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.

Step 1: You Need...

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

Comments

[spanky467]

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]

Awsome, where do you get a UV LED though?

[casperboy]

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

[TheDeviant13]

radioshack read the other posts

[milsorgen]

$ 1.69 for two.

[mfuchs88]

so will this light kill germs like the UV wands?

[Aqlor]

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]

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

[QuiksilverRox]

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]

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]

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