My First Ican Maglite

Ok not really my first Ican maglite, but the first one that I'm going to leave Ican. I've realized that I really just dig the warmth of them and it brings me back to my youth. Sure the beam isn't perfect, but it speaks to me that's the only way I can describe it. I do worry about battery life but a little over 4 hours on two c cells should be ok, just need to plan ahead. I may get the twisty 3 C next.

Tribull,
The stock M@g smooth reflector maximizes throw, but also maximizes the flaws in the beam pattern known as "optical artifacts". If you use a reflector with an "orange peel texture", the throw will be reduced somewhat, but it will reduce/eliminate the artifacts. You might want to consider a textured reflector, such as this one, from Fivemega:

http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?382327-Bi-Focal-Camless-Reflector-By-Fivemega
I have a number of custom parts from FM, and have never been disappointed.

There are also options from Kaidomain.com:

http://kaidomain.com/Search/SearchResult.reflector/0/2/100/rank?show=grid

SMO = smooth reflector, MOP = medium orange peel, OP = simply means orange peel, and from the photo it looks more heavily textured than the MOP.

The more texture there is in a reflector, the more diffuse the beam is, and the less distance that it will throw. If you have a couple of different reflectors, you can "switch up" the beam to adapt your M@g to different tasks - searching for something at maximum distance with FM's bi-focal reflector, for example, or trying to light up as large of an area as possible with a more heavily-textured reflector. Having aluminum reflectors also means that if you want to "soup up" your M@g later, possibly the only thing you will need to change in your light will be the lexan plastic lens, to a more heat-resistant glass one.

Novice, I actually have the Fivemega reflector and it wasn't textured, i need to try it outdoors and see if it throws further.Thanks

If battery life is a concern, simply obtain an LED drop in and store this in the tail cap in place of the spare incan bulb.
That way, you can use and enjoy and the warm incandescent light most of the time, but fit the LED if some untoward event requires a long run time and spare cells are not to hand.

Good idea Broadgage:thumbsup:

Having done what broadgage has mentioned well over a year ago, I can say that it works well. I went as inexpensive as possible and got the 2 cell (3V) Dorcy LED drop in that I can swap in at any time. It extends run-time well past 100 hours and still maintains 30L output and the beam pattern is corrected quite well.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003MP8MGY/?tag=cpf0b6-20

If you are going to stay stock platform perhaps consider the slightly diffused lens at flashlightlens dot com called acrylite. It really cleans up the beam while still providing 97% output of an acrylic lens. Well worth the few dollars it costs.


Left is the acrylite lens.

Now if it is a krypton bulb'd full size 2C a fun mod is using a 3/4" segment of gas pipe (99¢) for a sleeve and LifePo4 solar lamp 18500's (2 for $10) (both from a local home box store) along with a bi-pin from a 4 cell Mag ($5 at Z Battery etc). It gives you about 175-200 lumens and the hole in the lens for a krypton bulb leaves a nice gap between the bi-pin bulb and the plastic lens for no melting of said lens or reflector. I cut about 1-1/3 coils off my stock spring to relieve some of the pressure on the battery and if you go back stock the spring is still plenty long for proper tension against the C cells.


The garage is at 297 feet from the light.


This is an LED reflector.
In the krypton based reflector the gap is the same.


A bi-pin reflector
The photo depicts that using the same setup in an ML25 IT (incan version) does not melt the reflector.

...while on the other hand, if you wanted to embrace the Maglite with its imperfect beam pattern in its original configuration, but yet achieve its optimum output consider using a glass lens. I gave this a try and was quite surprised at how much more light and heat the glass lens let through compared to the stock plastic lens.


...the world is your oyster.

Agreed LB, if using the anaemic 25 or so lumen setup the glass does provide a very noticable improvement in throw.

I have an old Bianchi that using the 1970's plastic throws a floody beam oh... 35' feet or so useable. With a good glass suddenly a defined spot shows up and doubles the useable length of light cast.
I feel confident the acrylite would improve over the old dull plastic of my Bianchi but do agree the glass will be a vast improvement over the factory Mag lens. And they aren't expensive at over at flashlight lens. Malkoff sells them too.