The Amilite Creed

Anybody Creed an Amilite Neo T3? How difficult is it? :huh:

i havent done it, but it looks really easy, cuz the led is easily accessable, so i'd assume you'd replace the led and sand down the end of the reflector a wee bit, or juts get a mcr18

I was suprised there hasn't been more talk about it. I just opened mine up too see
and it appears as though it would be pretty easy, even for a beginner like myself.
The light is VERY bright without it but it would be nice to have a longer runtime and
a flupic. It has been one of my favorite lights. :naughty:

I have a Cree XR-E P4 bin on a star waiting to go in my Amilite. It will be stunningly bright. I already have a Luxeon III UWOJ in it, but the Cree will make it almost twice as bright because the Vf is similar. I just need to find the time. My wife and I just had a baby boy, so hobby time (and sleep) are hard to come by.

The mod is straightforward, but not drop-in easy. Your mod will differ from mine depending on whether you are using a bare emitter or a star, and which of the several available PCBs (stars) you have. You may also be using a different reflector than mine. If you need my help figuring it out, I will be happy to help, but you have to be able to measure your stuff accurately. Use a dial caliper (even a cheap one will be fine).

The thickness of my Cree star from the bottom of the star to the contact area of the emitter (where the reflector will ideally sit) is .095". The same dimension on a Luxeon star is .156". That means that there will be a gap of .061" between the reflector and the XR-E if all I do is swap the stars. PLUS, I will have to grind some material off of the narrow end of the reflector to obtain the correct focal length. In my case, I have a McR20 reflector in my Amilite. I have to grind off approximately 1mm (.039"). That means I have to raise the star .100" to obtain the best beam.

I originally intended to make a copper heat sink out of pennies. A penny is approximately .055" thick, but you have to sand both sides smooth in order to solder them together, and have two flat sides for the heat sink and the star. That will make them too thin to use 2 pennies. The thickness requires that I make a 3-penny sandwich, and grind it back down (a lot) to make it .100. Also, a penny is slightly smaller than the star, so the star will overhang it a little -wasted thermal area.

Plan B is to go to a coin shop and buy the cheapest pure silver Dollar proof coin I can find. They aren't very expensive, and silver is a better conductor of heat than copper anyway. I'll have to check the thickness. It may be thick enough to sand flat and still make .100"

I will post the results.

Bernie

Okay, keep us posted and thanks!

Silver closed at $13.90/Oz Thursday. The run of the mill minted coins are usually only a few dollars over the commodity price.

Sixteen or eighteen dollars isn't too much for me to spend for a tiny pocket light that produces around 180 lumens. I may even be able to get two or more heat sinks out of the huge coin.

I'll check the half dollars for thickness. They aren't much cheaper, but they might save me some sanding time.

Bernie

id say melt it down to get pure copper and get the other crap out of it then make a small mold and pour it in.

Pennies minted before 1981 are 99+% pure copper.

The melting point of copper is (ironically) 1,981 F. degrees. Not as easy as smelting lead.

However, if I bought a small bar of copper approximately the same diameter of most stars, I could cut off rough slugs for anyone who needs one. What would they be worth?

Bernie