Maglite 4D SSC P7 Build Plenty of Photos

I'm starting my build for a Mag 4D using 12 AA NimH cells in a holder, with a P7 emitter.

It's going to be piecemeal, since I'm building as much as I can by hand and since I'm only buying a little at a time.

I thought I would start the thread and then as I work more on it, I can just add to it and bring it back up again.
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Today I bought a Mag 4D at Lowes and I also bought parts to make a battery holder and a Heatsink.

I will go through what I have done so far:

I stripped the 4D down to its shell and took apart the switch as well. I will be cutting the switch bulb head off and soldering leads to the switch later. Today I worked on forming pieces for a Copper heatsink and finding out if it all would fit together.

I used a 1" copper end cap, 3 - 1" copper couplings, a 1"x3/4" bushing and a 3/4"x1/2" bushing.

Update - If you want to do it all yourself that's great, but the Copper is heavier than aluminum and even though it conducts heat more effectively, it doesn't hold heat better than aluminum. In a flashlight mass is really the only thing we have to use, since the heat in the heatsink really has nowhere to go so aluminum will hold more heat than copper. Transferring heat to the aluminum tube doesn't have that much of an effect, since air is a poor conductor. That's why PC's have big fans in them, to keep moving large amounts of air quickly. We don't have that means of heat dissipation in a flashilght.

Basically there's no reason to use copper over aluminum in our situation, but hey I didn't know that, till one of the wiser members here led me to it......


First I cleaned all the scan tags off the copper and scrubbed them up with fine sandpaper. I worked on the 1"x3/4" first. That bushing has one end rounded and that end also has a lip in the I.D. I rounded the outer edge even more to conform to the inner shape of the 1" cap and I filed the inner lip off using a small round file. Then I slid the 1/2"x3/4" bushing into the larger 1"x3/4" bushing and used a socket of the 3/4" diameter and a mallet to tap the smaller bushing into the larger one. After that I used another socket and the mallet to tap both the bushings into the 1" copper cap.

The I.D. of the mag tube is larger than 1" so I wanted to slip something over the 1" cap. I split one of the 1" couplings with a hacksaw, so I could expand it and slide it over the 1" cap. Now it all fit real tight into the Mag tube, but there's a gap, so I cut a slice out of another 1" coupling and shaped it to fit snug in the gap. Now it all fits very tight in the Mag tube. I also slid one more 1" coupling down in, to meet the 1" cap and this week I will be running solder through it all, to make sure there's no air gaps anywhere and make sure it can't come apart. Then I will cut it to length and wait for more parts.........

Also I will start a battery holder this week and I will show more pictures as this all progresses. I know there's always a bunch of mods going on here, so I guess this posting is more for me than all of you. It may not be as good as a store bought heatsink, but being copper it will conduct heat quickly and that's what I want.

More to come................................

Re: Maglite 4D SSC P7 Build

Battery holder is made....
Using 12 AA Nimh batteries in serial/parallel (4 series, 3 parallel). On a fresh charge it measures 5.2v and should be 8000mah (can't test amp readings).

Made from stuff at the hardware store and right at home. The top & bottom plastic pieces were made from 1/4" thich MDS Nylon flat stock. Can be bought at McMaster Carr. I used a 1 1/2" hole saw to cut out the circles.

I used 6-32 threaded rod for the three supports and used plastic 6-32 nuts on them. On the top there are springs between the nuts and the top plastic holder for a little pressure when the batteries are put in place.

I cut two pieces of 21 gauge copper for the top & bottom plates. I used punches to make recesses for the + side and raised spots for the - side, so the batteries get good contact. Then I used a brass 10-24 bolt and brass nuts to hold them together (I filed the heads super thin on the bolts). The brass bolts are 1" long, so they stick out and I put a brass capnut on each end. Those nuts work for the positive and negative terminals. The top nut fits right in the switch and I use a 1/4"ID to 1 1/2"OD body washer over the bottom nut, so the spring makes good contact. I modified the switch and got rid of the + side spring. I used a #10 brass washer (see picture) and soldered it to the switch. Cuts down on resistance dramatically.

The batteries are in sleeves made from strips out of a plastic T8 flourescent tube cover (A T5 tube cover is the right diameter, but I couldn't find any locally). I cut the strips at 47mm wide and used clear tape to form them. The batteries fit in tight and it makes it easy to put in the three stacks of batteries. It all slides right in and no rattles, plus it works! I also soldered wire thru the back - spring, to cut down on the resistance.

I know it's not everyone's style to make a mod out of what you have, but for those very few of us that can't afford much at all, it's nice to be able to still mod something and make it work within our budget.














Where there's a will there's a way..........

Re: Maglite 4D SSC P7 Build

Looks like you Re putting a lot of work into this. I wonder what the end result will be

But why bother with 12AA's instead of 3 (or 4) D's?

4 Eneloops only have 80% of the capacity of 1 D cell.

Re: Maglite 4D SSC P7 Build

I used a 3d, heat sink and LED from 4sevens and 3 D-cell nimh direct drive. A do-it-yourself is cool but mine only took 20min and it runs forever.

Re: Maglite 4D SSC P7 Build

jcvjcvjcvjcv said:

Looks like you Re putting a lot of work into this. I wonder what the end result will be

But why bother with 12AA's instead of 3 (or 4) D's?

4 Eneloops only have 80% of the capacity of 1 D cell.

Click to expand...

Not using eneloops. Powerex 2700mah NiMh batteries. Because I have almost 50 AA's and three 8 bay chargers and no D's and no D chargers...

Re: Maglite 4D SSC P7 Build

jbosman1013 said:

I used a 3d, heat sink and LED from 4sevens and 3 D-cell nimh direct drive. A do-it-yourself is cool but mine only took 20min and it runs forever.

Click to expand...

jbosman:

That sounds like the mod I need :thumbsup: I'm kind of a mod noob. I checked 4sevens website for parts. Can you elaborate on how you put it together? Specifically, how do you securely mount the P7 to the heat sink and then wire it in? Feel free to email me if you want to take this off line.

Thanks

Dan

Re: Maglite 4D SSC P7 Build

jcvjcvjcvjcv said:

Looks like you Re putting a lot of work into this. I wonder what the end result will be

But why bother with 12AA's instead of 3 (or 4) D's?

4 Eneloops only have 80% of the capacity of 1 D cell.

Click to expand...

Using AAs in Maglite mods are an excellent idea and have been done even by the best Mag modders here. A few good reasons I believe are:

- It is easier to pull high current from AAs than it is from Ds.
- It is easier to charge AAs than Ds, which makes it an acceptable trade off to high capacity D batteries.
- AA rechargeables can easily be found even at retail stores and also can be had rather inexpensively.

Super Mag modder Fivemega makes some really high quality xAA-to-xD adapters that can be found on thread posts here at CPF. They're pricey, but they are by far the best quality ones out there:

https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/182370

CPF member mdocod makes excellent and fairly inexpensive battery holders. I've bought some from him and find them to be well made and very functional. The can be found here and he can configure them in both series and parallel operation:

https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/195976

All in all, if you're like me and have a boatload of AA NiMH rechargeables, these battery adapters.

Mag 4D build is Finished!

Well, I'm happy with it. First build of a flashlight & first P7, for me.

Ok, here's what I did for the rest of the build.
P7 emitter C***I bin
M*P reflector
8X7135 board
Glass lens

I had already built the copper heatsink, so I made a platform to raise the emitter up. Two pieces of copper soldered together and shaped to fit the emitter. I used Artic Adhesive to attach it to the heatsink. I drilled the holes for the wires and attached the emitter with Artic adhesive. I used the Teflon wire and soldered the leads to the emitter.

I had to do some work on the KD board. I don't think I will use them again. It's worth it to wait and save for a better board, but it's what I got, so I removed their wires, soldered the bridges on Q1 & Q3, removed their extra solder and soldered my wires on it.

I modified the switch, cutting the tower off it and soldering direct with wires, to help lower resistance. Wired the switch to the board and used Artic adhesive to stick the board to the back of the heatsink. I also used Artic to cover the bare wires on the emitter.

I opened up the reflector with round files and sandpaper to fit over the emitter and put in the glass lens. The reflector was in great shape, don't know how it will last, but the coating was done well.

The rest of the pictures are of the install and final finishing. I used thermal paste for a good contact between the heatsing the the body of the light.

What else? Just clean-up time, look at that mess, but I had fun and it works!:thumbsup:

























It's really bright, I wouldn't want to shine it at someone unless I want them to scream and run away!, but Not bright enough, not nearly bright enough..... I'm going to do my 2D Mag as an Incan, since I started it already and after that? Multiple P7's.........:devil:

Beamshots, maybe tonight or definitely Friday night!

Re: Mag 4D build is Finished!

jusval returns in a big way!!! From your post in THE CAFÉ last week we thought you had thrown in the towel on modding lights.
Nice P7... and interesting copper heatsink you put together too.

Yeah... maybe one of these days I'll build a P7 light...
(When DX gets the good bin's in )

We wanna see beamshots - from the warehouse !!! :devil:

Re: Maglite 4D SSC P7 Build

Well everyone has bad days..........

I am going to hold off for a while due to money, but I already have everything for making the Incan. It's pretty inexpensive to do one so I will finish that.

I already had ordered the stuff for this one, but I really didn't want to use that DX board, but it's cheap and it works, for now......

The multi P7 thing is a long ways off, probably by the time I do it, it will be some other emitter....... It's going to be "one of those" things......... I like those "do it yourselfers"....

I have been lurking around, but just not posting. I really think the best for me is to lurk more and post less. The underground is better for my tirades. :devil:

Thanks Cydonia

Beamshots

I did these shots in the garage. I will shoot a couple at work this week-end.

What I think? Fantastic. Large Hotspot with no artifacts, Corona & sidespill blend together and when I tried it outdoors, the sidespill is huge and very useable. I think I will really love it in the warehouse. It's a flood not a spot, but that's what I wanted.


















Shutter speed 1/8 of a second, not 1 second...


It looked very much like a flourescent to me. That's my first reaction to the light.

Enjoy!:thumbsup:

Those are good pictures - multi exposure settings, varying distance throws, labelled - better than a lot of other beam shots submitted around here :huh:
Smooth hotspot is obvious and impressive... 5 second exposure must simulate what it would look like to fully dark adapted eyes :laughing:

This thread should be over in "Homemade and modified" section :thumbsup:

Very cool! I was just thinking about using copper in a mag and making my own heat sink. What size parts did you get?

jasonck08 said:

Very cool! I was just thinking about using copper in a mag and making my own heat sink. What size parts did you get?

Click to expand...

I used a 1" copper end cap, 2 - 1" copper couplings, a 1"x3/4" bushing and a 3/4"x1/2" bushing. The bushings slide inside the copper cap and the couplings were cut and used on eht outside of the cap, to make a tight fit in the mag tube. It was all soldered together, using one of those butane torches.

I would stress that if you can afford to buy one of the heatsinks made for these Mag Mods, then do it.

If you want to do it all yourself that's great, but the Copper is heavier than aluminum and even though it conducts heat more effectively, it doesn't hold heat better than aluminum. In a flashlight mass is really the only thing we have to use, since the heat in the heatsink really has nowhere to go so aluminum will hold more heat than copper. Transferring heat to the aluminum tube doesn't have that much of an effect, since air is a poor conductor. That's why PC's have big fans in them, to keep moving large amounts of air quickly. We don't have that means of heat dissipation in a flashilght.

Basically there's no reason to use copper over aluminum in our situation, but hey I didn't know that, till one of the wiser members here led me to it......

Sorry, long answer........

From looking at the pictures of the switch assembly I'm going to venture a guess that this is an older MagLite and not a newer one. Older MagLites have a larger ID so trying to duplicate this heatsink with a newer Mag will not work out the same way.

I really need to get off my behind and get my Mag P7 project going...

PCC

It's a brand new Maglite with the "D" in the serial#. Bought it at Lowes before Xmas, when they had em on sale.

My bad. I guess I need to open up my MagLites and take a closer look inside.

Warehouse Photos

Shots from the warehouse. The only reference I had was my Vector Twin Beam Sport Spot at 110 watts, so it's not a fair comparison.















Of course the P7 isn't in the same league as the Twin Beam after about 15 yards, so like I say, it seems puny in comparison, but it's one heck of an LED. Figure 7 watts compared to 100 watts. It makes that a really bright 7 watts.

Hi Jusval,

I like your posts, I appreciate the clear instructions, attention to detail, and the full set of step by step photos. Thanks.

jusval said:

If you want to do it all yourself that's great, but the Copper is heavier than aluminum and even though it conducts heat more effectively, it doesn't hold heat better than aluminum. In a flashlight mass is really the only thing we have to use, since the heat in the heatsink really has nowhere to go so aluminum will hold more heat than copper. Transferring heat to the aluminum tube doesn't have that much of an effect, since air is a poor conductor.

Click to expand...

I've never done such a mod, but one thing springs to mind: Isn't there a way to make a direct thermal path between the sink and the tube?

One such way could be wrapping it all up in copper wire (unstrip some cables that you have lying around). It would be ugly - but would it work good enough? Anybody who have tried it?

I would think that the most robust solution would be to transfer as much heat as possible, as quickly as possible, to the outer surface. That is the only place where you have any cooling to speak of. Mass in it self is not negative, but if there is no efficient cooling even a very large mass heat sink will eventually get too hot if run continuously.

(From a practical point of view - in many applications the light would NOT be run continuously, so a large mass heat sink would do a good job as a thermal "buffer").