Best spur of the moment cheap light?

It's just too easy to talk about multi-hundred
dollar lights via mail order etc.

I'd just like to know what off-the-shelf
light you might have bought on say a boring
night that to this day you're glad you
bought.

Remember, this can't be a light over $20,
and it can't have been acquired via mail
order regardless of price.
We're talking Target, Kmart, Wallmart
etc.

Thanks for sharing.

MB

biglots, 4xAA, storage flashlight. I don't do anything neat with it, but I keep it by the back door, and it gets used.

Dorcy two AA flashlight. .99 cents each at the "dollar store".
Beam is fairly bright and even unlike their C or D lights.
With two rechargable AA's even brighter for some reason.
Bought two. One is really bright the other is really not bad but noticably dimmer when held side by side. works great.

i likke the county comm 1 dolor heavy duty lights a lot

Dorcy single AAA LED light for $5.94 at Wally World. Great little light that can get lost or destroyed without drama. Good to hand the kids when they go out and about.

Mine would be the UKE 2L. It was actually my first 123 cell light before I stumbled onto CPF. Although I paid more than what its worth at the shops here in M'sia, but its been my most used light for hiking and camping, etc. The original lamp is still going strong on probably what is the 3rd or 4th set of batts now... Runtime is great too, and the size and weight just makes it so handy to have on you for any outdoor trips.

Dorcy Boss 4AA for $3 at Dollar General. Great reflector, rubber body, gave a bunch away. Beam is excellent.

I would say the Dorcy 1-AA 3-LED at Target for $9.95, although I heard elsewhere on this forum that Target may not be replacing them after they've been sold. This nice little light with a lithium AA is my favorite household EDC.

GO to wallyworld. They have a (I think it's a) Dorcy incan with polymer body, rubberish grips using 2 123a batteries for 19.99.

jb

Mag3D, Mag 4D! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

The U2 was a spu of the moment light for me. I went to get a KL5 and they had a u2 on display. It was only $225 so it was cheap in one way /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Was at Wal-Mart one night, 97¢ for a plastic 2D. And this is in overpriced Hawaii!

I could not let it alone like that and eventually rubber-sleeved it to take three CR123s and stuck in a Maglite 5-cell flanged bulb and overdrove it - in very brief bursts, of course...

Not counting the batteries the total cost for the modded light was like three or four dollars including the Mag 5-cell bulb and a couple layers of automotive rubber hose I had lying around. There are a lot of these lights around, so I would go for the one with the "best" reflector.

Oh yeah: you can also run it with a proper 6-cell bulb (6 x 1.5V = 9V, ~same as 3 x CR123 3V batteries) for longer bulb life (yeah like that's gonna matter in this kind of mod, you want a sleeper that surprise people with its *Brightness*), and also you may have to bend the battery spring tip inwards to ensure good contact with the smaller negative end of the CR123...

Made in USA! Rayovac 3D. Skip the Thailand made ones at all cost!

Found it at an ACE Hardware store.

CMG Ultra-G, $15 at Countycomm when I visited there back when they had a retail shop.

Princeton Tec Blast, $10 at a sporting goods store.

3D Mag, $5 at a sidewalk sale, slightly beat up but works fine. It will morph into a Mag85 soon /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif.

The Thor. I had never really seen a need for a spotlight, but I knew I couldn't go to Costco and spend less than $200.

Rayovac 2D. Popped a 4AA battery carrier into it and a Mag-Num Star Xenon bulb. Lil sucker is bright and the faceted reflector really contribute to a nice artifact-free beam. 100% agreed with PBJS that it is a nice light.

I found a US-made one despite me being geographically closer to Thailand. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon3.gif

If I can find a 3D I know what to do with it - wire up four 26K LEDs in parallel. Recently I cooked up a device using 3D cells and 4 of those in order to 'use up' some spare batteries. The frightening thing is that it seems to have unlimited juice. I turn it on for something like 10 hours a day and it has run for WEEKS.. I am getting to the point where I'm asking if it ever runs out of juice. Perfect emergency/disaster light!

One light I enjoyed was a cheap 3LED cliplamp from walmart for $7.47 I bypassed the resistor array since I run it off of nimh cells and it is bright and the clip is useful in emergencies.
I also picked up a pair of mossy oak 4AA incans which are pretty nice. Perhaps the most interesting light is a desklamp/flashlight that you pull the head out on telescoping antenna like tubes and rotate it to point at a surface. It runs off 4AA cells and I made a 3LED 10ohm resistors PR base bulb for it. total cost is $2 for the LEDs and the light.

probly either that Brinkmann 4-LED Rebel that takes two D-batteries or the Brinkmann Legend LX. oddly enough the light that started it all for me was the 2AA version of the Brinkmann Rebel.

I like the translucent County Comm one-dollar lights. I gave them away as the "goodie bag gifts" to the guests at my kid's birthday party -- and they made a big hit. Some of the parents took them off the kids for keychain use!

The one I'm thinking of right now is the
Garrity mini-toughlight that I bought in
1985 when I got my first car for college.
At that time a Mini-Mag would have been
a dream and you couldn't just pick one
up at Kmart. They were only available
at that time at better stores and MO
and were expensive.

Anyway I picked the tough light because
it was small enough for the glove box
and was waterproof due to the rubberization
and had decent throw at the time for a 2AA
light. I remembered thinking as a college
kid that I had a good emergency light that
was waterproof and at least I'm a cut above
Eveready or Dorky.

Anyway, that was my thinking at the time
when money was in short supply, and I've still
got the light today.

MB