Malkoff Maglite drop in unfocused....any tips?

I received a Malkoff LED dropin for my 3D Mag the other day. Brightness is great, I love that aspect of it.

Here's the ONLY problem I'm having with it. When I tighten the head all the way down, the beam pattern is a very noticeable donut with a dim spot in the center. Hate that. As I gradually unscrew the head, it gets progressively better and better....and it's almost perfect....right at the end of the threads. Seriously, it's just about focused into a nice round even hotspot when the head is nearly completely unscrewed.

So, it seems like what I need is a way to get the dropin sitting deeper in the body. Unfortunately I have pushed it down as far as it will go against the lamp assembly.

Any other thoughts or possible solutions? I love the drop in, I just can't stand the beam pattern.

Did you trim the reflector down far enough?

5.0Trunk said:

Did you trim the reflector down far enough?

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Did you buy a cut down reflector as well?? If not you'll need to carefully trim the base of the reflector - you should have received instructions with your drop in.

I had to play around with mine a bit before I got the perfect hot spot.

Just try and follow the instructions as best you can and you'll eventually get it right. I'm a big fan of the Malkoff Drop-In for the Maglite - the range is unbelievable!!

Apparently there is a way to focus the Maglite with the drop-in without getting the donut hole...anyway it doesn't bother me as I only use the Maglite for range rather than flood.

Good Luck with it!!

Yeah, the dropin I purchased came with 2 pretrimmed reflectors (a smooth and a textured). Both have the same focusing problem.

The dropin should be down to the point of being bottomed out before the wedge is tightened. It will be approx 1/4 inch below the lip of the body tube. Let me know if this helps.

Thanks, Gene

Yup, I pushed it down all the way when I installed it, and then rechecked to make sure it wasn't slipping up. It's tight against the solid part of the lamp assembly, it can't go down any further.

It goes tight against the lamp assembly, but you have to push it even more to compress the spring and push it down into the light. I had a picture of me pushing down on mine, but I can't find it, gimme a couple minutes.

do you have a serial # D ?

Don't get me wrong, I am appreciating the replies and help....but believe me when I say that it can't be pushed down any further into the body. I feel the spring in the lamp assembly compress, and the pin in the dropin compress, and it doesn't go any further than that. It's against the solid unmoveable part of the lamp assembly.

Eh... I couldn't find it, I just took a new picture of how far down into the mag my drop-in is.

Click for a bigger picture.

Oh, okay, sorry about that...

certainly confusing what could be the problem...anyway to get a pic of your light....a solution that comes into my mind if this cant be solved is use teflon tape on the threads so it will be snug tight to your liking, i did this with my minimag

I thought about trying that, qip, but honestly it's only just coming into nice focus at the very end of the threads. Tape or no, there just isn't much holding the head on at that point.

qip said:

do you have a serial # D ?

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Sorry, missed this question while I was replying. Yes, I checked and it starts with a D.

thats interesting, im vexed everything looks perfect...when you start feeling the head get snug mine can do 5 twists to get into tightest focus position

What about a picture of the reflectors? Something isn't right here....

Marduke said:

What about a picture of the reflectors? Something isn't right here....

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I agree, if this is a stock maglite (is it?), then there should be no compatibility issue with Gene's drop-in. I'd also like to see a picture of the head. Maybe the head has been modified in some way?

Original and replacement reflectors:



Sideview showing how much material was removed:



Poor quality beam shot (sorry). This is with the head completely tightened down.



Prominent donut. As I unscrew the head, it morphs into a medium size, evenly lit hotspot, but I reach the end of the threads WELL before it focuses into a really tight hotspot.

The head should not be tightened down all the way. There should be a point in between the head being tightened down and a few turns past the friction of the oring that you should get a tight hotspot. Can you post pics of the head? BTW, nice job trimming the reflector Gene.

I'm about to head to bed but I can post more pics tomorrow if it'll help.

Any particular aspect of the head that you want to see? It's a bone stock Maglite from about 10 years ago. Is it possible there's a few Maglites with different dimensions even though they have the D--- serial number?