# Recycling Old Flashlights - What do you do with dead units?



## lordraiden (Dec 13, 2013)

I know this probably isn't a favorite subject of flashaholics, but we all know that eventually our precious lights will "buy the farm" or become in some way unusable in their whole state. However, as is quite often true I've found, it's usually just one thing that's busted (bulb, switch, housing, battery carrier, obsolete battery model, rusted, etc) that makes the light unusable, however, aside from that one problem, the rest of the flashlight is fully intact, or at least salvageable for uses elsewhere.

With that being said, what do you guys do with your old lights that quit, but still have some uses, usable parts, etc?  Here's one that happened to me recently on one of my lights. The unit itself, bulb, casing, etc, were all in top notch shape, save for the switch. That went up in a puff of happy smoke and wonder crackles. So what did I do with this nice metal flashlight that was now unusable in its whole form? Well, the battery caddy was still good (it was a 3 AAA carrier in a subc form factor) so I took that out for use in other items, the LED bulb was salvaged for use in a nice low powered night light (believe it or not, the bulb is rated for 4.5v but will still fire and create a nice dim night light like glow at 3v) that I cobbled together, and the metal housing, which was still useful despite the bum switch, was put to use as a water proof hard case for steal money carrying while out on the beach. I mean, come on, who would think that little waterproof metal flashlight around your neck secretly holds a few hundred in small, unmarked bills. 

Anyhow, what do you guys do when your lights die, but they still have some usefulness in them?


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## BillSWPA (Dec 13, 2013)

If the part that died is not easily replaceable, then I keep the light around for spare parts. If I really like the light, then there is a reasonably good chance I have similar ones that can be kept working longer with the salvageable parts from the no working light.


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## RetroTechie (Dec 13, 2013)

Good topic! :twothumbs

In principle: re-purpose, as it's the best available option in the 3 R's for waste reduction. *In order:* 


Reduce (don't produce / buy unneeded things in the 1st place) 
Reuse (give it a second life somehow) <-- 
Recycle (take apart / separate into raw materials, and reuse those) 
In practice: like every other electronics hobbyist in existence, I have this 'graveyard' of discarded, broken, disassembled pieces etc of random electronic junk. From battery holders to old calculators, from serial EEPROMs to 5 1/4" floppy drives, etc, etc (a few flashlights in there too). Used very much in the same fashion as a car graveyard: someone (ehm... read: myself) comes by & needs a part, you search in the heap for something useable. If found: pull that part out, leave the remains for another day.

As time passes & experience grows, it gets easier to decide what's worth saving and what will *never, ever*, be used again (or sold!) no matter what. The distinction between saving reusable parts and hoarding trash is a slippery slope though... :help:

As for flashlights, I must still have a 2x AA mini MagLite (non-LED) kicking around somewhere. Contemplating whether it's possible to mod into a 1xx AA LED light. :thinking: This would require some metal work I suspect, for which I don't have all the tools. So result would have to be pretty nice, in order to compete with "order ready-built 1x AA light".


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## ChrisGarrett (Dec 14, 2013)

The only one that I've had break is a V10R and I sent that back to Battery Junction and they ended up sending me a new V11R, gratis.

Chris


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## lordraiden (Dec 14, 2013)

RetroJunkie, I might have a solution for your 1x aa light issue. Instead of doing metal work, do like I did and create your own battery spacer. There's two ways to do this. One, create a wood blank of the right size with a simple metal plate and pin (a large blunted nail works well) pushed through the center. Option two would be to buy a AAA battery adapter which comes with both ends (and not the kind with a bottom plate only and an open top) and use that to span the extra space. You could also create a battery spanner out of PVC, or other materials too like a dowel rod, two thumb tacks (sanded off to allow contact) and a piece of wire strung between the two points. I've had to make them for applications where 2-3 cells work better than 4, or 1 works better than 2, like in your case. They're not that hard to do.


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## gravelmonkey (Dec 14, 2013)

I've chucked an AAA minimag and some 3*5mm and xenon combo (not an A2) light in the days before I felt up to keeping parts for re-use. Now have the sense to have a parts box for fixing dead lights.


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## RetroTechie (Dec 16, 2013)

@lordraiden: thx for the suggestion, but if it were that easy I'd already have done it. My point was to get rid of the space taken up by the 2nd AA, to make the result more pocketable. So that's basically a choice of metalwork vs. buy ready-built 1x AA light.


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## PCC (Dec 16, 2013)

Nowadays, I don't buy inexpensive lights or I buy really cheap throwaway lights. The throwaway lights are usually plastic 2D incandescent lights that I put a Nite Ize 1W PR flange drop-in into. If the light stops working and needs to be repaired I pull the drop-in then it goes into the trash as it's not worth the effort to repair it.

On the other hand, the nicer lights that I buy are of a higher quality and can be repaired easily (call the manufacture's TS) or I'm chucking a piece of aluminum into the lathe and doing the repair myself. 

What won't I buy? Mini-Mags, 3X AAA shower heads, ***Fire anything (Surefire being the exception), most stuff at HD or Lowe's, etc.


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