Maglite issues

[cabo5150]

I converted a couple of mag lites to sabers to battle with my son.
From TCSS recommendation I used the maglite blade holder, Cree holder and 8.7 lens.

Son's is a 2D maglite that was a factory non-led (not sure if it was krypton/ halogen or other). I replaced the bulb with an LED. It works fine as a flashlight and is nice and bright.

Mine was a factory LED 3D

Within the first few strikes, his maglite would flicker and generally do some weird stuff with the light. Sometimes it would just be off, other times it was really dim. I was able to semi remedy it by slightly loosening the blade holder. It seems counter intuitive, but seems to work. He only has an occasional outage.

Tonight while battling mine went out. Sometimes striking it the light would come back on, other times not. No amount of loosening or tightening the blade holder help.

Any ideas in what is causing the outages? Are the LED lights prone to vibration/ impact outages? I'd expect that with and incandescent bulb.

Thanks

[Strydur]

Try it without the lens/lens holder.

[cabo5150]

Took the lens/ lens holder out and beat on my son a little Maglite stayed lit and did not flicker. Of course without the lens/ lens holder I only had a white blade and the light doesn't go all the way up the blade, any suggestions to remedy that?

Thanks

[Strydur]

Sounds like the lens assembly is pressing against the LED and causing a issue somehow. Try it with just the lens and no lens holder and see what that does. We designed these years ago based on the original maglites so it is hard to tell what could be the issue for sure.

[noslenpar]

Sounds like the lens assembly is pressing against the LED and causing a issue somehow. Try it with just the lens and no lens holder and see what that does. We designed these years ago based on the original maglites so it is hard to tell what could be the issue for sure.

I have an incandescent maglite converted to LED with a TerraLux LED direct replacement bulb. I put in the TCSS lens without the lens holder and it seems to work great, no issues.

[cabo5150]

Sounds like the lens assembly is pressing against the LED and causing a issue somehow. Try it with just the lens and no lens holder and see what that does. We designed these years ago based on the original maglites so it is hard to tell what could be the issue for sure.

I removed the holder from the 3D, and it seems to work fine, didn't get to the 2D yet. Hopefully this continues working. THanks for the help Styrdur.

[cabo5150]

I have an incandescent maglite converted to LED with a TerraLux LED direct replacement bulb. I put in the TCSS lens without the lens holder and it seems to work great, no issues.

Have you 'battled' with it? Some of the issues don't appear until we beat them a little bit.

[noslenpar]

Sorry I never replied to your question sooner cabo5150, I lost the 10-32 blade retention screw and couldn't find the time to get a new one.
Since I only have one blade right now I couldn't duel with it, but I tried giving it a few good whacks against a poor tree (who didn't deserve it) and the bulb failed after about 7 or 8 good hard whacks. Started to flicker and then completely went out after the 12th hit. The LED replacement bulbs I'm using don't seem to stand up to dueling or slaughtering Ents. I had previously done some very light "dueling" with my friends 6 year old kid without issues, so I had not really put it to the test till now.
This set up works great for me since I only really use it as a cool looking flashlight or put a 18" blade in it and use it as camping light, works kind of like a florescent tent light.

[cabo5150]

Sorry I never replied to your question sooner cabo5150, I lost the 10-32 blade retention screw and couldn't find the time to get a new one.
Since I only have one blade right now I couldn't duel with it, but I tried giving it a few good whacks against a poor tree (who didn't deserve it) and the bulb failed after about 7 or 8 good hard whacks. Started to flicker and then completely went out after the 12th hit. The LED replacement bulbs I'm using don't seem to stand up to dueling or slaughtering Ents. I had previously done some very light "dueling" with my friends 6 year old kid without issues, so I had not really put it to the test till now.
This set up works great for me since I only really use it as a cool looking flashlight or put a 18" blade in it and use it as camping light, works kind of like a florescent tent light.

Thanks for the reply, I light the idea of a camp light, I may try that on our camping trips.

I picked up a 10-32 allen head screw from Ace for <$0.50, haven't broken one of those yet. All the Acetal, Nylon, tccs retention screw have broken or bent at some point.