The Home Machinist!

How do you color them and keep the "Mag Light" from being colored?
Jim

Flybynight ,I didn't . The group of three are Maglites factory colors , looks like the writing on the lens cover is engraved or etched after the anodizing process .



They have more colors than what is shown . Maglites in D-cell , AA size, and AAA size all come in different colors w/ various multiple cell combinations . The C-cell size only comes in black to my knowledge , at least thats all I have seen .That why I removed the anodization and will re-anodize in another color besides black .

Those lights are all awesome!

I've been itching to make a bright and compact light I can attach to an off-road helmet (quads) for night-riding. But I have no idea what I am doing or where to start.

(sorry to resurrect this post, but I couldn't resist).

Any more photos? I browse CPF too, but I get overwhelmed at the sheer amount of stuff on those forums.

Pressco wrote:Those lights are all awesome!

I've been itching to make a bright and compact light I can attach to an off-road helmet (quads) for night-riding. But I have no idea what I am doing or where to start.

(sorry to resurrect this post, but I couldn't resist).

Any more photos? I browse CPF too, but I get overwhelmed at the sheer amount of stuff on those forums.

CPF is a great forum on flashlights but they can be very rude if you ask the wrong question or a question that has already been addressed, they expect you to spend a couple days searching 10 years of topics to make sure the question you have has not already been asked.

I have another light that I made that I will post on here but it is the light I use at work everyday so I will have to bring it home and take a pic or two.

Have you checked out dealextreme and kaidomain to see if they already have a light that would work for what you want.

Well they have the components for the light I want to make

I'm still trying to formulate a plan on what I want it to look like and how it will go together. I've never done anything with electronics but I know I can make for less what some companies are charging $300+ for (and theirs won't nearly be as cool as mine! hahaha). I just don't know wth I am doing so I've been less than gung ho about the actual building and I have just been doing more research. I work in a machine shop and have access to a lot of tools/machines but I'm not quite up to snuff on the electronics part or how it will all fit together...

I have never posted at CPF for that very reason - they seemed hell bent on jumping down your throat if you haven't found the answer in search (the really need a newb section!). I mostly just read comparisons and look at the purty lights other people have made.


How many lights have you made 737?

I have made 4 lights so far. If you don't want to mess with the electrical part of it just buy one of the P60 drop-ins from dealextreme or kaidomain. They have the driver, emitter and reflector all setup for you, all you would have to do is build the housing for it. Here is my latest light, just finished it last night. It is very simular to the first one I posted in this thread but this one uses a 25500 battery which is shorter and a little fatter. I also added some knurling and fluted it. The shot of the beam was taken tonight in my backyard the fence is 30 feet away and with the light on high it lights up my entire backyard like it is daylight, the light has low, med, and high. Now all I need is a anodizing setup so I can make them look pretty.

737mechanic wrote: Now all I need is a anodizing setup so I can make them look pretty.

Jump in w/ both feet . Not a big expense if you have an old battery charger . A non auto is mandatory . The battery acid can be purchased at an auto supply , and the various plastic containers at Walmart or some place that has plastics for storage . After doing this a few times I purchased a Caswell basic color kit for the different hues , but also still use Rit dyes . The one thing I have now is an Astron 50 amp power supply which gives better control over the anodizing and started using titanium wire to hold the parts . Most of the time no suprises when you put it in the dye .
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737mechanic wrote: If you don't want to mess with the electrical part of it just buy one of the P60 drop-ins from dealextreme or kaidomain. They have the driver, emitter and reflector all setup for you, all you would have to do is build the housing for it.

Very good advice , you don't have be an electrical wiz to get them to work . I'm sure not , so these drop-ins really work for me .

Here are 2 C-cell lites that have been shortened , rethreaded and use CR123A batteries [2] w/ a Q-5 emitter drop-in attached to an after market reflector and anodized . The wine colored one is w/ Rit dye and the violet is a Caswell color.



This one is a scratch build 3 CR123A Q-5 drop-in . A Caswell green .



Another 2 CR123A Q-5 drop-in , has to to be anod'd yet .

coal miner

Nice looking lights I really like the one with the hexagon flats, being a mechanic by trade it reminds me of a bolt which gives me my next flashlight idea. BTW how did you do the tailcap on that one.

So as far as anodizing goes, I do have a car 50 amp battery charger, would that work ok or should I get something else. Also how long do you keep the current to it while it is in the acid.

737mechanic wrote:BTW how did you do the tailcap on that one.

It is a clone of tailcap for Surefire P7 from Dealextreme .

Some pics of it disassembled .



Had to take it apart to to get the black ano off . Seems to be made ok . Don't know what a OEM one looks like . This one has 20TPI threads internal on it .If you need the major and minor diam . , let me know I'll look them up . IIRC they are around .865 -.870 .

Check out this Yahoo group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/anodizing101/ , they have all the info about chargers , amp/hr rules and etc. Lots of good info . Also Google up DYI anodizing , several good articles and Caswell has their own forum on metal finishing .

AH. I didn't think of a drop-in. That's a good idea!

What's the emitter in that beam shot 737? That's about what I'm looking for (x2, one on each side). I'm going to look more closely at your build on page 1.

I'm planning on making the end threaded (like a camera lens) so I can attach a colored filter. Sometimes at night it's nice to have various colored shades depending on the conditions. The filter will be a cut up piece of lexan (mx goggle lens) sammiched between some metal. I may not make it threaded. Some sort of snap/lock might be better.

Ditto on the "bolt" sentiments above! That's great! Can you make like a dark blue/black, or a gold color, coal miner? I'm very intrigued by home anodizing (sounds like an accident waiting to happen for me, but interesting all the same!).

Off to the drawing board

Pressco wrote:AH. I didn't think of a drop-in. That's a good idea!

What's the emitter in that beam shot 737? That's about what I'm looking for (x2, one on each side). I'm going to look more closely at your build on page 1.

That is a P7 emitter with a 3 mode driver. The driver is from http://www.shiningbeam.com . The P7 is a very popular emitter right now. Another good emitter is the xpg R5 if you want a smaller reflector. Below are the beam shots from both the P7 and R5. You can see that the P7 with the larger reflector gives more spill than the smaller reflector of the xpg-r5 but both have a very bright hotspot. Another thing to consider is the P7 on high uses about 2.4 amps vs the xpg-r5 useing about 1.4 amp so the battery life will be longer with the r5 emitter.

Below is my latest light I just finished a few hours ago. It uses a xpg-r5 emitter with a 3 mode driver to allow low, med, and high. I made a hexogon tailcap to prevent rolling when laid on its side and I countersunk the pushbutton so it can be stood pointing up. The front bezel is stainless steel. So far this is my favorite light as I can put it in my pocket and not even know it is there and it makes more light than a full size mag light.

I'm blown away by your flashlights! Way, way cool

Next time you provide some pics, how about putting something in so we can get an idea of size? Can of Coke, or even a 12" scale would work fine!

Harold