and mods. Also check out www.mini-lathe.com which is an extraordinary site devoted to the lathe and mini-mill. You also might want to check out the mini-lathe group on Yahoo. it's under 7x10minilathe. You will find an unmoderated, rather (or very) relaxed atmosphere with lots of OT. However, if you ask a machining question, you'll get swift answers.

Thanks for the welcome, and sooner or later, I'll have another flashlight project up and running. It'll take a while, though. I'm putting a microprocessor in it.

I am so glad that you decided to come visit us! Take off your hat and stay awhile, there is lots of good things going on here!

madyn,
Welcome to CPF!
There is somebody on this site who builds microprocessor torches and offers a custom programming service for the device's memory.
I was toying with the idea of adding a uP to my Blueross and BT series torches eventually!
The Blueross with a programmable "cops strobe" mode would make a great deterrant torch!
There are a number of very good commercial uP controlled torches out there! The most fun torch ia the Eternalight Rave'n, it has multiple modes and could be regarded as a "Party torch".

Thanks for the link to the programming service.

However, I don't need it, since I spent the big bucks to be able to program all sorts of things myself. (Needhams electronics EMP-11), the part that I'm working on is the assembler for the microprocessor, which is a new one to me (ATMEL 90S2123). I intend for this to be a low power flashlight, perhaps, with no more than about 15 to 20 ma/led. Have to think about this design, though.

I've just about got the definitions file finished for the assembler, so all that remains is to make sure that the code for the new addressing modes works. Then there's the emulator, which isn't fully working yet... The program should handle and emulate three different microprocessors at the same time, if I get it working properly... that's down the road a bit, though.

I had considered (and probably might) install IRDA modes on this flashlight, if I can figure out the code for the modes properly... but that's for later.

As far as the flashlight is concerned, I intend to put in a red, blue, green, white, and ultraviolet LED, and perhaps add a laser pointer.. Microprocessor control all of the above with 3 or 4 buttons... hard to say exactly what direction this will take, though.

It's going to be a long term project, though, since the software development is a somewhat slow process.... I'm rehosting the emulator, although the assembler and environment definition parts seem to be working....

The body will be machined out of a solid aluminum block, and probably be about the size of a nokia 3300 series cell phone... perhaps...

I'm also intending to have a user definition series of modes, where the user can talk to the flashlight and set up what modes he/she wants...

fun....

comments are welcome