Surefire 6PX Pro head removal made easy

As most here know already, the fine folks at Surefire decided to red loctite the head onto the body of the new 6PX series to prevent removal. Since I want to have my body bored for 18650 as well as generally just like being able to take my lights down to parade rest, I decided to figure out a way to get the head off. To get the head off without marring the body, requires heating the head significantly ( ~350F) or using some type of tool and brute force. I chose brute force :devil:. I purchased two husky strap wrenches at Home Depot and proceeded to attempt to get the head off 6px #1. This one was a doosy, because I broke both strap wrenches. The head moved initially, but then quit moving--I kept twisting until the securing bolt on the fixed end of the rubber strap snapped. Since they've got a lifetime warranty, I took them back and got two new ones. With the new strap wrenches, I re-tightened the head on light #1 and then tried to loosen it again. It worked. Got the head off, cleaned the threads of the red loctite and reassembled. Light still worked and the finish was still pristine. Win-win. 6PXs #2,3,and 4 were much more compliant and the heads popped off with not too much grunting and cursing.



You'll need a pair of these bad boys


cleaned off threads of red loctite, ready for boring and trit milling and installation :naughty:

Fine job man! Glad you found a way to do it that didn't ruin either the components or finish of the lights. Let us know how the boring goes and how well these lights run on rechargeables!

Nice job! I just wrapped mine in some bicycle inner tubing and put the head in a vice and used some locking pliers to wrench it open. I used a small jet torch to heat up the thread area, not too much though; didn't want to burn the electronics.
While your lights are open, put a spring (cut to size and soldered to the + contact) in the Pro models so the battery will float between 2 springs and won't suffer mode bump from loss of positive contact.
Like here: http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb...X-Pro-Thread&p=3766473&viewfull=1#post3766473

Tell us how the 18650 conversion goes!

got a 6PX Pro 2 days ago... using bared-hand to remove the head at the "right" angle (literary)... no tools no heat...

pic shows after cleaned up... with AW P17670 LiIon battery...



didn't know there is a protective ring at the head to protect the contact... the light works perfectly well without it... wonder why SureFire puts it there in the first place... since they thread-locked it anyway... :shrug: there is only "tiny" amount of grease when opened, o-ring is bone dry... :sweat:

This is very useful info. Thanks for posting along with the pics machtig and Rookiedaddy. I may attempt this on mine someday.

rookiedaddy said:

got a 6PX Pro 2 days ago... using bared-hand to remove the head at the "right" angle (literary)... no tools no heat...

pic shows after cleaned up... with AW P17670 LiIon battery...

didn't know there is a protective ring at the head to protect the contact... the light works perfectly well without it... wonder why SureFire puts it there in the first place... since they thread-locked it anyway... :shrug: there is only "tiny" amount of grease when opened, o-ring is bone dry... :sweat:

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Ha! After reading this I tried it on my Fury... It worked! Now why did I do this?

Fury head off by benthiccrackerbrian, on Flickr

rookiedaddy said:

got a 6PX Pro 2 days ago... using bared-hand to remove the head at the "right" angle (literary)... no tools no heat...

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ah... maybe I am missing to read between the lines.... did you use heat and tools or did you acomplish this without any?

Thanks.

Cheers
Thorsten

Surefire does tend to go out of their way to make sure we don't use RCR's in their lights. Don't know why. I guess they want to sell us some batteries.

i'm surprised this thread isn't already pages long, thanks for the tips!

Xacto said:

ah... maybe I am missing to read between the lines.... did you use heat and tools or did you acomplish this without any?

Thanks.

Cheers
Thorsten

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I just used a hand towel wrapped around the head on my Fury with my left and my bare right hand on the body. It really didn't take much muscle to turn and remove. No tools or heat was necessary.

Now if somebody would be willing to bore out these new style X bodies to 18650 for us...

Anyone?

How does the red head and tail look on the black body, and vice versa?

Is the red loctite necessary? I'm gonna have a Fury bored and was wondering if I need to use it when I reassemble the light.

Bullyson said:

Is the red loctite necessary? I'm gonna have a Fury bored and was wondering if I need to use it when I reassemble the light.

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When I took apart my Fury and put it back together it seemed to work fine and it does not "unscrew" I did not put lock tight back on the threads. Who is boring your's?

I'm still looking for someone that can get to it asap. I checked with presisionworks and he said six months.

I didn't know anyone was even buying the new Surefires. They seem to be slow sellers, gee I wonder why.. Now Surefire is even using circuit board contacts in their LED heads? And loctite them in place? You would have thought they could at least leave the knurling on the lights when they decided to cheap everything else out.

Bullyson said:

I'm still looking for someone that can get to it asap. I checked with presisionworks and he said six months.

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ElectronGuru's latest bore batch should be getting almost full, so the wait time shouldn't be too long.

Grizz

Grizzman said:

ElectronGuru's latest bore batch should be getting almost full, so the wait time shouldn't be too long.

Grizz

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Last I read in Electronguru's thread he won't bore these new style X Surefire bodies to include the 6px and the Fury. Unless this has changed and I wasn't aware.?

Grizzman said:

Benthiccracker, since you have both a Fury and what appears to be a 9P, do they have the same body diameter? Is the Fury's body the same diameter along it's width, or does is widen at the head?

If it also has a 1" diameter along the full body length, then my guess (that's all it really is until Electronguru responds to your inquiry in the bore thread) is that it should be able to be bored like any other 1" diameter 6P or 9P body.

While asking questions, here's one more.....does the Z44 head screw onto the Fury's body, or are the threads different?

Grizz

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One thing for sure the Z44 will not screw on the Fury, nor will the Fury head screw on to a 6P or 9P body. You do mean the outside diameter, right Grizzman? I am gonna have to figure out how to measure that against each other... Pardon, but it's late and I have been editing video for the last few hours. Going to bed but does anyone have a suggestion?