Re-modded cutdown Mag 1D

Techjunkie

Enlightened
Joined
Nov 16, 2007
Messages
943
Location
in the brightly lit suburbs of NYC (Long Island)
I was contacted by another member to see if I could improve a custom light he'd just bought. He wanted higher output and better throw. We agreed on a mod approach and he sent me the light. I underestimated the amount of effort required to do what we discussed - so much so that I felt the effort deserved documentation in its own thread, video and all...

I should have known this light was going to give me trouble from the start... it had taken a knock before getting to me and the bezel put up a really good fight coming off before I could replace the lens which had been crushed at the edge:


Luckily, freezing the head (and some muscle) provided the solution to unscrewing the bezel and freeing the reflector and lens. Getting that bezel off was necessary not only to repair the lens, but also to use the Mag Rebel reflector he wanted. It nearly put an end to the entire project before it began.

Next problem to tackle were the drive current issues. The source of the problem turned out to be two-fold: The ground wire wedged between the Al heatsink and the Cu shim had too much wiggle room. The ground path needed to be improved. Here were the original current measurements I was getting on my DMM, using an IMR26650 cell:
| |

Temporarily fixing the ground issue only produced unreliable current readings averaging about double those above, and never more than 1.5A on high. That revealed a weak path to battery positive across the switch... the switch could still serve to operate the driver, but would have to be bypassed for the LED path. That meant getting the switch assembly out without damaging it. It would have been easier if it had been held in with a pin like the heatsink and shim, but the assembly had been epoxied to the tube and snapring:


In order to achieve focus with the 40mm deep Rebel reflector and still thread the head on passed the gasket, the heatsink would need to be recessed more, which meant relocating the drivers. The pedestal had to go not only for height reasons, but also because of the drive current we were aming for - 4.4A.

Here's what we took out:


And here's what went back in...

I cleaned and buffed the surface for mounting a new XML on 20mm star and drilled and tapped holes for mounting. I also fitted an aluminum sheet metal shim to go between the HS and the copper shim, and then tapped a hole on a diagonal through the HS and both shims, to serve as a set screw to replace the one absent from the switch housing and provide a reliable ground connection.

Eventually, two more holes would be drilled straight through for LED leads, and finally another hole tapped on the bottom to provide a ground screw to attach driver ground to.

But before that, a new driver stack had to be made and fit inside the switch assembly, so the HS could be dropped to the necessary depth.:


Here's a peak at the finished installation, after cleaning out the tube with a brake hone, and greasing both sides of both shims and the HS with HS grease:


The fit is so snug that it took some hammering with a section of PVC to get everything into the tube before setting the set/ground screw. Improved heatsinking and electrical connections... check.


The finished product, with bezel fully seated and switch button centered under boot:


And finally, a demonstration video of the drive currents:

 

Old-Lumens

Newly Enlightened
Joined
Nov 2, 2011
Messages
154
Location
USA
I think it would have been at least courteous to let me know of the problems, before doing this. It may be a mess and may be I should give up my mods all together, ( I will anyhow, after this thread), but it's still a little irritating that I had no knowledge of what happened, or that you intended to post it here without at least a heads up, till I see it here. Nor any chance to look it over myself or to correct anything.

If anyone else has purchased a light from me and is not satisfied. PM me and I will refund it and pay your return shipping to me.
 
Last edited:

jaybiz32

Enlightened
Joined
Mar 28, 2007
Messages
626
Having been the buyer of this Mod I do not think anything wrong was done. I bought the light Old Lumens and I felt it was a great mod, but I felt improvements could be made. Such as higher output, better heatsinking. I turned to Techjunkie who I regard as a great modder and have worked with in the past. In his review he did not mention who the made the original light or who bought it out of respect for our privacy. I thought his review of his modification of the light was done with class and serves as a learning tool for this hobby which I feel is an important assest of the forums at CPF. Members send modded lights to other's all the time for revision. Milky does it all the time. I would not take offense to this.
 

Techjunkie

Enlightened
Joined
Nov 16, 2007
Messages
943
Location
in the brightly lit suburbs of NYC (Long Island)
I think it would have been at least courteous to let me know of the problems, before doing this. It may be a mess and may be I should give up my mods all together, ( I will anyhow, after this thread), but it's still a little irritating that I had no knowledge of what happened, or that you intended to post it here without at least a heads up, till I see it here. Nor any chance to look it over myself or to correct anything.

If anyone else has purchased a light from me and is not satisfied. PM me and I will refund it and pay your return shipping to me.

Old-Lumens, please don't be upset. The original purchaser had contacted me about these mods before he even received the light. His primary interest was in the host, not the guts. You did awesome work on the latheless cut-down, and the bezel, and the tailcap. I LOVE the satiny finish you achieved. The bits detailed above that were replaced/upgraded weren't meant as an attack on your work and were only mentioned to showcase what was upgraded. The light clearly took a hit, which was beyond your control, and it's entirely possible that the same event contributed to the loose heatsink and electrical path. The buyer never once considered that you had misrepresented the light or that any you should be held accountable the problems with it. Had he intended to keep it as you first built-it, I'm sure he would have contacted you, but as I mentioned, it was always his intent to re-work the host into a super thrower.

I hope there's no hard feelings. You know I'm always happy to help you out with driver wiring questions. I'd hate to think that this experience has discouraged you.

Kind regards,
TJ
 
Last edited by a moderator:

moderator007

Enlightened
Joined
Jan 1, 2010
Messages
990
Oldlumens, I have seen some of your other mods and really enjoy seeing your flashlight designs. I do have a lathe and what you achieve with out one is simply amazing.:drool: Dont think nothing was meant by this oldlumens. Sounds like he intended to mod it before he even got it. After all you sold it cheap considering all the work that was put into it. Keep your amazing work going and post up your mods oldlumens. I have enjoyed them.:thumbsup:
 

Techjunkie

Enlightened
Joined
Nov 16, 2007
Messages
943
Location
in the brightly lit suburbs of NYC (Long Island)
Before returning it, as long as I had to do some stress testing, I thought I'd take some beamshot comparisons. The control light is a 1C cut-down with a single mode 4.2A regulator. It's battery wasn't fully charged and readings were 3.9A at the tailcap before and after. (So we're comparing 3.9A vs. 4.4/1.2/0.010)

The contestants: this light left, control light right
sidebyside.jpg


From the front:
twinsfromthefront.jpg


White ceiling:
SxSonhigh.jpg


Beige blinds:
SxShighonblinds.jpg



The next three shots show the lights side-by-side with the test light in High-Med-Low (what sounds better, maplight-low or moonlight low?)

High
44Avs39A.jpg


Med
12Avs39A.jpg


Low
maplightvs39A.jpg



And now the same sequence in the opposite order, but instead of stopping down, I've opened the aperature up so you can see the projected hotspot of the maplight low:

Low
moonlightlow.jpg


Med
medium.jpg


High
high.jpg



I really like that low mode on these new regulators:
maplightmodefromface.jpg



moonbeammaplightmode.jpg
 

Techjunkie

Enlightened
Joined
Nov 16, 2007
Messages
943
Location
in the brightly lit suburbs of NYC (Long Island)
Oldlumens, I have seen some of your other mods and really enjoy seeing your flashlight designs. I do have a lathe and what you achieve with out one is simply amazing.:drool: Dont think nothing was meant by this oldlumens. Sounds like he intended to mod it before he even got it. After all you sold it cheap considering all the work that was put into it. Keep your amazing work going and post up your mods oldlumens. I have enjoyed them :thumbsup:.

+1
 

Old-Lumens

Newly Enlightened
Joined
Nov 2, 2011
Messages
154
Location
USA
Man that thing was a mess...
That's how I felt when I saw it too.

After the initial shock of seeing my light up here, I have taken some time to evaluate everything.

First off, I still believe that it was wrong to not let me know it was going to be put up for everyone too see, but that's my opinion only.

Being Objective is best and easiest when it's someone else's work you are evaluating, not when it's your own.


After seeing this, I decided that my work is a "hack job". Plain and simple. Oh, I would say that the "cosmetics" are done very well. I will say that's an objective statement. The bezel, tailcap and other cosmetic treatments are fine.

The treatment of the components is where the hack job is. It stinks, plain and simple. Now, if I look at it as constructive criticism, then I should look to improve it. Did I do my best? Can I do better? Answer is, Yes and No. I cannot do better than what is there, Considering the use of only hand tools such as a hacksaw and files.

The only way to improve is to use machined parts. The Correct way to do it is machined parts. When it comes to heatsinks, emitters and drivers, it requires machine parts to do it RIGHT. Plain and simple truth, we all know it.

I do not have the tools to do that, so I cobble stock parts that don't fit and make them fit. Is that OK?? For myself Only, yes it is. For my OWN use, yes it's ok. Is it OK to go and sell something like that to someone else? Well, we get to what a person believes don't we. The Truth? NO, Hell NO. It shouldn't ever be sold to someone else that way! That is the stark reality of the situation. I never should have sold stuff like this to anyone else. For my own use, that's fine, but not for resale.

I could have purchased components for anywhere from $35 - to $55, but the part of me that you don't know is that Budget is budget. I tried to do it where I could afford to make it in the first place and sell it where someone else could afford to buy it.

That was a mistake and I see it clearly now.

So, what's the answer, now that I see what I already knew deep down? Stop doing component mods. That's the simple truth of it. If I cannot (and I cannot), do the mods correctly, with proper results that are reliable and that last, then I (neither I nor anyone else), should be doing mods. That is the real answer. We don't want to face the truth, but it bites us in the butt when we ignore it.

It's possible that I may finish the "cosmetics" on several hosts I have, but at this point, none of them will recieve any components. I may sell the empty hosts which I have done cosmetic mods to, but I will not be selling finished lights here, unless I can make them properly, with reliability. I cannot buy the proper tools (lathe, drill press, grinder, etc), to do proper mods and I am not willing to buy components like machined heatsinks and raise the price to where the vendors here already sell them for. First of all, they are experienced and they know how to and secondly it does not fit in my "budget".

Thanks for listening and hopefully understanding,
Justin
 
Last edited by a moderator:

Mattaus

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Mar 29, 2011
Messages
1,765
Location
Brisbane, Australia
Just to clarify, when I said "that thing was a mess" I was looking at the small photo (without enlarging it) and reading Techjunkie's comments at the same time. To me, with the picture and Junkies description of the damage fresh in my mind, the thing looked badly damaged. It was not a commentary on the initial construction of the light!

Like others have said, no one knew anything about the history of light other than Jaybiz, and it's likely no one would have been any wiser without Old-Lumens coming forward.

To be totally honest I appreciate the honesty above all else. Keeping in mind this thread really has nothing to do with me - I was just impressed with TechJunkies work!
 

Techjunkie

Enlightened
Joined
Nov 16, 2007
Messages
943
Location
in the brightly lit suburbs of NYC (Long Island)
Old-Lumens,

I think you're being a bit too hard on yourself, and here's why:

1) The host is more than just cosmetic, it's a functional part of the electrical path and the physical structure of the light. The join of the two parts is pin straight and sturdy and has no measurable resistance.

2) The carrier that you made looked top notch. It was meant to be part of jaybiz32's payment to me, but he couldn't find it. I've never succeeded at making a good carrier. I've only ever "built them in" or modded plastic carriers, poorly.

3) There's no shame in doing things on a budget. I'm the cheapest of the cheap, and I share your sentiment and lack of machine tools. I only recently sprung for a $60 benchtop drill-press at Harbor Freight and a $30 cross-vise at Amazon, 'cause hand drilling two holes in parallel is nearly impossible and it takes at least 3 to mount a 20mm star. I still hand-tap all the threads with a T-handle (not sure of any other way to do it, actually). Modding lights for less than you could buy the equivalent is core-value of this section of the forum. It just sometimes gets overshadowed when true machinists and electrical engineers showcase their creations here. That's oranges and apples - don't compare.

4) I recycled your heatsink and shim. It was pure luck that the aluminum sheet metal (pack of patches I bought at Home Depot) happened to be exactly the right size to fit between those two parts. If it didn't fit, I was prepared to use aluminum foil.

My advice is don't beat yourself up over this one light. What you sold to jaybiz32 was fit for his purpose and a bargain too.

I think we'd make a good team, you and I.

-TJ
 

moderator007

Enlightened
Joined
Jan 1, 2010
Messages
990
Oldlumens, I dont think any of your mods are hack jobs. You simply use what tools you have and thats great that your lights are hand made. From what i have seen on here, your work is simply amazing. You probably have inspired several members who dont have machines either.
 

Old-Lumens

Newly Enlightened
Joined
Nov 2, 2011
Messages
154
Location
USA
Ok, did I overreact? Maybe, maybe not, but that's not the point any more. From looking at my lights as a customer would, I asked myself, what would I want in a light? Sturdy, dependable, safe. Well it's not. The method of adhering the emitter is not right, but I'm never going to use screws, just because they look ugly as sin to me. Drilling? Nope, never going to happen with a hand drill. I have broken off every bit I ever tried to do that with, by hand.

Then it comes to the electrical part and electronics. That is really where I decided to stop. I do not understand electrical or electronics. I can't even grasp DC. let alone what the hell a circuit board is or does. See, I never touched that stuff in my life before the stroke happened and since that, I find that I cannot retain new information. I can only recall the old information. All of the hand work I do, is because I did all that in my early years, but the electrical I never did and I am not now able to retain new info. So what is happening is, I go blindly into that end of the mod and I do a very poor job of it. I can't tell you how many boards I have thrown out because I did "something to them", or how many emitters were shorted out, etc, etc, etc. Example: Serial/Parallel. Every time it is brought up somewhere, I have to go google it and read and look at photos - Every Time. Another example from techjunkie's original post (Temporarily fixing the ground issue only produced unreliable current readings averaging about double those above, and never more than 1.5A on high. That revealed a weak path to battery positive across the switch... the switch could still serve to operate the driver, but would have to be bypassed for the LED path.) I've got no idea of what you are talking about, absolutely no clue. ( and don't explain it to me, because I can't absorb or retain it anyhow). I couldn't read a meter and understand it if I had to, that's why I never report current readings. It's been that way for about three years now and it wll be for the rest of my life. It's not worth hiding it from myself any more.

It's high time to face up to my abilities and my limitations and embrace (choke on), that and move on. I am not proud of what I am doing any more and that has taken the desire of doing it away. Simple as that and I am not blaming. It's my life, my thoughts and my decision to make.
 
Last edited:

Techjunkie

Enlightened
Joined
Nov 16, 2007
Messages
943
Location
in the brightly lit suburbs of NYC (Long Island)
Well, Old-Lumens, accepting your own limitations is always a tough pill to swallow, but at least you have come to these conclusions among friends who can accept them too without admonishing you for them. Instead, let's celebrate your talents. I suggest you keep doing the parts that you're good at and outsource the rest. I'll make a deal with you if you'll accept it... for the remaining hosts that you've got left, if you'll do the body work, then I'll do the electrical. As payment for my services, I request that I get to keep one Old-Lumens+Techjunkie original. Deal?
 

Techjunkie

Enlightened
Joined
Nov 16, 2007
Messages
943
Location
in the brightly lit suburbs of NYC (Long Island)
Well, Old-Lumens, accepting your own limitations is always a tough pill to swallow, but at least you have come to these conclusions among friends who can accept them too without admonishing you for them. Instead, let's celebrate your talents. I suggest you keep doing the parts that you're good at and outsource the rest. I'll make a deal with you if you'll accept it... for the remaining hosts that you've got left, if you'll do the body work, then I'll do the electrical. As payment for my services, I request that I get to keep one Old-Lumens+Techjunkie original. Deal?

...and to demonstrate that no one who raves about your excellent handiwork with hand tools is exaggerating, I want to point something out. When I found this inside the light...
hand-tooledreflectoredge.jpg

...I was sure that whoever modded it before me had a lathe. Either that, or the reflector never had threads to begin with. (Sorry, jaybiz, I meant to return the reflector to you with the light in case you had other use for it and I forgot to put it in the box.)

You did a nicer job on a part that isn't even exposed after the light is assembled than probably any of the stuff I've showcased on CPF, using the same tools.

Maybe the same condition that makes it difficult for you to learn new stuff also makes it hard to remember what's really impressive about your creations.

To prove I'm not just blowing smoke, I'll allow my own handiwork to appear side by side with your clearly superior craftsmanship. Yours on the left, mine on the right. (I use the same bit by the way):
rotarytoolwork.jpg
 

Hill

Enlightened
Joined
Apr 11, 2008
Messages
318
Location
MA
I'm glad to see some good discussion has come out from the initial post, which appeared to be a misunderstanding of sorts. I was saddened to see Old Lumens so upset about this but completely understand his immediate reaction. I sold a light here once and saw it up for sale again within days. I took that personally, which is ridiculous of course. We are all here for the same purpose - the fascination of flashlights and what can be done to mod, create, invent, or simply pump up on steroids.

I just want to say just this. I respect both of you (TJ and Old Lumens) both here and at BLF. TJ, your creations have always been amazing and innovative while pushing the limits of flashlight output. You are a wealth of information when it comes to modding and I'm sure everyone here is grateful for your time, energy, and love of this hobby. And to you Old Lumens, I hope you reconsider before throwing in the towel on flashlight modding. Your skill level with hand tools is, without a doubt, unmatched by anyone I've seen. You take the time to not only mod lights (host and guts) but offer very detail tutorials demonstrating how it was done. To me, that is the greatest gift you can offer the flashlight community. I have learned so much from your posts, as well as others when I started this hobby a few years ago. It's totally up to you, but you have many fans here that would be sad to see you leave.

Just my .02 guys.
 

jaybiz32

Enlightened
Joined
Mar 28, 2007
Messages
626
I have to agree with everyone above. If it makes you feel any better Old Lumens I could not even solder a kiu socket. I am very good at my profession and love flashlights and this hobby but handy with tools and especially electronic I am not. The biggest joy I find in this hobby for me is taking the best of one thing and making it better either by modification by someone or sending it out for custom coating for example. I like to be the general contractor so to seak of my lights but I can tell you there is many people far more experianced than me when ot comes time to say cerakote one of my lights.
Keep up the good work old lumens. Sorry to have caused any ill feelings.
 
Last edited:
Top