How to open a ITP A1 EOS

Ok , what I tried and did not work ..

1/ Boiling the head , often works , but not this time ..
2/ Freezing the head , some times works , not this time

What did it ? Lots of heat , I used a micro torch to heat the head till it was smoking hot , maybe 2 to 300 Deg C , yes this is hot enough to kill the internals , which I think I did , I think even the emitter is dead , as is the driver .

Yeah , this one was put together to stay together .

Why bother ? This might become a XM-L Rocket

Looking at mine in front of me.. can't you just use some fine-tipped tweezers and unscrew the guts? Maybe I'm missing something here as I can't tell from the pics if they used threadlock. Irreguardless thank you for voluntarily sacrificing your A1.

Since you have it taken apart, can you measure the size of the board that the XP-E is mounted on? If I could get mine taken apart safely a XM-L mod is definately in order. If only a 17mm driver board would fit in there.. A XM-L T6, 2.8A driver, and a IMR cell would would make a sleeper light for sure.

Hole in pill is for a 10mm board
A 17mm driver should fit .

Double stack 7135 driver ? Maybe , maybe not , just depends on internal space ..

I have special pliers for opening / removing pills

old, can you give a step by step on what you did? i''ve been trying to take my A1 apart too and at this point don't care if i fry the internals. i just want it open.

once you got it up to temperature, was the pill still hard to turn, or did it turn easily?

also, did you melt the o-ring in the head? if so, what did you replace it with?

please disregard my previous post. i got it open.

i warmed up a steel frying pan over a fire and placed the A1 head on the pan lens side up for a minute. once the head warmed up, i wrapped it with a paper towel, placed it in a vice and unscrewed the pill with tweezers. the pill came out pretty easily.

i had tried the same method before on low heat without success. i turned the heat up a little higher this time and that did the trick.

the o-ring on the lens survived the heat. the LED doesn't look so good, but i haven't tested it yet. same with the circuit board.

i'm glad i finally got this thing open. thanks for providing the inspiration.

Ooops sorry ..

O ring at lens , I used a fine needle and pulled it out before applying heat ...

The last ITP was the toughest , and literally made a popping sound when the glue let go , but I needed so much heat the emitter melted well and truly .

Anyone wanting to save the driver - Its a press in fit - and can be tight - I drilled a hole [ after inspecting the first driver ] and used a needle with a hook to pull it out of the pill ..

http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?316328-ITP-A1-EOS-XM-L-U2-Mod - First ITP became a XM-L