Source for Maglite OP reflectors???

I've been looking but I haven't been able to find a vendor or any sources that have orange peel reflectors for sale for Maglite. I have a few old Mags I wouldn't mind fixing up and the OP reflectors are one thing the Maglites could use.
And a Malkoff dropin of course .

Anyone know of a source?

Kai Domain is where I got my aluminum OP and smooth D Mag reflectors. They are well done and when I got mine they had the option of having a screw on/off stem

Flashlight lens .com sells slightly diffused reflectors called Acrylite that does a great job at helping remove that awful mag-ugly.




Left is the Acrylite.
Does a way better job at reducing all the shadows and artifacts of Mag bulbs and reflectors than orange peel, yet hardly affects the beam like orange peel does. I've tried both ways.

They run like $3 and are worth every penny.

If you absolutely must have an orange peel reflector you won't go wrong with a Kaidomain.

done tons of biz with flashlightlens have not seen this semi diffuser lens before. I just know that my super duper black 20 year old 4 D Mag with the all out 700+ OTF lumen Malkoff drop in, 4 extremely expensive 11000mah Powerex NiMH D's and finally a OP aluminum reflector has none of the original Mag nasty artifacts due to the OP reflector. Oh yeah lens is optical quality glass hardened with a hard coat based green AR coating on both sides that came up on Kai Domain only for about a couple weeks I got like 6 of them they are near Armytek good. At first I used a smooth aluminum Kai reflector but it just magnified the Mag nasty artifacts. Eventually switched reflectors and the OP version took care of it all. Amazing really. The OP reflector is odd it is kind of in between light and medium OP but it works perfect.

Thanks guys, I'll check out all the options I can find. As of now the Mags are just collecting dust. If I can get them up to speed "2016" style I'll find them a new career, toolbox duty, in the car etc...

Malkoff dropins look pretty nice too, any feedback on them is welcome too.

I have all 3 Malkoff drop ins in 3 different D Mags. Went all in on all 3 of them. New aluminum smooth or OP reflectors, the best glare coated optical glass I could find and only the best NiMH cells. The first drop in for 2 D Mags gives 270 OTF lumens from an XPG2. A bit on the low output side for me but got it anyways. Started with a smooth aluminum reflector but the inherent Mag nasty artifacts were even more pronounced. An aluminum OP reflector took care of that totally. Great light runs for freaking ever at full output.

Next up is the drop in for 3-6 D cell Mags. This one is also an XPG2 but 325 OTF lumens. This thing can really throw and even though its an XPG2 just like the first one the tint is better and once again using an OP aluminum reflector extremely nice. Despite the low(for me)325 OTF lumens I like this drop in very much. The beam profile is extremely good. 45k+ CD easily.

Finally we have the 3-4 D cell 700+ OTF lumen XML2 drop in. Malkoff says it is a cool white XML2 but the tint out of my build with this drop in is pretty darn warm. It is THIS drop in that Malkoff specifies NiMH D's for best performance. It is an expensive drop in currently 90 bucks. Once again I acquired the aluminum OP reflector, best optical quality glass and the very expensive Powerex 11000mah D NiMH's for the 20 year old black Mag. Man...this thing pushes 60k CD maybe more. I do not have any measuring equipment but seat of my eyeballs put output from my build with this drop in at the mid 800 lumen mark. The drop in on these cells crank max output as long as the cells hold out really.

What I have learned-the cheap plastic smooth reflectors that come in stock Mags are actually better than the aluminum smooth reflectors. The cheap plastic stock ones are far smoother. The aluminum smooth pieces need hand polishing in order to match the cheap plastic ones.

They are still old incandescent Mags. Despite the OP reflectors turning the head for flood still gives out a horrendous beam the same as they do with their original incandescent bulbs. I have my 3 Malkoff Mags set at as good a focus as I could get them and leave them at that.

High quality optical quality glass with double sided glare coat 100% makes an improvement in beam definition.

None of the Malkoff drop ins ever gets hot. The drop ins are all built into a huge aluminum heat sink.

The beam profile out of all 3 especially the most powerful unit is utterly massive in diameter.

The 325 OTF lumen XPG2 drop in with OP reflector puts out about as good a beam as the D Mags reflector size and 325 OTF lumens can possibly give you.

The most powerful drop in has a range of near half a mile.

These builds are expensive in the end. The new 3rd gen XML2 2 and 3 D Mags are dirt cheap for what they can now do. I have both of those as well. They seem dead on spec. Both are under 50 bucks. There are still 1000 different ways to modify a Mag. Check out Adventure Sport flashlights for 2000 lumen XHP modified D Mags and more.

^^ Yup, the 3-6 cell Malkoff is the bees knees.
I tried glass, orange peel etc and ended up staying with the stock setup saving the glass and metal for other sure enough high heat applications.
That 325 lumen Malkoff runs nice n cool.

I used a mag wheel polish on the stock reflector. Eh, can't say it was a huge diff, but could see it in side by side 2D incans running on alkalines.

Idk what it is specifically about the 325 lumen XPG2 drop in it just does it for me I find the beam very visually pleasing. As an optician for 15 years Im always hung up on optics. Every Mag I have(30+)has glare coated optical quality glass in them at least. As soon as I got my newer 3rd gen LED 2 and 3 cell lights I put glare coated glass in them as soon as I got them home as the cheap plastic or polycarbonate lenses they come with blow.

Flashlightlens.com has gotten a lot of my business over the years. Only time I found better was when Kai Domain had hard coat based glare coated lenses for D Mags I bought a dozen. Never seen them on the site since. As for the stock reflector best you can do is use rubbing alcohol and micro fiber cloths.

Great review CelticCross74. Yeah I know it's not cheap to do that kind of mod to an old mag like that and you could just buy some kind of new light for less money, but there's something kinda nice about fixing up a couple lights I've had for 20+ years.
Throw rationale out the window!

Are you running all the XPG2 dropins on NiMH, 2 and 3 cells?
And did you upgrade the O-rings too?

LED Monkey said:

Great review CelticCross74. Yeah I know it's not cheap to do that kind of mod to an old mag like that and you could just buy some kind of new light for less money, but there's something kinda nice about fixing up a couple lights I've had for 20+ years.
Throw rationale out the window!

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Exactly.

Back in the ROP days it seems folks would sink $75+ (not including bulbs) to get those 2C mags up to 1000 lumens.

I do really like the Malkoff in my 3D, but am tempted to take a yellow sharpie to a lens for a (albeit temporary) warmer tint. I suppose demand (or lack thereof) never caused Mr Malkoff to build Neutral or Warm versions. If he did they're gone now.

Heck I'm up to $60 and stil going on a $15 Mag ML25 incan that is currently only as bright as the LED version...
But it sure is fun.

Ah!! The ROP! Done it twice now man is that one BRIGHT incandescent! The bulb burnt out both times in a couple of weeks. Malkoff has changed some of the details on his site. Originally when I bought all 3 drop ins he stated all 3 were designed to run best on D NiMHs hence I run all 3 off D NiMHs. As for the O rings the O rings that already come on the light are fine. I just took Nyogel 760G to the end threads and O ring for lubing and sealing and especially to keep the O ring from drying out.

As for taking a yellow sharpie to your lens give flashlightlens.com an email about a yellow optical quality glass lens for the light I have done endless business with them from my old Mag Tacs to D Mags and Minis every one of them has high quality glare coated optical glass. Not sure if they can do a colored filter though.

As for Malkoff products themselves from what I understand it is just him, his wife and maybe 2 other people making all this stuff and it all sells out. He is expanding very slowly. All his stuff is built on his farm I believe. He has done extremely well for himself. I am sure he will get around to newer emitter drop ins for D Mags at some point but for now he is pretty darn busy maintaining stock. You may be able to contact him or his wife and request a custom emitter drop in but if youre able to do that do not expect it to be done anytime soon.

I freaking LOVE the new 3rd Gen XML2 D Mags! Got both the 2 D and 3 D love them both. Totally amazing! In my eyes they are the greatest value LED lights on the market. Beam definition through glare coated glass out of them is much more defined. I was actually pretty impressed to learn Mag had designed the new gen to run best off alkalines. I had bought D NiMHs for them both. Then I saw the alkaline vs D NiMH performance charts here on the forum and bought fresh Energizers for them both. I prefer the 2 D. Still plenty bright an easy 40k+ CD it just balances better in my hand vs the 3 D. On the lookout for a good deal on the new 6 D XML2 it has a max run time of like a week lol.

CelticCross74 said:

Ah!! The ROP! Done it twice now man is that one BRIGHT incandescent! The bulb burnt out both times in a couple of weeks. Malkoff has changed some of the details on his site. Originally when I bought all 3 drop ins he stated all 3 were designed to run best on D NiMHs hence I run all 3 off D NiMHs. As for the O rings the O rings that already come on the light are fine. I just took Nyogel 760G to the end threads and O ring for lubing and sealing and especially to keep the O ring from drying out.

As for taking a yellow sharpie to your lens give flashlightlens.com an email about a yellow optical quality glass lens for the light I have done endless business with them from my old Mag Tacs to D Mags and Minis every one of them has high quality glare coated optical glass. Not sure if they can do a colored filter though.

As for Malkoff products themselves from what I understand it is just him, his wife and maybe 2 other people making all this stuff and it all sells out. He is expanding very slowly. All his stuff is built on his farm I believe. He has done extremely well for himself. I am sure he will get around to newer emitter drop ins for D Mags at some point but for now he is pretty darn busy maintaining stock. You may be able to contact him or his wife and request a custom emitter drop in but if youre able to do that do not expect it to be done anytime soon.

I freaking LOVE the new 3rd Gen XML2 D Mags! Got both the 2 D and 3 D love them both. Totally amazing! In my eyes they are the greatest value LED lights on the market. Beam definition through glare coated glass out of them is much more defined. I was actually pretty impressed to learn Mag had designed the new gen to run best off alkalines. I had bought D NiMHs for them both. Then I saw the alkaline vs D NiMH performance charts here on the forum and bought fresh Energizers for them both. I prefer the 2 D. Still plenty bright an easy 40k+ CD it just balances better in my hand vs the 3 D. On the lookout for a good deal on the new 6 D XML2 it has a max run time of like a week lol.

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Last time I ordered from Malkoff (which coincidently was a Mag drop in) the note was signed by "Abbie", so I suppose he had added staff. When I ordered my first Malkoff product he had just hired his first 'helper' besides his wife.

I'm really glad to see all the new user names in the junkie thread saying they'd bought a Malkoff this or that.

And I suppose by now literally thousands of LEO, and others own his lights or drop ins.

I may order another MD2 just to see if serial numbers reached 10k yet.

But back to reflectors...sorry LED Monkey.

If you have an extra one laying around you can give it a spritz of clear coat engine paint where you hold the can about 2' away from the lens, quickly push and release the spray nozzle and let it fog the lens. Zap it 2 or 3 times real quick and you'll see a diff without effecting the beam very much.
Poor mans orange peel.

yes actually many people have come up with their own way to stipple a smooth reflector into OP. Have forgotten the methods people have used as I just bought mine OP from the factory. Malkoff also owns Elzetta I think...so he is one very busy man. Kai Domain has a couple D Mag size reflectors right now(54/55mm)they look pretty nice. Different from what I got long ago look to be more well made.

CelticCross74 said:

yes actually many people have come up with their own way to stipple a smooth reflector into OP. Have forgotten the methods people have used as I just bought mine OP from the factory. Malkoff also owns Elzetta I think...so he is one very busy man. Kai Domain has a couple D Mag size reflectors right now(54/55mm)they look pretty nice. Different from what I got long ago look to be more well made.

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Once upon a time Gene Malkoff made M60's for Elzetta lights. Elzetta has their own stuff going on as well as M60's available.

But he doesn't own Elzetta. It's owned by 2 (maybe 3?) engineers whose names escape me just now, but named the company after ones grandmother.

Either way Gene is a busy guy. I read in the junkie thread of folks buying nichia out fitted M61's as well.

CelticCross74 said:

As for Malkoff products themselves from what I understand it is just him, his wife and maybe 2 other people making all this stuff and it all sells out. He is expanding very slowly. All his stuff is built on his farm I believe. He has done extremely well for himself. I am sure he will get around to newer emitter drop ins for D Mags at some point but for now he is pretty darn busy maintaining stock. You may be able to contact him or his wife and request a custom emitter drop in but if youre able to do that do not expect it to be done anytime soon.

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Gene no longer does custom work; he told me a few years ago that he is simply far too busy.

I have a custom 6D orange Maglite with Malkoff low current dropin he made for me which I will never sell.