Father and son memory

After reading many posts on this site, my 13 year old son and I decided to go have a little fun. We went looking for an inexpensive, modifiable flashlight. At Big Lots we found a Rayovac 4 AA version - black rubber coated, water-proof, batteries are held sided-by-side, lanyard loop and lanyard on the tail-end, button on/off. It looked promising ($2.50 - pic of one here - http://www.musicgraveyard.com/rayhomsporfl.html). I read somewhere here to use a Radio Shack XPR103 lamp with a 4AA-type flashlight, so we went and purchased one ($1.99) . A local grocery store had Duracell batteries on sale ($1.60). We put it all together and WOW, it was a bright light! Probably 2 -3 times brighter than my 3 D-cell Maglight.

Somewhere I read about using clear contact paper on the lens to soften the light. The bright spot had some darker areas so we thought we would try it - but we did not have any contact paper. So we used one of my screen protectors for my Palm PDA. WOW again! Doing so left a well-defined bright center spot, but eliminated the imperfections. It was amazing! At least it was to these flashlight rookies ; )

I liked it so much, I went back and bought five more - three to give as gifts and one for each of my cars. I also bought some clear contact paper to use on the lenses, but it did not work nearly as well as the PDA protective film. Has anyone else tried using the screen protectors?

Thanks for letting me "eavesdrop" on your conversations on this forum. My son and I had a memorable evening and we got a great flashlight for under $10.

We would appreciate any other suggestions for modifying / improving this light.

Merry Christmas!

The PDA film is called Writeright. Alot of members use it. It's sometimes on sale at Wal-Mart. Contact paper works but as you found out, the PDA film is better.
Nice mod, I'm glad to hear you and your Son had a great time doing it.

Nope, never tried it.

http://thelightsite.cruxial.com/reviews/writeright.htm

Originally posted by woolfam:We would appreciate any other suggestions for modifying / improving this light.

Click to expand...

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">I think you have overdriven this light about as far as can be done. Be sure to buy spare lamps.

One thing comes to mind on an extra detail. Get some glow powder and paint a circle around the bezel near the lens. It now becomes a "find in the dark" light.

Thanks for the link Doug. I was not sure about my shpelling.

Well, how about that! And here I thought I'd discovered something new! It sure made a desirable (at least to me) difference. Thanks for your kind comments to a new member.

I am awaiting the arrival of a G2 (used birthday to buy it). I ordered both the 60 and 61 lamps for it. Any suggestions on using it / modifying it / leaving it alone / etc? It's my first "real" flashlight.

I just recieved a G2Z bezel from SureFire the other week. The pyrex is not only tougher, but also lets more light pass through. I believe I recall hearing that lexan allows somewhere around 85 percent of light to pass through while pyrex is in the lower nineties. The best improvement however, is that aesthetics are improved a great deal in my opinion.

Just a suggestion if you find yourself out to improve your light.

Dale

Don't forget the po' man's Writeright: Scotch tape! (frosty, not clear)

During this time of year, I'm a po' man

I saw that light last weekend at the BigLots by me. Thought about getting it, am going back now.

speaking of the P60 and P61 lamps, i read a lot of posts about how the P61 was not as impressive as the P60, and merely threw a bigger spot which was only slightly brighter than the P60, but the P61 i got with my M2 appears to have a tighter beam, and it throws really far. the bad side is the 20 minutes runtime though.

woolfam: if you're not going to use the G2 for extended periods of time, the default setup would work fine but if you don't mind spending a bit more, i would advise you to get the G2Z. the pyrex lens won't melt, and it has a more water-resistant and functional lock-out tailcap, and the grip rings are very good at providing a secure grip no matter how you hold the light

I would have to say, leave it alone. The beam on them is fine. No need for modding. Your going to like the G2. Try it with the P60 first. You will like it. Then change to the P61. Oooh. It will be hard to go back to "regular" lights.

Holy Mackeral! I never looked at the pic of the light you modded - I have basically the same one - Rayovac Compasslight - $2.00 on clearance with batteries from walmart - Puts out a heck of a beam with writeright on it and just the stock bulb! Glad you were able to make it even better. I'll have to try that bulb out.

I bought the one w/o the compass. (They had both.) It fits well in my hand - both regular hold and (what I as a novice would call) tactical hold (thumb around the bottom of the barrel and use a finger to press the switch, as opposed to thumb over the top and use the thumb to press the switch). I cut the lanyard loop off the bottom, giving it a nice flat base to set on a table and shine at the ceiling to light up a room.

I just received a Surefire G2 today (see post "First Real Flashlight"). I will compare the two tonight.

Oooo, this is cool stuff!

This reminds me of a joke about a father, a son, and a flashlight:

What's the hardest job in the world?
Holding the flashlight for your dad?

Sorry, had to go there.

I've seen these lights too at Big lots. Guess it's time to pick a few up.

thanks