Mini Maglite Diffuser Cap Project

Dadimation

Newly Enlightened
Joined
Nov 30, 2013
Messages
1
Hey all,

I'm a bit of lurker, but thought I would share one of my latest projects. It ranks high in the sh*ts and giggles category, but was fun nonetheless.

Long story short; My 2 year old son kept grabbing my high intensity LED flashlights off of bed side tables, desks, where ever could get his grubby little hands on one. Not wanting him to do damage to his eyes, I've since put them out of reach. Just in time for Christmas we decided to get him a flashlight. All the kid oriented lights seemed like easily broken garbage made in China, so my wife and I opted (ok, I opted) to get him an American made, hopefully toddler resistant, incandescent Mini Maglite.

I felt however that it was still a bit bright for a 2 year old that had the tendency to stare into the beam (albeit not long) of his pilfered flashlights.

So, I decided to go around my *** to get to my elbow by designing and 3D printing a diffuser cap. I know I could have just frosted or sanded the existing lens, but where is the challenge in that? :)

The project ended up, for the most part, successful. It indeed diffused the beam. Unfortunately though the fit was a wee bit off and the clips I engineered to hold the 2 part cap system together broke off very easily. Fortunately, the fit was so tight that the cap stays in place, even without the clips. I also incorporated an 'anti-roll' bezel in the design, which does the trick.

Here is the concept and the completed cap assembly below (lens material comprised of plastic Chinese takeout soup container lid.) For more info on the process (if you run out of things to do) check out the project's blog posts at www.hotglueandepoxy.com (you'll have to scroll a little as I had another project going on at the same time).

diffuse_comp_small.jpg




installed_small.jpg


All I need to do now is come up with a way to keep the cap on, as my son is rather fond of unscrewing it and exposing the bulb. I've tried, cleaning the threads (as well as I could) and applying Loc-Tite (blue) and than later white glue, both to no avail.

Thanks for looking! Comments are more than welcome.
 
Last edited:

YBCold

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Joined
Dec 10, 2013
Messages
49
Location
Las Vegas NV
nice work, on mine i just put a water bottle cap like from aquafina or from a 2 liter coke bottle.
 
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