Similiarly unimpressed with my 3-cell LED Mag; light
output is crap.

CY: The base is an electrical connection. Screw the butt
cap off,
slightly sand the end of the tube, and where the end of
the tube matches
the butt cap. Sometimes they over anodize the tubes or
butt caps.

Hmm, just tried, doesn't seem to be any different - but then
it's still
daylight here and the issue only really showed up in pitch
black
larger spaces compared to my other Mag.

CY: That's odd. I really love my LED 3D mag.

Seems that the LED is a little module, so I might be able to
just drop a
4.5V incandescent in there... (I don't like the blueish
colour of the
light anyway, as it seems to make shadows too strong at
night)

CY: Yes, you should be able to use a three cell filament
bulb. Should work fine. And yes, the filament bulbs are much
more white.

CY: They do make belt holders. You can get the belt loop,
and drywall
screw the belt loop to the wall.

Hmm, I'll take a look (assuming they hold the light with the
bright end
pointing downward, which I think would be more useful - hang
it from a
nail on the wall etc. while doing stuff)

CY: No, the belt holders all do lens up. You're back to the
screw eye idea.

spare bulb out, drill, thread, and put a nut on the inside
of the cap.
Might not have enough space for the spare bulb, then.

If the 3-cell's anything to go by (my 2-cell's up in the
'shop and it's
snowing and I'm lazy then there should be space I think.
I imagine
they're the same base design.

CY: I'm sure they are the same tail caps. Plenty of space.

I have a big ol' oil lamp for that, and so far have
managed not to burn
the tent down

CY: You da man!

Sentimental reasons - it was my grandfathers. Spent ages as
a kid
stripping it down, patching the holes in the tank and
respraying it. Then
I bust the glass and it took another few years before I
stumbled across
another basket-case donor in the same style. The wick came
from the strap
from some ancient cloth bag or other :-)

CY: I also have my father's old oil lamp. Glass base from a
garage sale for 50 cents, and the globe from a hardware
store. I had to replace the wick. Glad you are able to keep
the lamp in the family. Traditions like that are priceless.

Talking of which, I had a homebrew lamp made from a car
headlight
grafted onto the body of a cordless drill

CY: Now, that's frieking brilliant (no joke). Very clever
idea. And the
12 volt battery would be rechargable.

Yeah, I decided I loathed cordless power tools, plus I was
looking for a
nice little compact motor for some robotics project at the
time, so
killing the drill was a no-brainer. I had some spare round
headlights
from classic car shenanigans, and it took hardly any time to
mate one up
to the body of the drill. I was doing a whole pile of urban
exploration
stuff and the like at the time, so it came in handy - amazed
I never bust
the glass front on the headlight, though!

CY: That sounds totally useful. I can imagine using battery
jumper pack and a hand held spot light to do much the same.
But, yours has the home built edge.

Nice thing about it was that it'd gradually dim when the
battery was going
flat; I had one of those 10,000 candle-power lamps and
that'd go from
bright to dead within only a few seconds - and it's often
useful to have a
bit more warning when your main light's about to crap out on
you :-)

CY: Warning is good. I met a power company guy who said he
used to go into sub basements with one lamp, that having a
filament bulb,a nd no spare light in his pocket. I don't
have that kind of courage.

I had a six volt hand held
spotlamp, the gel cell battery went dead. Wired it to
alkaline lantern
battery, and works fine again. Carbon lantern battery did
not provide
enough power.

That works :-)

cheers

CY: Nice to meet a fellow flash light person.

Jules