Question for DIY Canister light head made out of maglite

[kosstamogen]

Hi was wondering about the glass or plastic lense that comes stock with the maglite.
After reading the instructions on Padipro's website it was saying that you need to take out the stock one and replace with two glass pieces glued together. I saw someone else mention that you can just put some silicon on the outside to strengthen the original lense.

So you you have to remove the existing lense? What are the drawbacks of keeping it? Would it be worth it to strengthen it with silicone?

 

[M_Bipartitus]

I would avoid some type of strengthening as it would likely not be of uniform thickness and make a lens-like affect that could mess up the beam and make the light less usefull. It shouldn't be very hard to take apart.

 

[M_Bipartitus]

[double post]

 

[kosstamogen]

I see what you're saying but I mean strengthening in the sense that it only goes around the outter rim of the lense so that where the lense meets the aluminum has an added bead of silcone, kind of acting as another o-ring.

I don't mind giving it a try, but the whole idea of getting custom made glass and gluing them together is something I would to avoid if possible, but obviously not at the cost of the whole thing not working...

 

[M_Bipartitus]

IC. It wont strengthen the glass much at all to glue it to the metal. I might say just try it. It isn't like you lose much if the glass breaks and you flood a maglite.

 

[FatRob]

The maglite glass is probably to thin to be of much value, re-inforced or otherwise, it will probably break at depth when you least want it to... I got a piece of lexan from home depot and cut it and ground it to shape. So far it's been to 60 feet with no issues. it's about .1 inches thick. My light can accommodate up to 1/4" thickness so if it fails I can upgrade easily.

BTW lexan (polycarbonate) is claimed to be 6x stronger than glass.

 

[kosstamogen]

Well working with lexan sounds more managable than working with glass.

LOL, on wiki it says that Lexan was the molecule used represent "Transparent Aluminum"

 

[kosstamogen]

The maglite glass is probably to thin to be of much value, re-inforced or otherwise, it will probably break at depth when you least want it to... I got a piece of lexan from home depot and cut it and ground it to shape. So far it's been to 60 feet with no issues. it's about .1 inches thick. My light can accommodate up to 1/4" thickness so if it fails I can upgrade easily.

BTW lexan (polycarbonate) is claimed to be 6x stronger than glass.

Did you use silicone to secure the lexan? Or how did you attach/glue it to the screw on cap?

 

[FatRob]

Did you use silicone to secure the lexan? Or how did you attach/glue it to the screw on cap?

I did not use a maglite housing i made my own from scratch....
The force of screwing in the bezel is used to compress the lens onto a captive o-ring on the face of the body..

However If I recall my maglite correctly, doesn't the bezel have an o-ring between it and the lens, and the lens rests on a machined landing, hence the screw threads hold the bezel on which in turn seals and holds the lens on?

I would just use silicone grease (DC111 or DC007) to lightly lube the o-rings at assy time.

 

[Dectek]

The stock Maglite lens is a thin Plastic lens. On Scott's first lights he simply replaced the Plastic lens with a glass one sold for rechargeable Maglights. This was done to address the heat and the strength issues.He Posted on the Divelight MSN group that on a deep dive the oring that sat below the lens was forced out of place due to pressure.
Yes the doubling of the glass adds to the structural strength but it is also there to trap the Oring and keep it in place. When the glass is glued together the inner layer is a little smaller in diameter.