Opening lights with glued threads - HOWTO - without tools - no damage!!!

So i keep reading how people have difficulty opening light with glued parts only to get replies from other people to use pliers and a bench-vise. I dislike this method very very much because even if you use cloth/rubber to protect the light sooner or later you will damage your light by either scratching it or squeezing it! So here's my method that does not require any tools!

Here i go, i hope you guys can follow:

You will need:
-A light you want to open
-About 4 feet of paracord or other STRONG cord
-Couple rubber bands
-Two nice wooden sticks (i use pieces of old broom handles)

Optional for real locktite (not needed for the cheap chinese glue):
-Watertight bag
-Water
-Pan

Step one:
Cut the paracord in two pieces each 2 feet in lenght and tie them in loops:


Step two:
Optional: Put the light in the watertight bag and boil it for several minutes to soften the lockbonding agent
Wrap rubber bands around the two parts you want to unscrew from eachother. This will add grip and protect the finish on your light:


Step three:
Put the paracord under your light. Remember the basic rule; Righty tighty, lefty loosy! You want the looped end (not the knot) pointed in the direction you want to turn the part. This might be a bit difficult to visualise so here's some pics:

In my example when viewed from the reflector side the loop on the head is pointed counterclockwise ('lefty') and the loop on the neck is pointed clockwise.

Now get the knotted end of your rope through the loop;


And tightly wrap the knotted end around the light in the direction of the loop which also should be the direction you want to turn the parts:

The idea behind this is that as you pull the knotted end of the loop the rope will tighten in on itself, grabbing and squeezing the light stronger the more force you apply. The rubber bands will turn this grabbing force into grip!

Step four
Take your sticks and put them through the loops just behind the knots like so:


And now comes the part where you will need to put all your best dexterity to use, you will need to keep the light perpendicular to your sticks while slowly pushing the sticks in the 'unscrew' direction:


And like this you should be able to open up any light, also works flawlessly on quark heads without applying any heat!!!

And because you only use rubber, nylon and wood damaging the light would be pretty much impossible!

Hope you guys like!

KISS - very nice! I'll be trying this in the next week or two.

Thanks for sharing. Now for your next challenge: how do you get the pill out of a light that has been glued? That has always been the main problem.

CampingLED said:

Thanks for sharing. Now for your next challenge: how do you get the pill out of a light that has been glued? That has always been the main problem.

Click to expand...

Well, that AND bezels... those are pretty hard to get out also (especially the smooth ones). But on the other hand, pills don't have to come out completely without any damage so soldering some strong piece of copper tubing to them and desoldering it afterwards gets you pretty far.

Interesting... You could also try protein shakes and a pullup bar! J/K - really though. Boiling always seems to work for me. Boiling... and... MONKEY STRENGTH!!!

Hi guys,
A real drag I have to reup on CPF proper :shakehead, enough boring stuff.

Has anyone tried a regulated oven to heat the heads? Like the ones used for heating welding rods and such?
And would the dry heat have any negative affect on the process? If so would using the same bag trick in the dry oven offer any benefit?

I just hate working with boiling water/steam ouch ouch ouch, ooow thats hot . . .

RepProdigious said:

Well, that AND bezels... those are pretty hard to get out also (especially the smooth ones). But on the other hand, pills don't have to come out completely without any damage so soldering some strong piece of copper tubing to them and desoldering it afterwards gets you pretty far.

Click to expand...

shao.fu.tzer said:

Interesting... You could also try protein shakes and a pullup bar! J/K - really though. Boiling always seems to work for me. Boiling... and... MONKEY STRENGTH!!!

Click to expand...

Got Lumens? said:

Hi guys,
A real drag I have to reup on CPF proper :shakehead, enough boring stuff.

Has anyone tried a regulated oven to heat the heads? Like the ones used for heating welding rods and such?
And would the dry heat have any negative affect on the process? If so would using the same bag trick in the dry oven offer any benefit?

I just hate working with boiling water/steam ouch ouch ouch, ooow thats hot . . .

Click to expand...

Use a plastic spoon in a large container to keep the part from bouncing around and getting scratched up in the pot. Boil it for about 5-10
minutes, holding in the spoon the whole time. Pull it out, let it cool first, THEN twist with monkey strength.

I just opened now a Fenix T1 head with this method! :naughty: cool, :thanks:

I boiled the head, then instead of ruber bands I used a bicycle tube for better grip.

The first small cord broke, so I began to realize there is much force avaliable with this method!

It worked with a 4mm rope and thicker core than paracord. The paracord needs too much space.


To save teeth and such things , hold the piece between the knees.

zelda

zelda said:

The first small cord broke, so I began to realize there is much force avaliable with this method!

Click to expand...

Heck yeah, thats why i claimed you dont need to boil anything. The shear force you can put to use with this method is quite something (especially if you use strong cord and long sticks).

zelda said:

To save teeth and such things , hold the piece between the knees.

Click to expand...

Thats what i do to keep lights angled to the sticks..... works nice indeed!

Wicket cool,

like catching fly with a pair of chopsticks

Very clever!:thumbsup:

BTW, That rope trick is a variation on the so called ' Spanish winch ' . Great tutorial!

Walterk said:

BTW, That rope trick is a variation on the so called ' Spanish winch ' . Great tutorial!

Click to expand...

I don't know what a Spanish winch is but i got the basic idea from an oil filter wrench...... which i don't have (i remove my oil filters with a screw-driver) and even if i did have on i doubt that it would be small enough for flashlights so this is a great alternative since you don't need any tools, just some basic junk everybody has laying around the house!!

Good technique! Thanks

Brilliant, best thing I've learned in a while
Now I know what to do with my old arnis sticks

This comment from zelda, "It worked with a 4mm rope and thicker core than paracord. The paracord needs too much space." makes me think I should ask someone who has already had success with this method where I can get some of the right paracord. If anyone has enough suitable cord to spare, I would gladly purchase enough to perform this trick.

I bought the cord in a "Jumbo", similar to "home depot". The are on reels and sold per meter. If you squeeze it with your finger together, it should feel strong --> thick core, thats the right cord.
It looks like this one:

Thats what i used in my pictures, normally i use genuine paracord (its stronger and not as stiff as the fake stuff) but i only had black left over atm so i used the home depot paracord in it stead because with the red it's way better to see what's going on in the pictures....