# Short D-cell maglites



## RepProdigious

Today, ive finished my first cut-down D-cell maglite build because i just LOOOVE how nice and beefy those lights look and i was wondering if anyone else has a shorter one thats still useful (running quad 16340 perhaps?).

I didnt go too far on mine, kept the head and tailcap stock (size-wise, tailcap now has a clicky) and i like the overall size:







Sooo..... show off you little fat maggies!!


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## alpg88

cool, i like chopped mags too. here are mine, only 3 so far.
xml, 32650





xp-g 3xAA nimh





this one is a C mag, fusion 36 18650





both xm-l and xp-g use dx p7 reflector, to my surprise it actually focuses them better than it does p7. lol

i also build 3aa holder for xp-g mag, used radioshack 1aa holders, but had to cut out the "floor" of the holde so cells sit deeper, otheways it wont fit.


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## RepProdigious

Nice lights! I just use a ready made AA holder from DX and its works okay (current doesn't suffer too much due to extra resistance).

Did you completely remove the mag button assembly? And can you still disassemble the light as intended or do you glue the heads?


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## PCC

Okay, I cheated.


























It's the end tube from a 6D that was cut off and made into a light. It's a single D cell configuration with a heatsink that is way too large for the amount of heat that it needs to dissipate. The driver is a Sandwich Shop Mad Max Plus driving an XP-G R5 behind a modified optic that was originally intended to be used with a K2 TFFC. The resulting beam has a great little hotspot that isn't too bright. It's perfect for around the house, but, not so much for outdoor use. I'd guess that it's making 60 lumens OTF on a fresh battery, but, the big thing is that it will literally run for hours and hours on end on an alkaline cell. Yes, that's a McClicky in the tail cap.


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## alpg88

RepProdigious said:


> Did you completely remove the mag button assembly? And can you still disassemble the light as intended or do you glue the heads?


 
yes, mag button assembly removed, switch is placed in the tailcap. 
no i can't take it apart, head is glued, i can uscrew bezel and remove the drop in, or driver.


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## RepProdigious

cpf did an oopsie.....


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## RepProdigious

Okay, mine also has a buttin in the tailcap but i went for a setup that can be completely disasembled just like original mag-lites. All parts are stock and mounted as stock on mine, except the tailcap that now has a hole for the button (can however still be used as originally intended apart from the spare bulb) and of course the tube thats now shorter and does not have the hole for the original button or the groove for the snap-ring.

I really like these lights!

Button came out nice:





And the led (copper star) is soldered onto an old drop-in base which in turn is is press-fitted in the reflector base (all mounted with arctic silver heat junk)


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## RepProdigious

Here's the AA battery holder i use (when not powered by 18650's) next to the now pimped Baby-D!


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## alpg88

blue eneloop??? never seen those in person, cool.
btw man, thanks for an idea, :thumbsup: about quad 16340.
my current project is the 4x cr123, mr16 3x3w warm white 25*. xr-e
i'll post pics when done.


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## las3r

do u have any more pics on how u did the tail cap... on making if flush with the end cap. I tried but sticks out a little


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## PCC

I'll probably be making another one in a few weeks. I'll take pictures of that one unless bigchelis wants to take pictures of the one I made for him. Basically, I made an aluminum spacer that goes between the rubber button cover and the Mag tail cap. There's a shoulder cut into the spacer and an O-ring placed on that shoulder to keep moisture out. The rubber button takes care of any water trying to seep in through the inside of the spacer.


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## RepProdigious

alpg88 said:


> thanks for an idea, :thumbsup: about quad 16340.



Should be cool! Im also pondering how short i could possibly go (i'd like to stay well under 1" exposed tube for my next build but the high shoulder on the tailcap makes life difficult for me). I'd love to know what you come up with!! 

BTW; eneloops are just from the 'tone' series.



las3r said:


> do u have any more pics on how u did the tail cap... on making if flush with the end cap. I tried but sticks out a little



I cheated the heck out of it! I took a complete tail assembly from some old light (Aurora P7 if i remember correctly) and just ground it down until the button was perfectly flush with the mag tailcap when glued in place (superduper heavy duty water/seawater/chemical and solvent resistant 2 component glue). Here's some pics:





Shortened so that the assembly still fits inside (also happened to be exactly the depth in the tailcap so i did not have to modify the mag spring)





Ground it down, just right!





Nice threads still in perfect condition to make replacing parts (boot, clicky) a snap!





Here you can see that it sits well under the mags tailcap, thats what makes the boot sit nice and flush.





Rubber boot in place





Back of the tail





Guts in place.

And last but not least; A nice dirty frontal shot!! Just because i can


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## alpg88

that is not cheating, that is being creative.

i just realised what you meant by quad 16340, lol, no my plan is to use 2 on top of 2, holder will be longer than D cell by almost an inch, (spend 3-4 hours yesterday building it, came out nice, looks horoble, works great) but now i understand what you mean, idk how you'll fit 4 cell next to each other in the D tube, you'll need to quadbore it. even than i,ve never seen any 4 cells (other than AA) in a bored out tube, but i have not seen everything, your project sounds more interesting than mine, i'd like to see that done.


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## RepProdigious

I'm still looking into a cheap and cheerful boring method but even before that ill have to do some maths to see if 4x16mm will even remotely fit but now that i come to think of it i fear it might be quite impossible..... and i have to get another maglite (if i cant find one cheaper ill just get one at my super tool shop from the €10 crates) and then ill start doing some tests!


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## alpg88

RepProdigious said:


> I'm still looking into a cheap and cheerful boring method but even before that ill have to do some maths to see if 4x16mm will even remotely fit but now that i come to think of it i fear it might be quite impossible..... and i have to get another maglite (if i cant find one cheaper ill just get one at my super tool shop from the €10 crates) and then ill start doing some tests!


 
i doubt it'll fit, 16340 cells are really 17mm give or take 0.5mm, i think the most you can fit is 3 cells in tri bored tube. thou borring out tube costs between $50-$70, however if you need to bore out short\chopped tube, you only need to bore out 4-5cm or so, you might be able to do it with dremmel tool, just cut 3 grooves, you'll need to cut deeper than thread.


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## RepProdigious

alpg88 said:


> i doubt it'll fit, 16340 cells are really 17mm give or take 0.5mm, i think the most you can fit is 3 cells in tri bored tube. thou borring out tube costs between $50-$70, however if you need to bore out short\chopped tube, you only need to bore out 4-5cm or so, you might be able to do it with dremmel tool, just cut 3 grooves, you'll need to cut deeper than thread.


 
Well, did some quick measuring and math and found that in my D-cell a quad 16mm serup would theoretically be possible but it would leave a wafer thin tube (outside diameter on my mags is 39.4mm, quad 16mm would give 16+sqrt(16^2+16^2) ~ 38.63mm) so thats out of the question also because as you say cr123 sized cells never really are 16mm.... However, the tube is just that; a tube! So i dont really see a reason why i could not bore the head to fit a thicker tube from the hardware store, only leaves the tailcap..... maybe ill think of something sooner or later for that little problem.

On a sidenote, after an extensive burn-in test yesterday to see how hot all components got when ran for an hour and a half straight on max i was pleasantly surprised to find that both the copper XLM board and the driver never exceeded 55 celsius! So today i took her apart, cleaned, lubed, re-heat-pasted and finished all parts and now she's ready for duty!!






Also added some polished flames on the body because.... well, everything is always better with flames


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## alpg88

build one more light, mr16 wam white 3 xre 25* 4xcr123


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## RepProdigious

Looks nice!!


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## PCC

Here's that light that I mentioned earlier:





It's got a McClicky in the tail cap:





It's got a deep reflector from a Solarforce Masterpiece Pro 1:





It has an EZ900 XR-E R2 LED driven at 1.4A using a 7135 board powered by an IMR 26500. It's been returned to me to further mod it for a more useful beam, so, I'm going to put an XM-L in it along with a 2.8A 7135 driver. The 2D Mag body was cut down on both ends and rethreaded. It's approximately a 1.25 D length light, the extra length is taken up by the reflector and a larger than necessary heatsink. The MPP-1 reflector needed to be modified and the MagLite head was bored out to make it all fit. The only original MagLite parts on this light that were not modified are the bezel ring and all of the O-rings.


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## alpg88

that looks very nice. do you use lathe for tailswitch mods??


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## PCC

Yes, I do. The tail cap itself is threaded and a slug of aluminum made to fit both the McClicky and the tail cap. The McClicky is threaded into the adapter itself. There's a spacer in there between the rubber button and the Mag tail cap to allow the switch to sit flush with the end of the cap.


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## RepProdigious

Lathe..... nice man! I want one badly, it would open a world of possibilities for me!

But first ill be making a small CNC 3-axis.... lots easier than a machine that actually rotates your workpiece.


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## RepProdigious

Lathe..... nice man! I want one badly, it would open a world of possibilities for me!

But first ill be making a small CNC 3-axis.... lots easier than a machine that actually rotates your workpiece.


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## PCC

Yeah, the lathe really opened up possibilities for me as far as making parts and doing mods to lights. Before, I would use a miniature mill to do mods and stuff, but, that did not allow enough precision nor did it allow me to cut threads. With the lathe I can get things to fit with much more precision and I can thread things. It's really nice to have if you want to do mods.


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## srfreddy

EZ900 at 1.4 amps... man, that thing must go on forever!


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## RepProdigious

PCC said:


> Yeah, the lathe really opened up possibilities for me as far as making parts and doing mods to lights. Before, I would use a miniature mill to do mods and stuff, but, that did not allow enough precision nor did it allow me to cut threads. With the lathe I can get things to fit with much more precision and I can thread things. It's really nice to have if you want to do mods.


 
Thats sweet! I do have access to milling machines (manual/cnc3ax/cnc4ax), cutting tables and lathes (manual/CNC) at work but for some reason i just cant spend a minute of my free time there... when i can go home i go home or hit the pub. Strange how that works eh?


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## shiekh

Anyone cut their MagLite down to run on a single D cell?


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