How to Modify a Maglite


This here's some Arctic Alumina Epoxy. It's a thermal epoxy, used for PERMANTLY attaching heatsinks to things.

The difference between Arctic Alumina and Arctic Silver, is the alumina is not electrically conductive.

We're going to use this to attach our LED to our heatsink.
Following the instructions at www.arcticsilver.com, place a single small drop of each part on a piece of wax paper. We don't need much of this stuff at all. In fact, we won't even use all of these two drops.
Figure out where you're going to mount the led, and make sure it fits there.

We're placing it on the center raised portion of the hotlips, rotated so that the leads are next to the holes, as shown in the picture.
Now, mix up the epoxy and put just enough on the bottom of the led to make a thin layer.

Quickly, before it cures, place the LED on the heatsink and make sure that you get it exactly centered. If you're off, it will affect your spot.
Now let it cure. Keep your finger on it to hold it firmly against the heatsink.

After a few minutes, you can take your finger off. From this point, it will still require a few hours at the least to cure fully. I think I left mine over night just to be safe.

You may have been wondering what that yellowish ring on my heatsink is.. I mixed up some glow in the dark powder with some clear epoxy and spread it onto my heatsink to add a glowing ring when I turn my light off.
Once the epoxy has cured, you're almost done. Stick the wires through the appropriate holes in the heatsink (check here if you forgot which is which).

At this point, do another sanity check and make sure the led lights up before you continue.

Important: Make sure the leads are not touching the heatsink.
Now get set up to do the last bit of soldering.
Solder the wires to the leads, being careful that neither the leads or the solder touches the heatsink, and also being careful of the soldering iron around the LED.
You're almost finished.

Connect the wires, and coil them up in the body.
Insert the heatsink.
Reassemble the head and reattach it.
Congratulations. You are now the owner of the brightest solid state flashlight in the room.

Unless someone else has a brighter one there, in which case, shine your light in his eyes before he gets you.
<-- Back 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7