$3 Craftsman Cree .38 Special

wmpwi

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Joined
Mar 27, 2005
Messages
348
Location
Western Michigan
This was kind of fun. Craftsman (Sears) has a neat AAA aluminum light for $2.95 and looks like this:
cpf-ft269-043.jpg


I was trying to put the Cree in but it had a plastic bulb socket like the mini-mag. It was molded or glued in so I had to drill it out. Then I needed something to mount the Cree on. The size looked right for a bullet shell. I tried a .38 Special and it fit like a glove. I ground down the Cree corners, mounted it, drilled a couple of holes and plugged it in.

cpf-ft269-028.jpg

cpf-ft269-024.jpg

cpf-ft269-032.jpg


I had to drill out the plastic reflector and the lens is a plastic press in job, but now that I got this far, I may try improving on it a little. With a 3.6v 300 mAh Li-ion it gets a tad hot quickly. May have to work on the heat sink a little.
cpf-ft269-035.jpg


Beam shot was better than I though at about 8 foot.

cpf-ft269-041.jpg


PS, I strongly suggest care so as not to use a shell with a live primer. :stupid:
 

I'M DK

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Joined
Nov 24, 2006
Messages
75
Location
Calif
Very slick thinking.
You should have used a CCI blazer shell.
Then you'd have an aluminum heatsink too.

DK
 

liveforphysics

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Joined
Dec 4, 2006
Messages
343
Would you mind telling me the ID of that flashlight body? It might be exactly what I need for my DIY dvd burner laser project case.

Thanks, and exellent modding.
-Luke
 

Ken 222

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Jun 14, 2006
Messages
151
Location
CO
That's great! I like the last picture. I wish you could've put up a pic of the "before" output too. I dug through some stuff and I have one of those lights. Awful! :laughing: . Slightly more light than you'd get from a wet match.



Good luck with the heat sinking. Maybe you could try one of these:

http://www.barnesbullets.com/prodxpb-pistol.php


I hope you don't mind me joking with you. You are really turning a lemon into lemonade. Good job.

Ken
 

wmpwi

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Joined
Mar 27, 2005
Messages
348
Location
Western Michigan
I'll look for the hang card in the trash. I don't keep any more junk than necessary and that's usually too much. Absent that, I'll be in the area of Sears this evening and see what they have that I can post tonight.
liveforphysics said:
Would you mind telling me the ID of that flashlight case. body? It might be exactly what I need for my DIY dvd burner laser project
Thanks, and exellent modding.
-Luke

Nope, I'm probably the last one you have to worry about.
Ken 222 said:
<snip> I hope you don't mind me joking with you. You are really turning a lemon into lemonade. Good job.

Ken

Thanks I'M DK, Nitroz, & bombelman. It's tough doing this stuff without all the fancy equipment.
 

EngrPaul

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Sep 28, 2006
Messages
3,678
Location
PA
I guess you can say,



"I need another flashlight like I need a bullet in the head."
 

wmpwi

Enlightened
Joined
Mar 27, 2005
Messages
348
Location
Western Michigan
011507_20091.jpg


Now in Pink and Black too.

liveforphysics said:
Would you mind telling me the ID of that flashlight body? It might be exactly what I need for my DIY dvd burner laser project case.

Thanks, and exellent modding.
-Luke
 

liveforphysics

Enlightened
Joined
Dec 4, 2006
Messages
343
I appreciate you takeing the picture of the packageing for me, but by ID I mean 'inside-diameter' of the body. If it happens to be big enough to slip the laser diode packageing into, I think that light with that same battery would be perfect for a little 250mW keychain mounted laser module.
 

2xTrinity

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Joined
Dec 10, 2006
Messages
2,386
Location
California
liveforphysics said:
I appreciate you takeing the picture of the packageing for me, but by ID I mean 'inside-diameter' of the body. If it happens to be big enough to slip the laser diode packageing into, I think that light with that same battery would be perfect for a little 250mW keychain mounted laser module.
The only reason I'm a bit apprehensive about modding a flashlight into a high power laser, even though I could do so to make a high powered red laser using parts from old DVD burners etc, is that a mind-boggling amount of people see my lights, pick them up, ask "ooh, is those one of those LED flashlights?" followed by pointing the light at their faces and turning it on... which is bad enough with just a hard-driven Cree, let alone a laser of any sort.

It would probalby be a best idea to store the thing with an opaque lens cap of some sort, a laser warning label, and without batteries installed. l
 

nein166

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Joined
Feb 16, 2006
Messages
1,575
Location
New York
Great Mod! I love seeing cheap lights go from asleep to sleeper

Good throw out of that little reflector too.
 

cratz2

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Joined
Apr 6, 2003
Messages
3,947
Location
Central IN
I bought a couple of those from my local KMart (though I VERY rarely buy anything from KMart because of their management siding with Rosie O'Donnell vs the millions of gun owners in America).

Same color as the original post and the same price. They had two pegs of them.
 
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