Can anyone make flashlight tubes to hold 3 wide 18650 ?

Since seeing the Emoli (as well as AW's great protected cells) in 18650 size, the only light body that you can use these on a practical basis is FiveMega's rare Elephant.

I think having a form factor tube that would hold 3 wide would be easier to hold onto, and if done in modular lengths like Leef's 28650 for larger Emoli/A123, or FiveMega's 60 & 120mm addon Elephant sections....would give a lot of possibilities in voltage setups...with battery combos of 3s1p, 3s2p, to 6s combinations using dummy plugs, etc.

I like the idea of having a universal threading to fit Maglite heads, which inlcudes all of the 3" reflectors also.

H22A's Mammoth seem to fit.

I'm just talking about the body like Leef's. I don't want all the head stuff, and I'm looking for a currently available option.

I would love to see this!

LEEEEEF!

I'd like to see somebody do a 3 sided body. Like a D-size mag body that's softly pressed on three sides so its still round cornered, just fits three 18650s. Anybody care to do the math to see if they'll go if they had three flat sides? I can pull that off at work, melting in the neck and tailcap would be much harder but I'm sure I could manage. That'd be an awesome machine

g

My dream light 6 Emoli cell's with softstart setting under a 5761

I don't know about three wide but I really like the form factor of my Underwater kinetics SL4

Two parallel tubes could hold say four 18650. An extension could allow six or more and still be fairly short.
"Tail" end caps could configure the tube in either a serial or parallel setup.
The head end could be just a short tube where the wires came out and went into the head.
Custom heads could be used but the tail end of a maglight fits neatly into the bottom of the head. Drill a hole in the tail and fix the tube into it.

This is the golden ticket, the nail hit directly on the head, a panacea to the power and voltage ailments which afflict all flashaholics. For where there is a suitable power source, there will be light. No more custom cut downs and fittings of packs. A real solution which has surprisingly not yet been offered as a generally available production piece.

Fivemega would be the obvious person to make this. He has a thread called What is missing? which is for suggestions, although I don't know how often he monitors it. Or maybe you could suggest it to him direct.

I did...and didn't get any warm feelings from him.

Lux, if we want to do something like this and FM isn't really interested, then we may need to find someone else with access to CNC stuff to maybe make a small run.

I have the big emolis at 26mm (the C sized ones) and that would be a thick light with 3 or 6 emolis, but what a light it would be. I think you are onto something. A basic end that will take all know M@g hardware and the other would accept a tailcap or more extension modules to just keep the light growing and growing.

Here goes the bank account again.....

Bob E.

There's a CPF'er who has recently acquired a CNC machine, I'm thinking it's Endeavor, but am not 100% sure.

Or there's J!m, a recently-joined member, who has made an amazing offer to do custom work...

COOL! i want one too! especially one that fits Mag Heads...

At TnC we were going to follow up on our C-Flex Series with a D-Flex line including extenders, large heads, etc. However after seeing what can happen to a proprietary line of batteries (re: AW C Li-ions) we've decided against that and suspended our plans to bring additional options to the market for hot wires for the C-Flex at this time. Therefore making something along the lines of what you are discussing in this thread is consistent with our plans. This makes sense to us for a number of reasons. However we would want some input before we engaged.

Like the C-Flex we could build a switch into the tail (both twist switch or click switch) in a one piece tube/tail, as well as a Mag adapted neck that could hold switches such as AW's switch. This way the light could be modular, you could cut out the slow drain of regulated switches up stream, or you could forego the side switch altogether if desired with a different adaptor for shorter overall length and perhaps less resistance. We plan on having adaptors as well for different heads on these tubes other than Mags so there should be plenty of options for those interested.

We were considering milling the tube so that it would have anti roll characteristics as well as a better grip; however this could add significantly to the cost.

I hope I haven't taken this thread OT, but it seems that's what the thread is calling for.

I did some rough math just now, inside circumference of a magd is 105mm, outside circ of three 18650's stacked in a triangle is 113mm I'd give my spare nut for a rounded triangle mag with six 18650s in it.

g

I was thinking of a rounded triangle, perhaps with dimples between the cells for a unique look and better grip. A rail between the cells in the triangle was also something I came up with...

Bogus I was thinking the same thing, a body like the Stanley 369 work light but with 18650s instead of aa's.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0006OEO3O/?tag=cpf0b6-20

Bogus1 and anyone else, I think anything is fair game. I just picked up Leef's modular system from Lighthound that holds Emoli/A123 larger cells, and interfaces with mag heads.

I think the idea of making tri-18650 is nice because of the readily available Emoli and A123 safe chemistry cells. All the major tool companies are switching over to that 18650 and the larger 26700/27800, so they are here to stay.

That Stanley light looks nice, and if it threads to a Mag head, I think that's the most important part. Personally, I prefer switches on the side ONLY because you can have one hand operation. It's pretty hard to operate Mac's tailswitch with one hand. Tail switches/twisties work in smaller LED lights because you can work it with one hand. If sides like the Stanley example add a lot to the cost, not sure if that is the way to start.

SafetyBob, only problem with trying to make a Bi-/Tri- width of the Emoli cells is it almost has to be a lantern design with small grip handle and cells below...more suited to a spotlight than what I'm looking for here.

Basically, the FM Elephant gives the most potential width using 7 AA's or 4 18650 wide, but I think a size smaller that would fit the tri-18650 cells with modular extensions is going to be easier to hold, while getting some nice battery combos.

Thanks for all the ideas and interest.

The Leef 28650 is a step in the right direction, but only accomodates a single cell per section. And short of a custom setup, support for Mag bi-pins is not yet on the horizon.