My own custom Mini Maglite? Pics Included!

SgtCuts

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Apr 20, 2011
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Ok guys two things first lets start with the fun pics. These pictures are of a regular maglite without the very top plastic piece and a 5mm LED from a donor Lighthound free keychain led seen HERE I used a reflector from the nite ize LED II kit as well here are the results when the head is fully tightened down and it lines up perfectly for the best hotspot on a lucky draw. :clap:

Also this was all thanks to what I have learned here on the CPF lovecpf

This first picture is of the light on with the head fully tightened down and the thing in front of it is the piece I removed to make this happen
MMM2.jpg


This is a picture of the hotspot in a room with one light on
MMM1.jpg


And last but certainly not least is a picture of the hotspot in a completely dark apartment:wow:
MMM3.jpg


Now onto other ideas... Could this work using just an emitter that has two wires coming out of it and use those wires as bi pins similar to the extremely crude drawing I made here.........

LEDproject.jpg


Would this idea work with a dummy AA and 1x14500 with a low 0.9-4.2v emitter maybe like XR-E?
 
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SgtCuts

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And I also decided to see if I could modify the stock reflector to use the NiteIze level II upgraded LED and then I cut down the pins on the NiteIze so that it sits flush against the top of the body without that other plastic piece that I showed in Picture #1 of my previous post heres the result again with the head tightened all the way down.....

MMM3NiteIzeII.jpg
 

LEDninja

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Now onto other ideas... Could this work using just an emitter that has two wires coming out of it and use those wires as bi pins similar to the extremely crude drawing I made here.........

LEDproject.jpg
We use to do that in the olden days before sandwich Shoppe or Nite-ize or Terralux came out with boosted LED drop-ins.
Search MJLED and SMJLED.
Matching the Vf of the LED to the voltage of the batteries is critical.
Vf of LED > V batteries - dim.
Vf of LED < V batteries - :poof:
Ah Lambda still got his instruction page up.
http://home.mchsi.com/~lambda_lights/smjled.htm

Would this idea work with a dummy AA and 1x14500 with a low 0.9-4.2v emitter maybe like XR-E?
XR-E and SSC-P4 OK voltage wise (XPG, SST50, XML NOT). They don't have wires coming out the back. Heatsinking the LED to the body is critical.
I got Elektrolumens to cut the body short for me and install an SSC-P4;
Minimaksize.jpg

Cutting the body short bad idea. I ended up gripping it at the back of the head - very slippery.
 

SgtCuts

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We use to do that in the olden days before sandwich Shoppe or Nite-ize or Terralux came out with boosted LED drop-ins.
Search MJLED and SMJLED.
Matching the Vf of the LED to the voltage of the batteries is critical.
Vf of LED > V batteries - dim.
Vf of LED < V batteries - :poof:
Ah Lambda still got his instruction page up.
http://home.mchsi.com/~lambda_lights/smjled.htm


XR-E and SSC-P4 OK voltage wise (XPG, SST50, XML NOT). They don't have wires coming out the back. Heatsinking the LED to the body is critical.
I got Elektrolumens to cut the body short for me and install an SSC-P4;
Minimaksize.jpg

Cutting the body short bad idea. I ended up gripping it at the back of the head - very slippery.

Who would cut one down for 1x14500 for me?
 

PCC

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Oct 28, 2007
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2,326
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Sitting' on the dock o' The Bay...
...and then I cut down the pins on the NiteIze so that it sits flush against the top of the body without that other plastic piece that I showed in Picture #1 of my previous post...

I used to run one of my cut-downs this way and I've found that it's more trouble than it's worth if you retain the standard way of turning the light on and off: with the twisting the pins get all of the torque and eventually they twist then break. If you have switched it to a tail-cap clicky then you can get away with it.

BTW, there are a few of us with table-top lathes who can cut down a standard Mini-Mag. I haven't done one in a while, but, I have a pair that I need to get done sooner or later. These are going to be cut down to 1.25 AA size, the extra length is for a much larger heatsink. The hardest part is going to be trying to figure out how to turn these monsters on and off reliably since the Nite-Ize clickies will probably fail from the current I'm expecting these two lights to draw.
 

SgtCuts

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Messages
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I used to run one of my cut-downs this way and I've found that it's more trouble than it's worth if you retain the standard way of turning the light on and off: with the twisting the pins get all of the torque and eventually they twist then break. If you have switched it to a tail-cap clicky then you can get away with it.

BTW, there are a few of us with table-top lathes who can cut down a standard Mini-Mag. I haven't done one in a while, but, I have a pair that I need to get done sooner or later. These are going to be cut down to 1.25 AA size, the extra length is for a much larger heatsink. The hardest part is going to be trying to figure out how to turn these monsters on and off reliably since the Nite-Ize clickies will probably fail from the current I'm expecting these two lights to draw.

If you decide to cut some extras down please let me know
 

SgtCuts

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Apr 20, 2011
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how much did it cost to do the mod ?

Besides the nite ize kit I would say maybe just the cost of the maglite all I did was shorten the pins on the nite ize drop in and the take that top plastic piece off before installing the led once all that was done I simply put the head back on and presto instant free mod
 

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