Newbie introduction and a couple questions

Hows it going CPF. A newbie to high end flashlights and modifying flashlights here.

Frustrated with my cheapo plastic flashlights i checked google to look up good flashlights. Low and behold i stumbled upon this website by accident and i spent a good portion of the last two days browsing through the entire forum and reading up. I was debating to purchase a new Surefire (mostly because of the name) or the Neofab Legion II. But i noticed a lot of people here modify their Maglites. I have never gave much thought to modifying a maglite but reading this forum made me very interested. So today i set out to buy a new Maglite 3D. I want a high powered flashlight but i like the idea the Maglite uses regular 'ol D cell batteries which i can purchase at any store.

I am planning to buy a Malkoff LED kit. The kit advertises 260 lumens. How much lumens does a OEM Maglite produce?

I would like to modify the body. Who here on the forum (or outside of the forum) can machine and anodize? I would like to make the head a conical shape with fins and scallops... the bezel crenellated (preferably with a stainless steel piece pressed to fit but modifying the original aluminum bezel would be fine)... and i was also planning to purchase a Malkoff Xcape tail cap/glass breaker. On top of this i would like to anodize everything (except the Stainless Crenellated bezel) a natural gun metal color.

Thanks for all the excellent information on the forum. lovecpf

Welcome to CPF!

A stock Mag3D is probably putting out somewhere around 30-45 lumens, which is a heavily optimistic estimate.

As for modding, I don't know. I do know that a lot of people here sell machined and modded parts individually so they may do it for you or may prefer you just buy a new part outright. Fivemega and Modamag are two that I can remember off the top of my head.

Re-anodizing is not going to be cheap because most shops that do it want to do large batches, but thankfully it is possible to anodize things yourself if you are willing to get your hands dirty.

If you want a Malkoff Maglite upgrade, please be patient. They have not been in stock for several months now. I would suggest signing up for the email notification list on the Malkoff website so you'll know when they'll be in stock again.

I signed up for that list about six months ago. I think so anyway. It's been so long it's hard for me to remember now.

:welcome:
http://www.flashlightreviews.com/reviews/maglite_3d.htm
Multiply total output by 1.41 for incandescent flashlight to get lumens.
Multiply total output by 1.39 for LED flashlight to get lumens.

Note how brightness drops over time on the runtime graph. (Alkaline batteries).

As far as mags go, my advice is to get an Orange Peel reflector either a Medium (MOP) or heavy (HOP) to get ride of alot of the horrible artifacts in the beam. Obviously a LED upgrade of some sort (Malkoff is very rare so might as well start with something else). Try hitting up kaidomain dot com. They have a drop in with an aluminum reflector bundled for $37. Search their site
M*g CREE Q5 Drop-in & 52mm HD Lens & MOP Alu Reflector SKU: S004472

Good luck! Shipping from them takes a while, comes from HongKong. For a smooth beam that floods nicely try a lens that diffuses the beam from FlashlightLens dot com. Great guys there, great service.

Don't bother with cheap imported crap here. Go for the real thing, the Malkoff, he should be releasing the updated model very soon now...

Wow thanks for the information!

I will certainly look into the things mentioned but as of now i am almost set on purchasing a Fenix TK30. That thing is SEXY and i read the performance is top notch also.

DuncanHynes. I checked kaidomain and unfortunately that kit is sold out. I did email them however to see if it will be in stock again. Looks like a great deal.