Can You Make a Malkoff Drop-in Work in an LED Maglite?

I have two D-cell Maglites, a 3D LED, and a 4D Incan. I have installed the Malkoff drop-in in the 4D. I like it very much, but I'm a little disappointed with the throw, due to the very shallow reflector of the incandescent Maglites. It ends up wasting a lot of the Malkoff's output in spill (well, "wasting" is subjective).

Anyway, I am wondering if anyone has tried installing the Malkoff drop-in in a new Maglite LED. The LED switch is set a little lower in the tube, and therefore allows a much deeper reflector. When I compare my Malkoff 4D next to the stock Maglite 3D LED, the 3D holds a much tighter focused beam, and matches the throw of the more powerful 260-lumen Malkoff.

I was able to get the switch out of the 4D, but the set screw (holding screw?) inside the switch of the 3D won't engage or loosen, so I can't get the switch out. Therefore I cannot compare the incandescent and LED switches side-to-side, but the only differences seem to be that the LED switch is a little shorter and narrower. Perhaps the Malkoff could sit lower in the tube of the LED model, and therefore utilize the LED's deeper reflector, making a super-thrower?

Has anyone messed around with a Malkoff drop-in and an LED Maglite? Can it work? Can you possibly shave down the incandescent switch so that the Malkoff can sit deep enough in the tube to fit the LED reflector? I don't want to start ruining switches if there is no point.

The drop won't work in the Mag LED because the Maglite module is integrated with the switch and the drop in won't have a place to make connection. You could (in theory) push the drop in as far in the incan Mag as possible before you tighten it down and use a Mag rebel deep reflector, it's around $5 from Mag instruments.

Well, I did have the Malkoff drop-in pushed down as far as possible, but it's obvious that it needs to be about another 1 inch deeper in the tube to fully accept the deeper rebel reflector.

I decided to go to work on it.

I got out the Dremel and cut about 1/2" from the bottom of the rebel reflector (all it would allow before grinding off the bottom of the actual sphere), and about 1/4" off the incandescent switch cylinder that houses the bulb assembly (all the plastic would allow before hitting metal).

When I put everything back together, I was able to thread the rebel reflector head about half way onto the tube before the bottom of the reflector reached the Malkoff drop-in. Everything works, and the output is focused into a much smaller circle on the wall, but to get to the "sweet spot" where the hot spot is the tightest, the head is loose and barely threaded onto the tube. If I can rig up a spacer of some kind to take the wiggle out, it will be a great thrower! However, the old short incandescent reflector leaves a big gap on the 3D LED, so now I need a replacement rebel reflector for it.

But cutting off about 3/4" of material, and using the rebel reflector with the Malkoff instead of the incandescent reflector, has narrowed the spill beam from about 10 feet wide at 5 feet away from a wall, to about 6 feet wide. Just what I was looking for. It's not perfect, but it was worth a try and only cost me 1 plastic reflector.

UPDATE:

OK, I did it. I took the Malkoff drop-in out, took the entire Maglite incandescent switch apart piece by piece and analyzed how everything fit together, and what I could afford to cut. After cutting each piece down just enough to still work how it was designed, yet allow the Malkoff device to sit deeper in the body, I got that Malkoff a good full inch deeper in the body than it originally sat. Now the deeper rebel LED reflector threads down onto the body enough to be stable, and it allows the output to focus into a much tighter hotspot and spill. I can't wait to test it outside once it gets really dark around here.

Anyway, if anyone wants to have a Malkoff "super-thrower" Maglite, with 260 OTF lumens focused into a very crisp tight hotspot with a narrow spill, this might be a good mod for you. The standard Maglite reflector just wastes too much of the Malkoff's output into wide spill light.