Re-hab'd disposable lights thread

With there being tons of $3-10 lights out there and minimum wage being $7.25/hr the 'cheap' light is tossed without a second thought when it fails.

But sometimes those junky flashlights have a history that makes tossing it more like losing a Nolen Ryan rookie card than clipping your toe nails.

Sometimes a light is just sentimental enough to refurbish. And after doing it, you discover just how easy that can be then end up pursuing other junky old lights laying in a drawer or whatever.

This thread is for those lights.

Today I rehab'd what I'll call #5. A nothing special multi LED with no particular history except that it seems to be cursed when it comes to alkalines leaking.
This was the 3rd time for this one. This time it was close to being fatal even though the light had just been re-hab'd about 6 months ago.


^^ it's alive...again




^^ now part of the kitchen 'just in case' collection

The next pair I'll call 3 & 4. They belonged to my dad. The 2D incan had a leaker issue and got a total makeover including an LED Drop in. It's a shelf queen now.
The 2AA incan one got cleaned, new lithiums and an LED. It's now a glove box light.

^^ Dynamic duo Dorcy's


#2 an old 'ever active' incan from Wal Mart that rode with me for about 20,000 miles while I travelled the mid Atlantic east coast for work. It was tucked away in a console with the original batteries that had begun to leak. Some work with a toothbrush, sand paper, a little simple green and new cells later she was good as new. It too is a shelf queen stored near various other items with stories to tell.

^^ and there was light.


#1 was an old Rayovac Industrial that was buried deep in crevices of my work truck. With each new truck I was issued it was moved for a 'just in case' light and always ended up buried.
No battery leak issues or anything dramatic had occured. Just a nice solid plastic light that was restored to like new, nite ize'd with a drop in and filled with 2 sleeves holding a pair of eneloop pro aa's.
It now lives magnetized to a refridgerator like those (long since gone) lights when I was a kid.


^^ this one has it made anymore.

Another one I'll call the 'Poppy's pop's project' was an old incan mini mag that had also travelled with me for a couple of decades. I broke the switch trying my first nite ize swap. Member Poppy's pop had been plagued with leakers and gifted them to Poppy who ended up organ donar-ing the switch to me.
It's still incan and is retired. It will live out it's days on display next to an old A&N incan mini mag clone that is the next light to be re-hab'd...once I source a tail switch cover.


^^ both have lots of stories to tell.

Hopefully folks reading this have some junky old light stories as well.

Almost forgot....


^^ my dads favorite
My dad couldv'e had nearly any flashlight he wanted. But he kept the plastic 2D lights in his house. This one was probably the last one he purchased...or one of the last anyway.
It was in great shape other than being dusty. So I gave parts a good cleaning and put in a nite ize for battery life for my oldest son to use as a flooder/table lamp when the lights go out.


Please consider rescue-ing your old non working clunker before throwing it out. And share it here.
In many cases easier than you think and if you break it...hey it was already broke.

I have one of those 2D "super halogen" lights, recently found it after sitting in a shed for probably 15 years....some how the alkaline batteries didn't leak and it fired right up! The beam is pretty decent for a old incan - much brighter/whiter than the typical 2D cheapo light and better focused too.

Woohoo!! Good to hear.

Yeah I agree the beam is pretty good. Guess that's why my pop liked it so much.
Batteries in my dads were on the verge of expiring but looked like new.

Now that I think about it, I don't remember the super halogen flying to pieces when dropped or needing to be slapped around to get it to turn on....pretty good light back in the day.

^^ cool.
Ever ready plastic lights were pretty good lights at dependable light in darkness before all the inexspenive metal lights took over.


Another disposable light rescued:
I just found a Duracell light they put in 8 packs at some point. I do not remember when, but do remember it was pre-expiration dates on the cells.

I gave away the batteries to the kids a few years back and tossed the light with a cell in a drawer at some point. The other day while searching for something in the drawer I found it.


^^ vs the Alpha.
A single aa incan light with an output along the lines of a solitaire.
I flicked the switch and nothing happened. The Panasonic carbon zinc battery had not leaked. So a new cell was installed.


^^ oh my! this will not do.
So time to disassemble the little bugar and see what was going on. No flicker, just dull lack of voltage.


^^ the little slide in bulb was a first for me.
I pulled apart some other lights to test fit the potential LED upgrade. Rayovac single cell indestructable, nite ized Dorcy's etc. There was some promise. But without drill bits it was not to be.
Stock it stays then. If I find another like it, that one will be upgraded.

Anyway, some 10 minutes later after some scuff-age of metal parts and a tweak here n there it was time to see what was what...


^^ heck yeah!!! mucho-improve-O

Throwing championships are not on the adgenda. But a mighty fine bedside 2am nature call light fits the bill nicely. Matter of fact I think it used to be just that before an LED Lenser V2 tri-beam replaced it...which has now been replaced with the pictured Alpha.

For kicks and giggles a wall test....


^^ 4' away showed a good ole ugly beam


^^ I suppose the big dot on the lens diffuses.


^^ here it is with a fresh Radio Shack cell.
I like these old clear lights. Easy to keep tabs on the alkaleaks if left inside. But I don't.

Now resides next to other dust collectors with a story to tell.



There you have it. Another relic most wouldv'e tossed in the trash, that in 10 minutes was rehabilitated into a perfectly good night light.

Nice story, Man. Really liked it, I gifted most of my old incans, however I have a few left in certain places.

It's been a while since I stumbled across another toss-away light worth restoring.

Again this was one from my dads house where old no name alkalines were left in this plastic 2xAA Coleman flashlight.


Probably a 1990's light.

The batteries had leaked so badly there was green ooz coming out of the lens and slider switch. There were blue crystals too. And when I opened it a syrup type ooz ran out. Yet the batteries slid right out. The top "People Drug Store" battery had leaked at the top. CVS bought Peoples a long time ago and renamed the stores. The bottom battery was intact and had enough juice to fire my Pelican 2350. I considered sticking it in the battery museum in my den for about 4.3 seconds. Nah.

Being the body is plastic and inner parts are brass things are cleaning up nicely. I soaked it in plain water for a few hours and the switch became operational again. Much of the ooz is letting go just setting in a cup of water.

Tomorrow I'll complete the task.

Oh, it just dawned on me, the light came with a 4xAA Coleman mini lantern I bought after the Christmas of 98 ice storm and gave it to my dad since he was out of D cells for his big ole Dorcey in a post above. Where those batteries came from I do not know. My entire city lost power Christmas Eve that year and the day after Christmas I went to Kmart and bought a bunch of double A flashlights to share with my family and candles. I gave my pop that Coleman later that day.

Next day:


Uh oh, what's that do?


Not bad at all.
A dampened toothbrush removed 99.9% of the plaque. Amazing how easily it cleaned up.

So after everything dries I'll see about figuring out where that little metal piece fits into the scheme of things and apply electricity. By sundown I hope to be shining light from the PR2 bulb again.

Edit:
Never did figure out what that random piece of metal is for or at least how to re-install it. It is a part of the conduit and stiffens the slider switch but to get it installed correctly. The light looks nice on a shelf as is.

Good job bring that one back to life!

bykfixer said:

But sometimes those junky flashlights have a history that makes tossing it more like losing a Nolen Ryan rookie card than clipping your toe nails.

Click to expand...

As an englishman I found this sentence completely incomprehensible. But it made me smile anyway.

bykfixer said:

Please consider rescue-ing your old non working clunker before throwing it out.

Click to expand...

I'm all for the repair it if you can mentality. In fact I have a Duracell "Durabeam" 2AA torch that belonged to my Grandpa. It is in near perfect condition already so it doesn't need any work doing. It must have been stored without batteries because the springs are all OK. The original bulb still works as if it were brand new (e.g. almost entirely useless for any imaginable purpose).

It works rather like striking up a cigarette lighter, but without the lumen output.

But it belonged to my Gramps, so it's special...


(picture from google search)

Great thread, bykfixer. I am all about rehabbing, or repairing old lights. If it can still hold a battery and I can get an LED into it, let there be light! My family is big on repair, recycle and reuse.

You have a battery museum?

I have a psuedo flashlight museum that includes a section for batteries going back as far as the 1930's, yes.

I've done the upgrading incans to LEDs a decade ago and sadly I use none of the lights except in emergencies as they are backup emergency lights I have 2 lights in the garage and my 3AA LED light spewed when I needed it in a power outage so my only in use incan light a 6v lantern with 4D adapter was put into use till I repaired my LED light. The main advantage of larger lights is they are harder to lose when stored in strategic locations for emergencies. Where a small 1-2AA or 18650 light would disappear these larger 2D and lantern lights are easier to find and grab even in the dark when you know where they are.
The only one light I really want to keep and have is a techna 2N light with a #222 bulb that I haven't found a 1 cell LED bulb for it as I want to go from 2N to 2AA and use either L91 or an Eneloop in it. I've found 3v LED dropins but they don't work even at 1.5v and I need one that will work down to about 1.0v. The other problem is the light has a lens that you can also take out and use as a magnifier to start fires if needed so the focus of the bulb has to be precise.

well i found this and thought folks were rehabbing actual disposables.
mine is a garrity life light from the 70's.
a 3p 18650 group from a laptop pack,a tp4056 board,and a "xenon plus" bulb.
a retired fireman friend saw it and produced 3 of the earliest ones from the late 60's.
modded the same way and on his old helmet and poking out of his gear pockets.
everyones first thought is that cant possibly still work.
gotta look hard to spot the micro usb port on the bottom.