Introduction: MAGLITE 5-D Mod to My MTB Lightning System.

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I had  an old mag lite from 1995 it was 5-D maglite...
. I decided i need to wake him up from his sleep. and make a powerfull light for my bike.
the thing about this project that it is cheap  around 50-60$  includes the batteries and the charger
and i will try to make it simple by giving the SKU from deal extreme ( i bought there my stuff but you can buy them in other places tooo)o.k..
so what you need for that is a solder, some basic tool and power drill preferbly mounted one
here is what u need :
18650   li  battery 2*
*charger
old D maglite*
*solder
*drill\ dremel will be great
*good holder to connect the lashlite to your bicycle
*wires
*heat shrink envelopes
*switch, whatever u have will be good
*and ofcourse the led.  u can choose (at list in DX) from two sets of driver+led as long as it 52 mm diameter
I used DX sku. 9358 which is 3 CREE led with 3 mode driver.
but u can use xmlt-6 which is much stronger

Step 1: Prepering the Head of the Maglite

first  you need to unscrew the reflector head from the shaft of the maglite
Usually it is done by unscrewing  the reflector
after dissambling the reflector from the shaft , remove the lamp ( no need for tools) untill you will have reflector
part cleaned from lamp and the base of the lamp and a shaft
the chasis of the reflector has  protrusion going inside where the base of the lamp sits
here is the tricky part of this whole instructable:  you need to use a power drill or dremel to cut that base so the
reflector will be clean as in this picture.
i used my dads dremel but you can use  power drill and  some pateince

Step 2: Connecting the New Lamp to the Maglite Reflector

after the reflector part is clean you have  the reflector able to  have in it 52 mm  diameter so you can have inside pretty strong and big lamp
the led fits PERFECTLY to the reflector,  solder two wires to the led  the inner circle is the (+)
and the outer is the (-)

Step 3: Together

here is the led system fits perfectly in the maglite

Step 4: Soldering the Wires and Connect the Bicycle Assembly

remember that the small circle is the ( +)
the outer circle is ( -)

the current runing from the batteries is quite strong so dont make shortcut !


After soldering you can  connect the bicycle holer, i drilled 5 mm hole and placed screw that connect the maglite body to the holder

Step 5: Making the Battery Case

Hey, you can buy from the internet ( my case DX) but you can buy it anywhere, you need to lok for holder for two 18650 case
than you need to replace the wires that came with the holder to thicker ones. solder them nicely

remember before soldering the wires you need to put the shrinking  tube on the wires until it get to the  led it self
then solder the (+)  straight to the battery case
the minus solder to your switch ( use what ever you like) then solder it to the battery case.

thats it!  if  you did all with the instructions you need to get  very very bright light.

Step 6: The Flashlight Is Ready, Go Ride Your Bike

few things :
firstly the maglite is quite  thick metal thing that way you dont really need aheat sink. you can use a thermal paste between the  maglite and the led but you can deal ithout it

remember that it can get hot if it powered fully for few hours

in the strongest mod it can run for 1.5 hours maximum.

but it is really bright and quite light, you can use it also on your helmet, on your bike or whatever you want

enjoy
David