Ugly 5mm LED Beam: Sanding or Clear Nail Polish or?

I bought some very nice brass Peak Shastas (1 LED) at a bargain price, and plan on giving them as Christmas gifts. The problem is that they must have been some of the early Peaks, because the beam quality is really bad---very prominent blue rings in the hotspot. These will probably be used as reading-in-bed lights, so, even for the non-flashaholic recipients, I think the ugly beam on white paper will be noticeable and distracting.

So, I'm talking myself into action here. I am not the handiest guy, and my only other effort in this vein ended poorly, with the 5mm LED I sanded down (too much) putting out only a fraction of its original light.

However, I have now acquired a Dremel, so I have the option of using it with a small, rather pointed sanding tip that will reach down to the LED without scarring up the brass cup (if I'm careful). I also read once that clear nail polish applied over the LED will soften and improve the the beam.

I am humbly asking for any suggestions, guidance, other ideas, etc. I'm really in a quandry, because I don't want to give these lights as is, but am afraid I'm going to ruin them if I try to make improvements.

Thanks.

i have sanded down before, from what it sounds like, you're thinking sanding way too much, when i did it, i used something like 1200 grit wet sand paper and LIGHTLY sanded it til it was frosty in clarity, that gave it a nicer floody beam pattern but less throw, its a compromise, a dremel will be way too much from what i understand

KSH92474 said:

i have sanded down before, from what it sounds like, you're thinking sanding way too much, when i did it, i used something like 1200 grit wet sand paper and LIGHTLY sanded it til it was frosty in clarity, that gave it a nicer floody beam pattern but less throw, its a compromise, a dremel will be way too much from what i understand

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x2... If you over-sanded it by hand on a previous attempt... a dremel will certainly be overkill. Dremels are finicky little things, you blink or slip for one fraction of a second and your part is scrap. They also tend to heat the part MUCH faster than hand sanding, so IMHO you are introducing the added risk of melting the LED dome.

I sanded the dome on my Inova X1-V2 which uses a blue spotted Nichia CS. The end result is stunning, it blends the yellow flood with the blue spot and the result is a much whiter tint pure flood. I used 800 grit wet sand paper, soaked it for 10 minutes and carefully sanded the emitter into a frosty dome.

Its hard to say but I don't think it cut the Lumen output all that much... at least not as much as I was led to believe.

Window frosting spray. Make a cone of paper that goes around the LED, a light touch on the nozzle, and you're done. Removeable later if you want.

Thanks, gentlemen, for your suggestions so far.

Luke, what exactly is window frosting spray, and can you get it at Lowes, HD, etc.?

1000 grit or higher works well. it only takes a few seconds to do.

I want to say thank you again for all the good suggestions. I ended up using a sanding "sponge" (don't know if that's what they're called, but it's the rectangular block that is about the size of a sponge). I went this route for 2 reasons: the corner of the "sponge" could reach down into the cup and make contact with the LED w/o scraping (much) against the sides of the cup; and it's what I happened to have on hand.

It actually worked pretty well. I was careful and did it lightly, stopping after each few rubs to check my results. These beams still won't win any beauty contests, but they are much better---the ugly and very pronounced yellow and blue circles are replaced by a smoother beam with a blue hotspot that's about on par with many other 5mm LEDs I've seen. Output wasn't reduced by much, either. I am definitely feeling much better about presenting these nice little brass Peaks as Christmas gifts. :santa:

Thanks again to all. :thanks: