Ugh. Surefire E1Bs' beam is terrible.... any reflector mods?

I just got a new E1B from someone here on CPF and the beam pattern is well, ick. Probably why the guy sold it to me, but thats ok - I would love to find a reflector that fits in there. Can I ask if anyone knows what will work? I've also wondered if the previous KL1 optic would work in there....

Use the bam outside. Experience it.
No reflector can do what this optic does. It is one of the most brilliant collimating systems today.
bernie

KDOG3 said:

I just got a new E1B from someone here on CPF and the beam pattern is well, ick. Probably why the guy sold it to me, but thats ok - I would love to find a reflector that fits in there. Can I ask if anyone knows what will work? I've also wondered if the previous KL1 optic would work in there....

Click to expand...

If you're handy enough, you could try asking in the homemade & modified lights section. I'm not that handy, so I usually send it out to modders. I recently sent my L1 to Milky and he changed the TIR optics to UCL lens and IMS20 reflector.

An F04 beam diffuser makes the E1B seem like an L4. If you want a flood beam from the E1B this is the way to go.

Paul

KDOG3, you have been around CPF almost as long as me. You have simply got to give up the white wall hunting. Most of my lights have yucky beams when shined on walls, incans and LEDs alike, but most of them "shine" outside. LOL.

Bill

For its size, I'm very impressed with the output and intense hotspot of the E1B.

It has a yucky beam no matter where I shine it. I do have an F04 but it kills the throw of course. Besides, it might be very interesting to see what a reflector could do for it...

A reflector will ruin the uniqueness of the beam. No reflector puts so much useful light in a medium distance field of vision as does this optic.
It has a "ram of light"-type throw that makes it outperform my U2's and quite a few more impressive lights.
Do yourself a favour and at least try it out in the dark outside before crippling it.
Seriously.
bernie

Go to the Shoppe and buy the McR-19XR. $17.00

You may have to shave a bit off of the reflector but not much.

Kiessling said:

A reflector will ruin the uniqueness of the beam. No reflector puts so much useful light in a medium distance field of vision as does this optic.
It has a "ram of light"-type throw that makes it outperform my U2's and quite a few more impressive lights.
Do yourself a favour and at least try it out in the dark outside before crippling it.
Seriously.
bernie

Click to expand...

I don't think you understand how awful this beam is. I've had 2 other E1Bs' and 2 E2DLs' so I am aware of the variances in the beam quality of this optic. This is REALLY bad. I wish I could take a beamshot but all I have is a cell phone camera.

I look into that McR19XR....but I also can see if I can simply unscrew the bezel slightly and see if that helps.

By unscrewing the bezel a bit it may help the beam a lot. I know the beam on mine improves noticably when partly unscrewed.

Why not just send it back to SF if it is so terrible?

My e1b has a couple of artefacts on a white wall but it's very impressive in actual use - definitely a keeper.

I bought an E1B head and screwed it on an E1E excecutive, for it's intended purpose, this one really rocks!!:twothumbs

What is wrong with it. Saying it is bad just doesn't tell us what is going on with the light from your point of view. What is the problem.

IMHO the E1B is a very unique light. The beam from an optic is IMHO really cool. Nice and bright and nice and tight.
Bernie is correct when he says that it does an amazing job if concentrating the light. The E1B is I believe Surefire's Brightest single cell light.

Maybe yours is some how screwed up. Maybe the optic is cracked or something.
Without more information about what you see or don't see in the beam it is very difficult to tell. Hell a beamshot would work wonders.
Yaesumofo

Since you've owned two other E1B's I guess you'd know if the beam was terrible but I'm still curious what is different about it compared to the other two that you owned. I figure that you'd be better off with a different light all together that to take from the E1B what makes it so darn nice.

In case anyone's wondering, he did NOT get the E1B head from me. I sold him an E2DL head.

If the beam is terrible compared to the 2 other E1Bs you have tried,
then I take it that there's something wrong with this one.

In which case, why don't you just try to get a refund?

IMHO it looks out of focus issue.
You can get better beam if you can open the front bezel.
In my experience, E1B beam is not good without correct focus.

The beam has a little hotspot with a fairly large corona immediatly surrounding it - but the corona is *completely* off to one side, I mean its like a half-moon with the hotspot on the center line. I'll play with it a little.

Even if you decide to do a reflector mod on a E1b, it seems like you would still be better off starting with one that works properly. If it has one problem (I can only guess, but perhaps a damaged optic from a drop, or from a problem when it was made,) it may have more.

See about a refund from the person you bought it from. I'm sure they will be reasonable about it if there was a problem, especially since it was a forum member. (If I read correctly.)

Won't SF also warranty this light for life? I have had to send several SF's back over the years. (Only a few out of the many I have used that is.) I don't remember ever being asked for a reciept or even anything more than my return address. Once a clicky switch failed on me, and they sent me a new one the same day. I offered to return the old one, but they said to throw it away and save myself the money! You may wish to give this a try!

Hope this works out for you!