Lets shed a little light

[skatenut]

Gunslinger, I'd like to offer a well-meant advice, from experience:

Don't start with lights, knives are bad enough, you might just add another addiction!

Maybe my advice is too late already?

Cheers,
skatenut

[Blerv]

Blerv, is anyone doing conversions other than bulb substitutes? I have one of those cheap Nite Eyez plugins for my Mag mini, and it is nice and bright and long lasting in comparison to the incandescent but I think a lot more could be done with an internals replacement giving more room for heatsink design and whatnot.

Hey Kris,

I actually have been working on THISwith a old (crappy) Dremel. If someone had a drill press or even a vice they could do it in like 10 minutes with the proper bit. Basically you just need a low voltage P60 "pill" that will unscrew from the reflector. I would personally run it on two Energizer Ultimate Lithiums as they are about 1.6-1.7v each.

There is also a guy at the Buget Light Forums who does a single-lithium mini-mag cutdown. It runs off a IMR14500 (AA size) and a XM-L. I think it pushes like 600 lumens and probably gets as hot as the sun, lol. Pretty awesome looking for about $50 complete tho.

[Monocrom]

What do you guys carry?

More lights than I know what to do with. Main light is a custom modded SureFire L1 from MilkySpit on CandlePowerForums.com

When I asked him to create a light that was perfect for me, I knew he was already severely backed up with custom orders. But even I was surprised at how bad he was backed up. Eight weeks became eight months, but Milky worked his magic and I'm very happy with the result. High was bumped up to 200+ actual lumens. Low was gone. Replaced with a medium setting of 40 lumens. Runtime on high mode still very respectable. At the time, about a year ago, 200 Out The Front or actual lumens on a single CR123 cell (without runtime measured in a couple of minutes at best) was unheard of. A few months later, SureFire released their EB1. But my Milky-modded L1 was first.

I wanted it to be called "Gemini." Milky named it "Xtreme." Oh well. It was a concept for a different type of dual purpose light. A new idea . . . One light that is both a tactical light when needed. But could be converted over to perform mundane lighting chores (like a general purpose light) the rest of the time. SureFire's unique dual-output momentary tailcap switch was ideal for the project. Plus, I love the L1 form-factor. Many complain that it's too long for a single CR123-based light. I find most such lights too stubby, and prefer the slight added length for getting a good solid grip on the light with my thumb and all four fingers.

Tactical is obvious. Slam my thumb down on the tailcap switch for instant 200+ lumens in momentary-on. General purpose, I just twist the tailcap a bit for constant-on in the medium setting. Now I've got a light perfect for general purpose work. Lower output, much longer runtime, no need to keep my thumb down on that switch. I'm glad I got mine before Milky got absolutely swamped with custom orders for his various creations.

Back-up light is another "good luck finding another if you lose it" model. An original Nitecore EZAA model. I seriously think I might have bought the very last one that was left on the market before it was discontinued. Before Nitecore "improved" on the design and turned a fantastic easy-to-use dual-output light into a generic User Interface mess of one.

My 3rd light is a Lighthound -branded little squeeze light. I never use it. But if anyone needs a light, I'll just loan them that one; and let them keep it. I got a few of those for free over the years when I ordered from Lighthound.

Will likely swap out my Nitecore with my old Fenix L0D rebel 80. (Another one of those lights that was discontinued so that an "improved" version could be brought out.) The L0D is a bit smaller and tougher than my EZAA. Plus, I've got a bit of history with it when one night, on the job, it helped me out of a headache-inducing situation when a much more expensive and ridiculously over-hyped so called "Smart flashlight" failed on me. And failed miserably. My dumb little Fenix on the other hand simply did what I needed it to do.

[Monocrom]

Regarding older lights . . . Guys, it's not as though Darkness is a living, breathing, creature that gets more powerful every year. Thus, requiring constant updating of lights and expenditure of funds on newer models. Just because something is obsolete, doesn't mean it's junk. An M1 Garand is obsolete. I'm not going to volunteer to get shot with one though.

[Blerv]

There are also people like vinhnguyen54 at CPF that mod lights with new LED's and drivers. I believe for about $30.

Really though the cheap lights ($20-60) are terrific for the money and replacing them every few years isn't impossible even for a frugal budget. The more expensive ones again can be modded on a custom basis or often have people like Veleno Designs, Macs Customs, Elektrolumens, Milky, Malkoff, etc who make upgrades.

With something like a Surefire 6p, Solarforce L2, Dereelight CL1H or Javelin it's as easy as buying a new drop-in. $8-30 and you have a new emitter driven to your wildest dreams.

[einstein2001]

My new Brass Beauty :)

[Blerv]

Gorgeous :D !

[Monocrom]

Nice Peak. (That Zebra light is not too shabby either.)