# CAD design for flashlights is awesome ...



## wquiles (Aug 29, 2012)

I am using Alibre Design Expert to design a custom LED light for a customer, and a cool feature of all of these CAD packages is the ability to create an assembly - virtually "see" how the parts would fit together. After I designed the tailcap, I created the assembly, and it was a tad short on the section over the o-ring, but an easy enough fix on the computer. I am not completely done, but now I have proper engagement past the o-ring:







Will


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## Obijuan Kenobe (Aug 29, 2012)

Solidworks and AutodeskInventor are both great.

For a while now I have been doing stuff in Autodesk.

It is fun nowadays, as many of these programs are available for 'free'. You can get them, and play with them. Buy them when you decide which one is best for you.

obi


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## Toaster79 (Aug 30, 2012)

DS Catia is the one I use. It's pretty easy to use, once you get used to it.


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## Energie (Aug 30, 2012)

.
I use draftboard, a simple CAD software.

Old mod: brass light with some EX10 parts


















Herbert


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## Obijuan Kenobe (Aug 30, 2012)

Herbert, that is some seriously top stuff. 

Did you machine the brass host yourself? It looks extremely well done (read I want one) indeed.

I _love_ that tail. Reminds me of the old SF and also TB faucet e series tails. 

obi


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## Energie (Aug 31, 2012)

Hi obi,

thanks.

The light is homemade.
It is quite easy with CAD.

Another small brass light:










Herbert


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## cyclesport (Aug 31, 2012)

Energie said:


> .
> I use draftboard, a simple CAD software.
> 
> Old mod: brass light with some EX10 parts
> ...



Beautiful work Energie! Do you make these exclusively for yourself/friends or have you sold them?


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## OCD (Aug 31, 2012)

I work with the full Autodesk package of Inventor and AutoCad every day for a living designing industrial equipment. Its so gratifying seeing something actually built after hours upon hours of design work. Designing stuff in the 3D world and actually getting to see the fit and function of parts and assemblies in motion is so valuable in reducing scrap and redesign time and eliminating potential issues on the shop floor. If I could only get the shop to fabricate something flashlight related if I were to design it....

I actually drew my HDS in Inventor so I could play around with some custom clip designs. I rendered the 3D model as images that make them look almost real. I'll try to post some of the pics if I get a chance.


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## 350xfire (Aug 31, 2012)

Hey what's up witht the magnetodrive???


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## wquiles (Sep 1, 2012)

Wow - you guys really do some nice design work with CAD software :bow:




350xfire said:


> Hey what's up witht the magnetodrive???


It is being re-designed from the inside out. I had a 1.1" LED/controller pill in my prototype, but now that I am almost ready with my own 1.5A high efficiency buck LED driver, which is 20mm OD, I plan to re-design the MagnetoDrive into a smaller package in the future.

Will


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## 350xfire (Sep 1, 2012)

Cool, so the LEDs will be part of the driver board?


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## wquiles (Sep 1, 2012)

350xfire said:


> Cool, so the LEDs will be part of the driver board?



No - the LED's will be a separate element (20mm single LED or 20mm triple LED). But I am thinking that the hall-effect sensors and the controller board will be separate boards in the future re-design.


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## Codiak (Sep 2, 2012)

Emachineshop has a nice and easy cad app that costs nothing. It's limited to a single object but that doesn't change the value prop


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## TexasLumens (Sep 13, 2012)

I couldn't resist... I'd be lost now without the "see through" ghosting feature. It just makes the parts easier to visualize in my hard head!! This is an old part but it shows the benefits! This one is in Rhino... not too user friendly but works great as long as you don't mind the missing hair! Not a flashlight but part of an LED worklamp.


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## wquiles (Sep 14, 2012)

Very nice


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## kuksul08 (Sep 18, 2012)

CAD is totally awesome. If you can get a copy of a Solidworks trial or student edition, it's totally worth it. You can even render the images and have it look damn near the real thing.


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## konig (Feb 16, 2013)

I have used SolidWorks 2012 to design a Surefire-head for the M-series. It is design to use a Lux-RC tripple engine. There is no rendering on the pictures.












Here you can see the battery-connector.





And with trit-slots.



And a section-view.


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## wquiles (Feb 17, 2013)

That looks awesome!


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## tino_ale (Feb 19, 2013)

CAD is really great in showing in a eye-catching and obvious way stuff that you wouldn't have realized until you make the parts otherwise.

I modeled a E-serie battery tube from carefull caliper measurements on an actual surefire part. When looking at the cross-section view, I striked me how thin the tube can be at the battery shoulder near the tailcap section (bottom of the main bore if you prefer). Only 0.5mm left IIRC. Would never have guessed it holding the part in real life.


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## rtginc (Mar 21, 2013)

I'm a Solidworks newbie, but we've got a contract with them. We're running 2012 here in the office, and I hope to get going on some flashlight designs soon!


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## las3r (Mar 23, 2013)

Very nice can't wait to get my PC fixed, I was wondering if anyone can do a cad design for me ? It's simple just send me a pm thanks guys


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## precisionworks (Mar 25, 2013)

las3r said:


> ... It's simple ...


Ah, the Kiss of Death :devil:

Received an email recently on quoting a flashlight project. Design & draw prints - not more than $10k. Designing driver (not me, this would be contracted) sort of pricey as there are LED's + other light sources - hopefully under $2.5k but maybe more. Prototyping all the variations - $20k-$50k. 

Looks like a simple job :nana:


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## rtginc (Apr 4, 2013)

Finally sunk my teeth into Solidworks. Have been designing a chassis for an LED driver that we hope to integrate into a flashlight. Here is a close up of the controls we hope to put on the driver module.


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## RaccoonExplorer (Apr 13, 2013)

Beautiful model lkonig,

My background is industrial design, prototyping and manufacturing, i currently use Rhino and several parametric softwares. I have started to be interested to design flashlights since a short while, already started to sketch up some ideas but nothing gelled completely yet, i will most likely be looking forward to find people on the forum who have their own home set-up with small lathe-mill CNC machine and who are located in North-America so i could have prototype and possibly short run special flashlight models made in the future if it can be kept affordable. Rapid prototyping is one of my main areas of interest right now as well as high powered LED flashlights.

Many people do not realize this but with high impact resin materials it would also possible to produce independent flashlight production in a relatively economical way, though the threads of such lamps would not have such a long life as aluminum models, with care and with a solid design you might get something nice and out of the ordinary.




konig said:


> I have used SolidWorks 2012 to design a Surefire-head for the M-series. It is design to use a Lux-RC tripple engine. There is no rendering on the pictures.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


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## precisionworks (Apr 14, 2013)

> .... with high impact resin materials it would also possible to produce independant flashlight production in a relatively economical way, though the threads of such lamps would not have such a long life as aluminum models ...


IMO thread life in polymer body lights would not be a limiting factor. SF has long used Nitrolon, a "proprietary high-strength, non-conductive, impact-resistant, glass-filled polyamide nylon polymer". Remington Arms introduced the Nylon 66 (made from nylon 6/6 aka Zytel 101) and sold them by the metric ton - over one million during a thirty year period. Have yet to hear of thread failure on a Nitrolon light & the Nylon 66 rifles are equally hardy.

Some manufacturers add PTFE or graphite to polymers to increase surface lubricity & decrease or eliminate thread galling. And if you want to make a light where thread galling is guaranteed simply use Ti-6-4 ... which again has almost limitless life in handheld lighting applications despite the propensity for titanium to titanium galling & seizure. 



> ... i will most likely be looking forward to find people on the forum who have their own home set-up with small lathe-mill CNC machine and who are located in North-America so i could have prototype and possibly short run special flashlight models made in the future if can be kept affordable.


Please post back when you find those members as I also need some proto & small production runs made.


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## RaccoonExplorer (Apr 14, 2013)

Hi Precisionworks,

I was thinking more along the lines of lamps produced by RP 3D printers, not by injection molding, Nitrolon is not yet available to print in 3D, the choices of materials is slowly increasing and i have not checked yet the characteristics of some of the Nylon material i believe one or more of the 3D printers are using these days, it might not be the same grade as the ones used in injection but i"ll have a look again. Anti-static and anti-explosion resin models might also find a niche in some industries that require such characteristics in the work place, such as lamps which would be made of polyurethane.




precisionworks said:


> IMO thread life in polymer body lights would not be a limiting factor. SF has long used Nitrolon, a "proprietary high-strength, non-conductive, impact-resistant, glass-filled polyamide nylon polymer". Remington Arms introduced the Nylon 66 (made from nylon 6/6 aka Zytel 101) and sold them by the metric ton - over one million during a thirty year period. Have yet to hear of thread failure on a Nitrolon light & the Nylon 66 rifles are equally hardy.
> 
> Some manufacturers add PTFE or graphite to polymers to increase surface lubricity & decrease or eliminate thread galling. And if you want to make a light where thread galling is guaranteed simply use Ti-6-4 ... which again has almost limitless life in handheld lighting applications despite the propensity for titanium to titanium galling & seizure.
> 
> Please post back when you find those members as I also need some proto & small production runs made.


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## RaccoonExplorer (Apr 14, 2013)

Hi Precisionworks,

I have had a look at several of your other threads in this section, you are very knowledgeable. This forum is really a very good source for info about milling, lathe work and CNC (another of my areas of interest, though i admit to being a total beginner in that area). Still hope to eventually get my own CNC mill someday.


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## precisionworks (Apr 15, 2013)

> was thinking more along the lines of lamps produced by RP 3D printers


My bad ... still thinking old school (as in five years ago) when nearly all RP was subtractive (conventional machining of either plastic or aluminum). With additive RP the material choices are currently more limited but both the turnaround time & cost are better.


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## RaccoonExplorer (Apr 15, 2013)

Hi Precisionworks,

Don't feel bad about it, even though i've got my head almost entirely into 3D CAD and RP since last year (been learning something like 8 different softwares, now concentrating on 2 of them that work best for me) i've got a big renewed love (well, it was always there..) for substractive techniques (still unavoidable if one wants to make high volume plastic injection molds in steel or aluminum for consumer products, or to CNC metal flashlights). I did some epoxy-aluminum RP molds a while back to learn the process, but these are finicky creatures and you have to really know how to use them well if you want good injected parts, i could could on the fingers of one hand the people who make these here in North America and i know only two who know how to use them well, one of them happens to be right in my backyard and is a friend of mine. 

One of these days i'll really have to have my own (full-size) CNC mill because i have some projects for injected products (non-flashlight related) since the past few years and will have to go that way eventually to save money, but i know there is a steep curve to learn the trade and i love my fingers dearly... I`ve seen people who had accidents while working on their own mill. I have a lot of respect for guys who do this job well, it is a lot of work and precision, i often consider many milled injection molds to be works of art.

One thing that i saw on the forum yesterday and which is almost the same as one type of turned pattern i wanted to make for a flashlight project is a twisted knurled pattern, looks similar to what a high speed cutting flute looks like (sorry if i don`t know the exact term in English), the only difference is that the one i saw on the forum had the shape of a raised V twisted knurling pattern, while mine would be more like the shape of a high speed cutter (with a twisted rectangular concave pattern cut on an aluminum tube, like a barber pole pattern if you like). 

Still, the one i saw here was very beautiful, is it possible to program something like that and have it cut automatically ?


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## Illum (Apr 15, 2013)

Only problem with CAD is that everything fits together with the smoothest of tolerances, when you input 10.3125" its going to be 10.3125" regardless of the material specified. Once you get to the machining part, you'll regret any design that are unnecessarily complicated. I used to be an optimistic draft person in my 4 years of high school and 2 years of college life. It wasn't until I met a machinist did I realize how hard it would be to turn out several of my designs on a manual lathe or mill.


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## wquiles (Apr 16, 2013)

Illum said:


> Only problem with CAD is that everything fits together with the smoothest of tolerances, when you input 10.3125" its going to be 10.3125" regardless of the material specified. Once you get to the machining part, you'll regret any design that are unnecessarily complicated. I used to be an optimistic draft person in my 4 years of high school and 2 years of college life. It wasn't until I met a machinist did I realize how hard it would be to turn out several of my designs on a manual lathe or mill.



I "totally" get that. In fact, as I work on any paper or CAD drawing, I am always thinking not only the tolerances as you point above, but more importantly (since I "am" the machinist that has to make the part): 
- can I do that in my manual lathe/mill (of course, given my limited skill level)?
- do I have the tooling to make that?

Unless you are a machinist, you would never think about these two "simple" questions.


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## precisionworks (Apr 26, 2015)

Forgive me for necro-posting but (drum roll) I've finally started learning CAD :nana:

I've been teaching Machining Technology, part time, at a nearby community college. No way to avoid basic AutoCAD as I require my students to draw a simple 2D part. But I couldn't get a license to load the program onto my laptop so I looked for something inexpensive or free.

A customer of mine suggested DesignSpark Mechanical & he's as computer challenged as anyone I know, giving me some hope that I might figure it out. Finally downloaded the file yesterday, only .5 GB so the install was fast. Started out by blundering around & trying out tools, views, etc. Then watched a couple of tutorial videos & found a bunch of stuff I'd missed. My first 2D is a titanium bead, .625" diameter by 1.000" long with a .250" center hole for paracord. Beats the heck out of my yellow pad drawings 






Still a long way to go, haven't figured out how to add dimensions or convert to 3D but that (might) come with more practice. Free download, as in totally free: http://www.rs-online.com/designspark/electronics/eng/page/mechanical


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## OCD (Apr 26, 2015)

Draftsight is a free 2d cad software (I was told its Solidworks 2D software) that can be downloaded for free. I use Autodesk AutoCAD and Inventor 3d progams for my job. I downloaded Draftsight for home use and it is very similar to AutoCAD from the few times I've used it. Definitely worth a look if anyone is looking for a good 2D cad program.


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## precisionworks (Apr 27, 2015)

OCD said:


> Draftsight is a free 2d cad software ...


I agree, if you need only 2D then DraftSight is excellent. To me the best things about DesignSpark are:

It's free 
It's the easiest 3D software I've seen 
Draftsight sends regular emails encouraging users to upgrade to 3D CAD. DesignSpark is already 3D & that's what I need for modeling.

DesignSpark isn't Autocad or Solidworks but it's good enough for the simple models I need.
______________________________________

Spoke with a friend who teaches architectural engineering & he suggested Autodesk Inventor. Free license for students & faculty but it's XXXL in size, roughly 20 GB of disk space required. I selected only the essential components & slimmed it down to just 8.09 GB 

Pricey stuff, $8,395 for a one time license or $3,730 if paid annually.


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## OCD (Apr 27, 2015)

precisionworks said:


> I agree, if you need only 2D then DraftSight is excellent. To me the best things about DesignSpark are:
> 
> It's free
> It's the easiest 3D software I've seen
> ...



I've never used anything but Inventor for 3D modeling (unless you count learing the crude 3D that was in AutoCAD R12 I learned in school). Its been close to 15 years now that I've been using it, so using any kind of 2D software - even the latest AutoCAD is kinda like using a pad and paper for making sketches and layouts. The other thing about Inventor is it takes a lot of horsepower, computer wise, to run adequately (especially when getting into large, multi-part models.)


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## TexasLumens (Apr 27, 2015)

Easy is best. I use Rhino. It has a decent learning curve but once you...if you... ever get it between the ears, it is just so fast. Most of what I draw for plans in 2D eventually become 3D drawings so it makes the transition easy. I like programs that offer layers so I can turn off some components and turn on others. In my opinion... it is easiest to use what "Fits" the way you think and work if you can find it. I like the ghosting as well... folks like seeing the inside... Like someone else mentioned... since I machine them, it helps to have dimensions and something to stick up while I work. The lights below have the same insides... so I can just modify the body around the parts. I am working on an animation of a light flying together piece by piece...but I run out of energy before projects!! Dan.


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## MRsDNF (Apr 30, 2015)

We need to see more of your work Mr Lumens. Please drink more energy drinks to get your energy back. Maybe doing a little bit less for Mrs Lumens will save enough energy to finish the light flying project?


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## TexasLumens (May 6, 2015)

Ahhh... The "Knurl King" speaks!  Ha! Yep, Mrs Lumens seems to take a lot of my time... I suspect you can relate!! :nana: Never enough energy OR time!! Be Well!


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