$1500 Flashlight

[olsenla]

Hi folks,

I really liked the Maglites that Rick (rherrell) had posted a while back. I really wanted to make some for gifts and he had posted a nice tutorial on how to make them. Alas, I didn't have the right equipment, so I ordered and turned a couple of PSI pen lights to see if that would scratch that itch. No such luck!! So a metal lathe and a bunch of tooling later, this is my attempt at doing them. The blue is the first one and is curly maple from BryanJon dyed with food coloring and CA finish. The black is the second one and is Amboyna burl that I had stabilized a few years ago. It is also finished with CA. Thanks Rick for the tutorial and thanks to all you people who have metal lathes and post tips for using them. I have picked up quite a bit just reading the posts even though they didn't directly apply to what I was doing at the time. These were a lot of fun.

Thanks for looking,
Larry

 

[chriselle]

Very cool!! I dig the blue one..

 

[David Keller]

nice work. If I ever get a metal lathe, flashlights are high on my list of things to do.

 

[Mark]

WOW. Will it ever end?

I hope not. They are great... I like the blue one too.

 

[Grizz]

Where's this tutorial at?

 

[olsenla]

Thanks for the kind comments. Grizz, here is a link to the tutorial:
http://www.penturners.org/forum/showthread.php?t=57068&highlight=maglight

Larry

 

[jocat54]

Nice job Larry. They look good. Great to have a metal lathe when you need it.

 

[ldb2000]

Fantastic job on those . One of these days I'll get around to making afew of those .
They can be done on a wood lathe , it just takes a bit more work . Aluminum is easily turned with regular turning tools .

 

[jbostian]

Very nice work.

Jamie

 

[Rfturner]

That is awesome I love the blue one

 

[Jim15]

Those are great looking.

 

[BryanJon]

Larry, you did a GREAT job on staining and finishing that maple!!
Beautiful!!!!

 

[rherrell]

WOW! Outstanding Larry! My local Lowes only had red and silver, I GOTTA get me a blue one!!!!!
You did an excellent job and" way to go" on finding an excuse to buy a new tool!!!!:biggrin::wink:

 

[olsenla]

Thanks for all the encouraging comments!! Making these was a lot of fun because I also had to make the bushings and centers and pin chuck. I thought of doing this on my wood lathe, but when I saw how thin it was going to get I knew that I personally couldn't hold that tolerance. So a new tool was the way to go LOL!! I did try to use an acrylic blank on one----got to the last 1/16" of having the big drill all the way through the blank and a chip got caught and twisted the blank into pieces. Might have to try that again. The Walmart here has these flashlights in about 7 different colors, and they were $1.00 cheaper than Lowes or Home Depot.

Thanks again,
Larry

 

[Paul in OKC]

Those are sweet!