machining a flashlight

[Black Forest]

I bought my wife a LED flashlight yesterday. Quite small. The flashlight cost 99 Euro's!!!!

So I am thinking the next flashlight I want I will make. I found a web site here in Germany that sells the CREE LED's and lens. Now I just have to figure out exactly what else I need.

So I have added a new folder to my favorites list.....flashlight.

Now the research begins.

I went to the candlepowerforums.com but only the home page is accesible. Registration and viewing the forums results in a "not found".

[beanbag]

Works for me. Maybe they don't like Germans?

[Tony Ennis]

99 Euros? They can be had here, in their cheesiest forms, for about $2. A $130 flashlight would be pretty nice.

[davidwdyer]

And the "cheesiest form" ones work pretty well!

[Black_Moons]

gez, and here I thought my $20 1W 2AA led maglight was expensive! (Worth it as far as flashlights go.. I really should get an LED upgrade kit for my 4D maglight... That thing doubles as a club for self defense!)

Also, the little $4 '9 led 3 AAA' flashlights work pertty well when you don't need serious brightness.. look micky mouse and sold everywhere, they work supriseingly well.. tempted to make a fiting to mount 2 or more onto my bike as head/tail lights. Only downside is they take AAA's, very low capacity batterys, a single D cell + boost circuit would store several times more energy (then 2 AAA) and cost less to replace.

[aboard_epsilon]

i bought some people, 9 led flashlights (torches) this year and they were 99 pence each

there iisn't any chance in hell that i would pay 99 euros for one ..you must be crazy

i also have a beautifully made one ..that has thick wall alaluminium about 4mm ..and its got conventional midget bulb ..6 LEDs that come on 3 or 6 ..and is super bright ..cost £4.99

all the best.markj

[Black Forest]

I made a mistake. The light was only 49 Euro's. Something else was 99.

It is a nice light though! You can focus the light. Does that make it ok!!!!!

[aboard_epsilon]

I made a mistake. The light was only 49 Euro's. Something else was 99.

It is a nice light though! You can focus the light. Does that make it ok!!!!!

well i supose its all relative .

if you have deep pockets ..

i dont ..sorry about calling you crazy ..if i had the money i supose it wouldnt matter to me

all the best.markj

[DFMiller]

An Early Digital Machinist has an article on making a flashlight. Contact George to arrange to order a back issue.
Dave

[alanganes]

I have had some ideas for a shop made LED flashlight myself. I went so far as to make up some little PC boards for the boost/switching circuitry. Have not gone much beyond testing the circuit. Still need to work out the mechanical stuff. Long been on the back burner.

Not that I am any sort of expert but I have found that once you get past all the nuance of the efficiency of the LED and/or the boost circuitry, and if the general mechanical build is done nicely, the real weak spot in most flashlights seems to be the stupid switch. I have had a number of otherwise very nice lights fail due to cheap-o switches that either stop working all together or get intermittent. Very annoying. Granted that none of these were $100+ lights, but they were not $1 ones either.

It would seem that we as a society should have solved the engineering problem of a decent mass-produced (read as "moderately priced") switch by now.

Another annoying trait I have run across is the tendency for the flashlight's contacts to sort of mash in the contacts on the ends of the batteries. In some cases this also leads to the light getting intermittent. Also very annoying.

I missed the initial window to buy in, but this looked pretty neat and interesting:

Hexbrite, the open source flashlight!

May still get one when they start making and shipping them.