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So I’m a flashlight/lighting geek.

930 Views 15 Replies 14 Participants Last post by  LineDog
I cobbled together this “flashlight” using a 20 volt DeWalt battery and a 1850LM Amazon auto light. Seriously bright in the living room during the day, anxiously waiting until dark. Due to stupid Daylight Savings Time I have to wait an extra hour.
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Plant Flowerpot Wood Tool Houseplant
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that would be great for working under the car.
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MacGyver would be proud.......
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I have those light in every room in my house, wired to 12V HAM radio battery bank. Need to add one or more on the porches outside.
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I wouldn't call myself a light geek, but I do enjoy having stuff other people don't have. Pretty cool idea.

I had a similar Frankenstein idea for one of my of Army angle head flashlights. It's now powered by a Surefire LED head...
Wish I could take credit for the work. My idea, but I had my gunsmith cobble it together.

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What kind of run time are you expecting to get out of the homemade light Linedog?
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I’ve always had a soft spot for the giant Maglite flashlight cops always use in movies.

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Harbor Freight sells a little job light like that and it runs off of their 20 volt lithium batter, or an extension cord. It has a little rotating stand built in so I've found it to be quite useful since you can prop it up anywhere and get plenty of light for a few hours on a charge.
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I’ve always had a soft spot for the giant Maglite flashlight cops always use in movies.

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ya, loved those things back in the day, but they’re complete garbage compared to what’s available today. Cops haven’t carried those for many decades.
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Couple years ago, I fabbed up a handheld searchlight using an LED driving light, a cord, cigarette-plug adapter, for my car.

You can damage your eyes with that kind of light. In an emergency or sudden nighttime pack-out and relocation, it would help; but otherwise, it's just too bright.

There are so many good LED lights, now...I have about six, lantern batteries, C cells, AA cells. All of them are plenty bright, and some have huge reflectors. So...I'm not gonna be making any more.
If having flashlights all over the house, in seemingly every drawer, cabinet, and pocket, in every map pocket and glove box, mounted on nearly every gun I own, in every tool box and tool bag, even sitting next to my on my chair side table, and having to buy CR123A batteries in bulk to continuously feed them all makes me a flashlight geek; then so be it.
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I’ve always had a soft spot for the giant Maglite flashlight cops always use in movies.

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I still have three 6D cell. One is Fireman RED. All have been converted to LED.
And a 5D with a UV Led module. FYI, scorpions glow under UV. Side note, Do NOT use a UV lights on the sheets in a hotel room if you want a good night sleep.
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I cobbled together this “flashlight” using a 20 volt DeWalt battery and a 1850LM Amazon auto light. Seriously bright in the living room during the day, anxiously waiting until dark. Due to stupid Daylight Savings Time I have to wait an extra hour.
So which pic is with the light on?
I'm an LED flashlight fiend and have been for a while now. It's amazing how much lighting power can fit into a small package these days and it seems to increase all the time.

A couple of war stories:

1. My first fairly potent one was from the now-defunct Gander Mountain. It was pretty tiny and rated for 220 lumens. It was awesome except for one thing: after a few minutes of continual use, it would get so hot it was almost unbearable to hold.

2. A few years ago, I bought one from Amazon with a very high (and likely bogus) lumens rating. If you push the cylinder forward to focus the beam, the light pattern would become... square. Not kidding.

There are some annoyances with LED flashlights that I've encountered at times. One is bogus lumens ratings. I've seen where a higher-rated light was much less powerful than a lower-rated one. It's almost to the point where the ratings mean nothing because so many of them are inflated.

Another is the switch function on some. I like for the switch on my flashlight to perform exactly two functions:

1. Turn the light on.
2. Turn the light off.

When I press the button to turn it off, I want it to go off, not switch to lower power mode, then flash, then turn red, then green, then blue, then infrared, then whistle Dixie. They seem to have gotten better about it these days, where they don't force you to walk through all of this.
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Springer, I have one of those wide to square beam lights!!!! I totally agree, on, off that’s it no flashy flash no damn SOS, just on or off!!!
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