How to Disassemble CMG Reator?

See above. I want to mod it to use a 123 battery.

No problem, logicnerd411. To disassmble my Reactor I simply used a hacksaw. That baby was made to never be taken apart! Seriously bombproof. I needed the guts(luxeon and optics), so the entire flashlight was sacrificed. Nice P2 low dome luxeon inside which I incorporated into a tiny lipstick case with a 123 lithium and a clickie switch for one sweet pocket carry, 2 3/4" X 3/4".

Do you have pictures Denny?

That was kind of my idea, using the head and putting a cap at the end, such as a lipstick case. That would be really cool.

I was trying to put a Luxeon into a lipstick case before, but it was beyond my modding abilities. That's why I bought the CMG. Since the 123 can't fit in the battery tube, can I hacksaw this thing and then file out the metal?

BTTT

Um, thanks, but I was hoping to use the head with it...

Well, if you look at the photo. The reactor head is basically two halves of a cylinder split lengthwise. They're held together with an aluminum ring in the lens end and a plastic one on the tube end.

If you can remove those two rings, then you're good to go.

I couldn't, so I cut through the plastic ring (the black C-shaped thing on the bottom left of the photo). Even then the aluminum ring didn't want to come off, so I just forced it open deforming it. And taking out the innards at the same time.

Is that a little clearer? In simple terms:

Originally posted by Denny Francisco:
....That baby was made to never be taken apart!...

Click to expand...

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">-YC

Kodiak, I do have a (lousy)picture of my homemade lipstick luxeon, but don't know how to upload photos onto this thread. Anybody?

See Bart't method

http://www.candlepowerforums.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=22;t=000750

I would love to see that! If you need a place to host, email me.

In the above thread, the left one is a 2 1/4" lipstick tube containing a cut-down NX-05, an LS/MadMax, and a CR2 battery. The middle one is a 2 7/8" long lipstick tube with a direct drive LS, a 123A battery, and a 5 mm clickie tailswitch. The Arc AAA at the right is for size and brightness comparison.

Now that its opened, does/did the reactor have any kind of resistor inside the headpiece, or is it direct drive? Would have to have a resistor to get such amazing battery life, no?

Nice work Denny!
Glad to see the pic hosting works for you.
Oh, and welcome to CPF!

Originally posted by Stefan:
Now that its opened, does/did the reactor have any kind of resistor inside the headpiece, or is it direct drive? Would have to have a resistor to get such amazing battery life, no?

Click to expand...

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Check the tail cap. It looked like the spring went into a PC board so it might be there.

Eric

The Reactor II that I chopped up had no resistor. Long burn comes ONLY when using lithium AAs(cheaper to use than alkalines due to proportionally longer burn). The Reactor III, I have read, has a resistor to drop the voltage, using 3 alkalines(no lithium AAs). I have one on order, and will chop it up for use in a 3AA caving headlamp using the LS for medium throw and 6 Nichias for wide beam. I guess you could say I'm operating a flashlight chop-shop. I like to know how things work.....good thing I'm not collecting animals!

Oh, Bart, thanks for the welcome and also for the photo upload instructions. Dank u wel. Tot ziens.

Graag gedaan!