Can anyone save my Fenix L1P?

I was trying to mod a couple of lights and I took a shot at my Fenix L1P. It hasn't turned out as well as I would of liked. I can't get the head to budge and I think I pulled a muscle in my forearm trying. :sick2: :blush:

I started with my needle nose pliers and just tried brute force. Nothing. I then tried to boil the thing loose. Unfortunately, I didn't close my plastic bag properly with this one and water got into the bag while I was boiling it. As far as I can tell nothing has been damaged; Reflector look fine.

HOWEVER, what I thought was a drop of water that somehow got into the bezel, turned out to be a bubble. The WHOLE head is now FILLED with water and I have no idea how it got in. I can't find any opening. I swear the head seems water tight to me. I can't find any way to get the water out and of course the boiling did nothing to help me loosen the circuit. I haven't tried to see if it would light yet.

The epoxy or whatever used to lock it looks silverish to me. I thought maybe it was soldered it and took my soldering iron to it, but it didn't seem to want to melt.... Can anybody help?

BTW, any body able to open my L0D head too? I want to changed emitters in these and I can't get a good grip on the tiny head of the L0D.

Desperation tactic: drill 2 small holes on opposite sides of the head where you think the PCB isn't. Then allow to drain and air dry.

Won't be waterproof after that, but it might be made to dry out. Just a thought...

Just a wild guess, but it sounds like you created negative pressure inside the sealed head when you boiled it. As the air cooled, it sucked in surrounding water. Unless you didn't leave the head in the water to cool off (you should work with the part being hot).

Try putting it in the oven at the lowest setting, you don't want to bake it, just a nice warm setting (the lowest setting on my oven is 50c), leave it on for an hour or so then turn off the oven and leave the head in the oven until the whole thing is cool. I have in the past disassembled fenix lights by heating them in front of a small fan heater.
Norm

Thanks for the input so far.

Drilling will be a last last ditch effort. I would probably destroy it in the attempt.

I didn't buy this one from the Fenix-Store. If only I messed up my P1D or L0D

Nope, didn't let it cool in the water. I took it out while the water was still boiling and gasped as I saw water in the bag. Poured it all out and use my grip pad and needle nose on it right away. The water had to of enter while it was being boiled.

I tried leaving it in my oven (pilot light) overnight. Absolutely no change. I'm afraid to go much higher heatwise cause like I said, the thing seems water tight and I'm afraid of cracking the lens.

Still in need of advice....

Putting it in the oven at low heat will at least get rid of the water by evaporating it. Heat has the double advantage of weakening (hopefully) the loc-tite. You could try increasing the heat leeeeetle by leeeetle and leaving the head in the oven for an hour at a time.

That silverish stuff is towards the inside of the heatsink, right? If I'm remembering things right, that is solder, and you should be able to get it off after you take the heatsink out. Right now all that extra metal contact with the head is wicking away heat from your soldering iron and making the removal harder to accomplish.

I was hoping someone came up with a great idea that would let me open the thing right up and pour the water out. I guess the oven thing looks like my next option, but it's soo hot and humid here!!!

Silverish stuff is all around the goldish ring with the two notches I'm trying to turn with my needle nose. I haven't been able to open it so I don't know what on the inside! If it is solder, then I guess my 25 watt soldering iron isn't getting hot enough? I desoldered the wires off my kl1 (gen1) at the same time....

Try putting head in a jam jar, with match and lid.

Lit match should create a bit of a vacuum as oxygen burns.

Worth a try anyway.