UV Maglight

Here's how to transform a regular maglite into a UV maglite using a LED. This is a very easy Instructable and may cost only a few dollars.

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Step 1: You Need...

~Needle nose pliers
~Wire cutters
~Mini MagLite
~1/4 in drill bit
~Drill
~UV LED

spanky467 says: Sep 14, 2012. 7:40 PM

took me about 15-20 minutes to do this conversion, and it works great. My UV maglite will be a part of my toolbox now.. ready to spot leaks in the A/C

Radio Shack has the UV LED. It is part #276-0014, and is in the LED parts bin. $1.99 for 2 LED bulbs.

I would recommend that when you drill out the reflector, you do it with gradually larger bits until you get to the final bit size of 7/32, that way you avoid cracking the plastic reflector housing. Take care in not cutting the leads of the LED too short so that it will fit through the bulb mounting plate and into the flashlight terminal leads.

hairyconiption says: Sep 29, 2008. 9:08 PM

Awsome, where do you get a UV LED though?

casperboy in reply to hairyconiptionAug 26, 2010. 5:07 AM

In the netherlands I can buy them at the baco 10 for a few euros.

TheDeviant13 in reply to hairyconiptionMar 13, 2009. 9:47 PM

radioshack read the other posts

milsorgen in reply to TheDeviant13Jan 27, 2010. 5:38 PM

$ 1.69 for two.

mfuchs88 says: May 4, 2009. 12:49 PM

so will this light kill germs like the UV wands?

Aqlor in reply to mfuchs88Jan 14, 2010. 2:12 PM

UV light from usual UV leds is not good for killing germs. You can look it up on google, it's very hard to do a LED with the right frequency (deep uv) for killing germs, but once it is easily doable, it will make UV "cleaners" much more cheaper.

medicjm says: Sep 30, 2008. 6:07 AM

That's cool but can you give the tech specs for the LED?

QuiksilverRox (author) in reply to medicjmSep 30, 2008. 4:02 PM

Radio Shack
High visibility, T-1 3/4 (5mm)
Intensity: 280mcd (typical)
Wavelength: 395nm (minimum), 410nm (maximum)
Viewing angle: 30°
FW current: 20mA;
FW supply: 3.2 (typical), 3.8V (maximum)

j626no in reply to QuiksilverRoxJan 21, 2009. 12:17 PM

thanks for the link...but that LED has three leads....i'm not too familiar with electronics...which two should be used? I know a diode is a "one-way-valve" but with 3 leads i'm just confused.

QuiksilverRox (author) in reply to j626noJan 21, 2009. 2:47 PM

One with three leads is either multi-color or one that blinks. Apparently Radioshack just put the wrong image on the page.

see the last review