Flashlight made entirely of wood

Got my greacy tentacles on some iron wood (Guaiacum officinale) today, enough to make something like a 2D or 3C M*g lookalike.

What say you?

Formfactor, lightengine etc.

My girlfriend and I were walking around a DIY store last week and I was caught making comments along those lines when looking at some of the wood. It has the potential to look absolutely superb, but I think it would need to be an incan because there's no realistic way to get rid of the heat unless you go for active cooling.

I say go for it!

Wood works well for the Incandescent type.

I actually have my own wood prototype turned out of Maple, works quite well too. It's similar to a 6P type, and thats as much as I can say....

I would do something smaller, with an underdriven XP-E or XP-G so heat is not as much of an issue.

What is this wood? I can't find anything about it. Is it just really hard? If so it would be cool to make a flashlight out of it.

Try searching on 'Guaiacum officinale' as you wont find many listings under 'iron wood'. I think it's the heaviest and densest wood in the world.

Used for police batons amongst other things.
On sailing ships it was used for pulleys because it is so hard and the natural oil content is so high that it is self lubricating. The high oilcontent also deters fungus and bugs.

Sounds rather like a Scandinavian equivalent to Lignum Vitae.

The closest Australian timber would be Tuart (which is protected and effectively unavailable).

I'll watch developments with great interest.

Ive seen pens and mechanical pencils made from wood ..
So certainly can be done ..

Make a brass heatsink thats countersunk into the wood , should handle a SSC P4 or Cree Q5 ...

Magic Matt said:

Try searching on 'Guaiacum officinale' as you wont find many listings under 'iron wood'. I think it's the heaviest and densest wood in the world.

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'Iron wood' comprises a number of species, the hardest and densest of which is ipe, also known as pau lope, brazilian walnut, and some other names I don't recall. Info is readily available by searching on 'ipe wood'

It's readily available from several online decking supply places in sizes from 4/4x3 to 6x6 and larger, and can be ordered by local lumber yards if they don't have it in stock.

I just built a deck out of it. From my experience it might make a nice light, but there are a few drawbacks that you probably won't find out about until you work with it...

It tends to tear when planing, which I guess it would also do when turning on a lathe, so you may need to experiment with the right tools. Crosscutting creates tiny slivers that cling to the cut edge and will easily penetrate the toughest skin, only to be found a day or so later when the irritation sets in. Also the pigment that makes it such a beautiful color is water soluable. I found for the deck the best thing was to let it weather a little bit, then seal it. While it starts with a nice smooth finish, after weathering even a little it gets an open grain like oak (though finer), so if you want a smooth finish, you'll need to fill the grain. I suspect finishes won't stick well unless it's weathered a little.

D

DIWdiver said:

'Iron wood' comprises a number of species, the hardest and densest of which is ipe, also known as pau lope, brazilian walnut, and some other names I don't recall. Info is readily available by searching on 'ipe wood'

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I later realized that the scientific name quoted is actually for Lignum Vitae, not Iron Wood. They are very different. Sorry for the off-base post.

D

The Dane said:

Formfactor, lightengine etc.

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Ok, you might think this strange, but I don't think LED is right for this. Being all wood it's going to look antique-ish and so I think a high-tech LED look would be wrong - a more traditional incan setup would look nicer, yet could still be very surprisingly powerful.

I think 3C, because the wood is going to be heavy, so that would reduce the weight a bit, and also give you more oomph to drive the incan.

Possibly with a maritime sort of look? Something based around the look of a ships wheel at the business end maybe?

I would still go with LED, but maybe a high CRI, Warm tinted LED. And a good brass heatsink. Realistically, this isn't going to be your go-to light, it will be something to show off, and so I would also want to show true colors, and have a more "incandescent" tint.

Heat management is going to be a bear on a wooden light.

I would use brass for aesthetics and heat management. You'll have a very steampunk-ish light!

Please post WIP pics. Sounds like a great project. :thumbsup:

Thanks for input guys, maybe some steampunk thing is the way and that will "legalise" the use of brass and copper.

Should be fun.

I haven't the foggiest notion what "steampunk" might mean, but a dark wood, like cocobolo, with a narrow brass head, side switch and tailcap would really be very pretty indeed. Say 3C in size.

Just my 2c.

A tricky thing might be making the threads for a tailcap - large fine threads in wood don't really hold up too well. But if it were rechargeable, the tailcap wouldn't need to ever come off to change batteries...
A couple of brass buttons on the side could provide contacts for a charger, and wouldn't look out of place on the wood. Or you could go crazy and try an induction charger!!!
To connections at all! Just some thoughts.

-Joe

A few threads have dealt with wood lights:

• the Areaware "Jonas Damon"
• the Koa Wood 9P and 6P
• I want a wood flashlight
  

We're glad you have good wood. :naughty: