The perils of a non-flashaholic using a hotwire mod

One of my college roommates, who had not known me previous to this year loses his cell phone, and is looking frantically around the apartment for it. He asks around and no one has seen it. He then decides to go and look for it in his car, which is parked in a relatively unlit part of the parking lot. I of course offer to lend him a flashlight to assist in his search. Not wanting to get off the couch, I instruct him to go into my bedroom and take any of the lights on the dresser. This gives him a choice of the following:

Lightwave 4000
Black Mag 4D running a 3D bulb
Pewter Mag85
Surefire M2
2AA MiniMag
2AAA UKE LED light

He of course chooses the Mag85 as it is nice and shiny and stands out from all the others. As he walks past me with the 85 in hand, I warn him to be careful because it gets pretty hot. About 10min later he returns and proceeds to tell me that my flashlight has melted a hole the size of a golf ball in one of his seats. I ask him what he did and he says that he placed the light while still on, on the front passenger seat with the bezel facing and contacting the bottom of the back of the seat. He then looked around the back seat of the car, forgetting about the light until he smelled something burning and saw the smoke rising from the front seat.

Luckily he wasn't mad at me and admitted that I did warn him that the light would heat up. I am just glad that he didn't start his upholstery on fire. So now as I shake my head and clean the still sticky seat residue from the Borofloat lens on the 85, I debate how to properly warn people of the damage that can be done with a light such as this.

Does anyone else have stories resulting from non-flashaholics underestimating your lights?

Or maybe some witty ways to get your point across when describing a flashlight. (this flashlight is bright enough/gets hot enough to...)

"Hey, is that one of your fancy flashlights? It's so small! Where's the bulb?"

*click*

"OW! Crap, that's bright!" :devil:

I made up a little sticker in Illustrator. Black background with a yellow triangle and ! (like the OSHA safety signs). The text (in yellow) says...
Warning -High Intensity Light, looking directly into light may cause permanent eye damage.
Warning -HOT, may cause burns, use caution

Now I'd love to find some sort of sticker or plate with that on it that was durable enough to survive.

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Of course you could always resort to that old joke laser sign...
"Dang, don't look at laser with remaining eye"

You could have the warning engraved on the light. If you take it to a place that does trophy engraving or a jewelry store they might be able to do it for you. That is what Surefire does on their bezels.

I only have LED flashlights, and they pose no heat danger to anything.
All the damage they've done is when people used to maglites and such turn them on while staring straight at the emitter.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: only lend loaners. Some examples of good loaners: Nite-Ized Minimag, MagLED, MiniMagLED, maybe a ProPoly. Letting a non-flashaholic look for keys with a Mag85 is like letting a 12-year-old drive to 7-11 in a dragster. It's just not going to end well. (Sorry if that sounded harsh; it wasn't meant to be.)

So, is your Boro salvageable? :sweat:

A while back, a friend was playing with my MiniMag Opalec, and he shined it into his eyes. "Whoa! It's bright!" Then he did it again. " I got three dots in my vision!" And again, and repeating until I asked for it back. Not very bright... him and the light. 5mms isn't that bright, but his glasses probably focused and intensified the LEDs (perhaps high-intensity flashlights may pose a slight risk for wearers of glasses).

In all seriousness, TigerhawkT3 is right. Only lend loaners. It is the responsibility of the flashaholic not to let the uninitiated who only know stereotypes of would-be flashlights handle a real scorcher. Serious accidents could happen, or they can lose it (as they sometimes will since they don't have our appreciation of flashlights) and you'd be out a hefty chunk of change or hours worth of modding.

Fallingwater said:

I only have LED flashlights, and they pose no heat danger to anything.
All the damage they've done is when people used to maglites and such turn them on while staring straight at the emitter.

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The surefire L4 reaches about 160F sitting in still air on a desk/etc.

While your gesture was a good one by letting you friend use one of your lights to search for a MIA cell phone, you should of just went and grabbed your AA Mini mag and let him use that.

Everyone of us in here loves to show off our lights / let other people use them for the wow factor but the KISS rule applies here when dealing with civilians in a flashaholic world.

Let people borrow idiot proof lights and you handle the big guns when power is needed.

:candle:

I have to agree with everyone who said only loan loaners, but maybe next time have him call his cell and follow the ring to find it.

My lights have their 'safety ratings' in the back of my mind.. certain lights I know I can lend out, certain other lights I know I absolutely shouldn't

A non-flashaholic recently asked me for help and I had a headache finding one that was 'safe' enough yet really really bright for them to use (they wanted something really bright). Nothing that ran on unprotected lithiums, nothing hotwire, you know the drill..

I'd have probably told him to get the M2 and given him specific instructions to get that one. The M2 is quite alright for non flashaholics and reasonably abuse-proof (deliberately understating it.. yes I know the M2 from reputation, yes I have a C2 with M2 bezel or "M2-in-everything-but-name-on-the-side")

Download the "fire starter video" and show it to all your friends. Then remind them not to set the country on fire. And not to take a light without permission. Only lend loaners.


You are lucky the friend is not playing with TigerhawkT3's MiniMag.

Catapult said:

A while back, a friend was playing with my MiniMag Opalec, and he shined it into his eyes. "Whoa! It's bright!" Then he did it again. " I got three dots in my vision!" And again, and repeating until I asked for it back. Not very bright... him and the light. 5mms isn't that bright, but his glasses probably focused and intensified the LEDs (perhaps high-intensity flashlights may pose a slight risk for wearers of glasses).

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I modded an LED light with a XX1S lux V, replaced with a DB1000 on 2 RCR123s. My girl friend's dad proceeded to click the light on while stare into it thinking it can't be that bright being barely 5 inches long.

He knows better now.

You should have just told him to take the stock Mini-Mag.

I keep a couple of cheap, 2-D cell lights at home in case a neighbor needs to borrow a light.

Some lights are just for us flashaholics.

bexteck said:

Or maybe some witty ways to get your point across when describing a flashlight. (this flashlight is bright enough/gets hot enough to...)

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"... melt your cellphone into a smouldering blob of gooey plastic when if and/or when you actually find it."

Did he find it?

I would use humor..

have a lable whever it if you keep your lights

By Many said:

only lend loaners.

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Looking sideways at the big picture, though: if the friend wasn't upset [he HAD been warned], nothing actually caught fire & no major damage, and a few of your friends also got to 'enjoy' the story - I think it was worth it for the fun you were able to share with us flashaholic sickos. We love stuff like this. Thanks for sharing.