- Joined
- Mar 19, 2007
- Messages
- 7,443
At my college I took a machining class a year or so ago and learned how to do basic work on the Lathe and Mill as well as a few other things. I don't know much - but I can be a little dangerous when I want to.
I had two Mag-lites, but only had enough parts to make one work. The insides of one of my Mag-lites were missing - due to little prying fingers around the house.
I found a small button compass that I have had for a while and decided to make something out of the body of the Mag-Lite.
The first thing you need to do is to chuck up the Mag-Lite in the head stock (using brass as a buffer between the jaws of the headstock and the aluminum body so as to not mar it) and part off the Mag Lite Body:
I cut this down further later but this allowed me to get an accurate measurement of how much I needed to take off.
I then chucked up the butt cap, took a little off it, then bored out the center. It normally holds a spare bulb - but I wanted it to hold a little tinder:
It now holds about 1/2 a cotton ball. This is mostly to buffer the matches - but also will be emergency tinder in a pinch:
I then bored out a little of the maglite itself. This was not necessary but I thought I might be able to get another match held in the case:
I then drew up a rough sketch of the cap (not shown) and took measurements so that I knew how much of the body of the Mag-Lite to take off:
With that done - the body of the Mag-Lite and the butt cap (which will be the top cap) was now done. I needed to work on the cap.
I used a piece of scrap material - and turned down the major diameter (to match the outside of the body of the Mag-Lite and then turned down the minor diameter to allow the part to slip into the body of the Mag-Lite:
I touched up my work a little and then bored the top to take the button compass:
I then needed to part off the piece. This shows how much the part of the cap that slides into the body of the Mag-Lite. It extends 0.250 into the body and takes epoxy to hold it in:
Here is the parting tool getting ready to finish off the piece:
cont...
I had two Mag-lites, but only had enough parts to make one work. The insides of one of my Mag-lites were missing - due to little prying fingers around the house.
I found a small button compass that I have had for a while and decided to make something out of the body of the Mag-Lite.
The first thing you need to do is to chuck up the Mag-Lite in the head stock (using brass as a buffer between the jaws of the headstock and the aluminum body so as to not mar it) and part off the Mag Lite Body:
I cut this down further later but this allowed me to get an accurate measurement of how much I needed to take off.
I then chucked up the butt cap, took a little off it, then bored out the center. It normally holds a spare bulb - but I wanted it to hold a little tinder:
It now holds about 1/2 a cotton ball. This is mostly to buffer the matches - but also will be emergency tinder in a pinch:
I then bored out a little of the maglite itself. This was not necessary but I thought I might be able to get another match held in the case:
I then drew up a rough sketch of the cap (not shown) and took measurements so that I knew how much of the body of the Mag-Lite to take off:
With that done - the body of the Mag-Lite and the butt cap (which will be the top cap) was now done. I needed to work on the cap.
I used a piece of scrap material - and turned down the major diameter (to match the outside of the body of the Mag-Lite and then turned down the minor diameter to allow the part to slip into the body of the Mag-Lite:
I touched up my work a little and then bored the top to take the button compass:
I then needed to part off the piece. This shows how much the part of the cap that slides into the body of the Mag-Lite. It extends 0.250 into the body and takes epoxy to hold it in:
Here is the parting tool getting ready to finish off the piece:
cont...
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