Eddie-M
Newly Enlightened
- Joined
- Jun 21, 2010
- Messages
- 99
So here's the scoop. My old boss is a flashaholic, and he had recommended this site to me a while ago. He carries a Fenix to work and at the time I had a 3 watt Life-Gear LED flashlight from Target. Anyhow, thanks to him telling me about this site, I have built a bunch of LED flashlight mods using the P7 and SST-90, and more recently hotwire mods using incandescent bulbs including the Osram 64623 and 64658 :devil:
Recently he had bought an old Ray-O-Vac flashlight at an antique market and was wondering if there was anything I could do to it. The light is unique in that the body is thin gauge copper. It is about an inch shorter than a 2D Maglite and thinner too. The challenge in modifying the light was in keeping all the parts unmodified so as to retain the collectors value.
This pretty much limited me to drop-ins. The flashlight was originally designed to accept two D cell batteries and luckily like many of you on this site, I have come to aquire a bunch of cheapo 1D-3AA battery adapters. They are not a great solution for a high current bulb, but in the case of the Ray-O-Vac I would have to use a low current bulb anyway because the stock reflector is plastic and I do not want to melt it with a higher power bulb.
So all I did was replace the two D batteries with 6AA using a couple adapters. I had to extend the positive contact of one of the adapters with a solder blob. Originally I was running a 5 cell Maglite bulb off the 6AA but then figured out that because of all the resistance in the system, I could get away overdriving a 4 cell Maglite bulb. The stock lens on the Ray-O-Vac was a 50mm glass lens but it was cracked down the middle. The simple solution was to take an extra 52mm Maglite polycarbonate lens and cut away a thin strip around the perimeter. It's not perfect, but the edge is hidden inside the flashlite head anyway.
Overall, I am happy with how it turned out. It's a neat little flashlite with a tight hotspot and a bit whiter and brighter than a stock 6D maglite. But pictures speak louder than words and I talk to much anyway, so here it is
Stock 6D Maglite
Ray-O-Vac
Stock 6D Maglite vs Ray-O-Vac
Recently he had bought an old Ray-O-Vac flashlight at an antique market and was wondering if there was anything I could do to it. The light is unique in that the body is thin gauge copper. It is about an inch shorter than a 2D Maglite and thinner too. The challenge in modifying the light was in keeping all the parts unmodified so as to retain the collectors value.
This pretty much limited me to drop-ins. The flashlight was originally designed to accept two D cell batteries and luckily like many of you on this site, I have come to aquire a bunch of cheapo 1D-3AA battery adapters. They are not a great solution for a high current bulb, but in the case of the Ray-O-Vac I would have to use a low current bulb anyway because the stock reflector is plastic and I do not want to melt it with a higher power bulb.
So all I did was replace the two D batteries with 6AA using a couple adapters. I had to extend the positive contact of one of the adapters with a solder blob. Originally I was running a 5 cell Maglite bulb off the 6AA but then figured out that because of all the resistance in the system, I could get away overdriving a 4 cell Maglite bulb. The stock lens on the Ray-O-Vac was a 50mm glass lens but it was cracked down the middle. The simple solution was to take an extra 52mm Maglite polycarbonate lens and cut away a thin strip around the perimeter. It's not perfect, but the edge is hidden inside the flashlite head anyway.
Overall, I am happy with how it turned out. It's a neat little flashlite with a tight hotspot and a bit whiter and brighter than a stock 6D maglite. But pictures speak louder than words and I talk to much anyway, so here it is
Stock 6D Maglite
Ray-O-Vac
Stock 6D Maglite vs Ray-O-Vac
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