Found an old SF 9N laying around somewhere in the house which I had totally forgotten its existence. It was a very nice light that has been discontinued by Surefire for quite sometime. The reason I didn't put this 9N to use was the Ni-Cad battery stick wasn't holding charge very well. Every time I had it charged up it would lose its charge in about a week. The original beam is a nice smooth flood type with 130 lumens and runtime on high is about 65 minutes on a full charge. What I have in mind is to make this old horse a little brighter and runs a bit longer.
I start out to replace the stock 3.6V lamp with a 9V TL-3 lamp. I have to use a hammer to tap out the bulb because it was sealed tight in the alum. lamp holding tube. Before doing any thing first, I made a mark on the height of the bulb filament which is very important to guide the replacement bulb in focus. Since I don't want to do everything all over again when the bulb dies, I decide to put in a pair of bulb pin holders so replacing a burnt bulb would be very easy next time around. The pair of pin holders are sealed with some heat resistant silicone tape and properly space for the TL-3 bulb. Some muffler weld is used to hold them in place inside the alum. tube. The tape and muffler weld can withstand quite a high temp. so I 'm not worry about the heat issue. After putting everything back together and solder the wires back to their original contacts, I have to cut the dim output bulb because I can't use it in this setup running on two LiIon cells.
I am driving the new born 9N with two protected 18650 ( 2200mAH ) with a sliced water hose to prevent rattle. There is noticeably improved brightness because of the new 200 lumen rated TL-3 bulb. Runtime is a whopping 2 hour straight until the protected cells shut it down. Now I may find some use with this old flashlight again ;-)
I start out to replace the stock 3.6V lamp with a 9V TL-3 lamp. I have to use a hammer to tap out the bulb because it was sealed tight in the alum. lamp holding tube. Before doing any thing first, I made a mark on the height of the bulb filament which is very important to guide the replacement bulb in focus. Since I don't want to do everything all over again when the bulb dies, I decide to put in a pair of bulb pin holders so replacing a burnt bulb would be very easy next time around. The pair of pin holders are sealed with some heat resistant silicone tape and properly space for the TL-3 bulb. Some muffler weld is used to hold them in place inside the alum. tube. The tape and muffler weld can withstand quite a high temp. so I 'm not worry about the heat issue. After putting everything back together and solder the wires back to their original contacts, I have to cut the dim output bulb because I can't use it in this setup running on two LiIon cells.
I am driving the new born 9N with two protected 18650 ( 2200mAH ) with a sliced water hose to prevent rattle. There is noticeably improved brightness because of the new 200 lumen rated TL-3 bulb. Runtime is a whopping 2 hour straight until the protected cells shut it down. Now I may find some use with this old flashlight again ;-)
