"3W Tactical LED" from Advance Auto

Well, I've been lurking and reading for quite some time and finally joined up the other day. So this is a bit of an introduction thread as well as a review thread.

While browsing Advance Auto today I came across this "3W Tactical LED Flashlight" (as it is labeled). It is a 2-C, aluminum housing, single LED light. It has a crenellated bezel and tailcap and click type switch on the tailcap. It uses 3 o-rings throughout the body and all the threads came lubricated. Its a little over 7" long, the head is around 1.75" in diameter, and the body is around 1.25" in diameter. (I'll get more specific dimensions if anyone wants them)

Apparently, this is the same light that is/was sold by Northern Tool (Northern also sells/sold a smaller AAA light of the same design). So some of you might be familiar with it. I noticed that there were several threads on this light, but none were very in-depth, so I thought I'd take a crack at it.

Here is the full view of the light:



Head and tailcap:





Exploded view:

[From top left to bottom right-Head, lens, reflector, reflector retainer, LED/heatsink housing, LED/heatsink assembly, body, tailcap (with plastic switch housing pressed or epoxied inside, havent figured out which yet), negative battery contact, spring, switch assembly, and boot.]



And the individual parts:







Surefire G2L (with P60L) beamshot:



3W Tactical LED beamshot:



Side by side beamshots (4ft-ish), G2L on left...3W tactical on right:



Now my main reason for buying this light was due to the fact that it seemed like it would be a good candidate for modding. The switch seems to be the weak point for sure.

Overall for $20 it seems to be a decent light....I keep reading that people have had the boot not want to stay in, as well as the switch.

I think I will head over to the custom and modified forum and pick some of your brains on how to make this light a contender.

I wanted a good first project and I think that I found it. Let me know if you guys want or need anymore info and I'll see what I can do.

-DevilPig

Welcome to CPF!! LOL we don't see very many lights get slammed by a P60L.

Seems like a capable host. I don't see any brass or copper area to solder the -ive side of a DC-DC board to body. At a glance that looks to be your biggest hurdle. That very element has forced me to abandon 2-3 DIY mods in the past. Before you waste your time trying, its impossible to solder electronic components onto Aluminum.

Those cheap DX type switches only handle ~4A before they melt. I have heard of others melting them in high output mods.

Ditch the plastic lens for a nice flashlightlens.com unit.

Replace the 2xC cells with either a 26650 cell + DIY dummy spacer or 2xIMR-C, pick a DC-DC board that can handle the Vin range. Note however that either of these cells are slightly bigger than a standard alkaline C. Measure everything with a caliper before finalizing your decision.

The pill looks like its sufficiently threaded to conduct heat very well.
Welcome to CPF again and good Luck with your mod!
:twothumbs

Will I be able to simply replace the star with an off-the-shelf unit?

Also, if anyone has any ideas as to what could be done about replacing or upgrading the tailswitch I would be extremely grateful. I'm not getting anywhere on a google hunt for something simliar.

If I have to go a custom route I will.

Lets just say that I wanted to make a shock-proof, workhorse out of this thing...where would you guys start?

I think the tailcap could be threaded on the inside. I could machine an adapter for a more reliable switch from there.

The lens will certainly get replaced.

You can't solder to Al, but there are ways to bond a wire to it. I use silver filled epoxy from mcmaster. It is about $ 20 / tube and needs to be baked a bit, but it does work quite well. I have used it on some lights just for that purpose.

So far I found a "toughened" glass lens on deal extreme....flashlightlens didn't have the proper size (39mm) in either borofloat or UCL.

Still searching for other parts...

HarryN said:

You can't solder to Al, but there are ways to bond a wire to it. I use silver filled epoxy from mcmaster. It is about $ 20 / tube and needs to be baked a bit, but it does work quite well. I have used it on some lights just for that purpose.

Click to expand...

You'll have to excuse my lack of knowledge here...but what needs to be soldered or attached to the body?

In this light, you have the star with the emitter on one side of the pill....is the board on the other side the dc board?

Maybe I just need a good explanation of what I've got and what I have to change in order to make it something worthwhile.