# LED lights for my daughters



## mattthemuppet2 (Jan 17, 2014)

My eldest daughter Sophie (7 yrs) has been pestering me for ages about making her own torch/ flashlight as I keep making cool ones for myself. Figuring that it would be a neat way to show her how to machine and solder stuff as well as find a use for a couple of old 3xAA 5mm LED lights (wedding present, 11 years ago this year!), I measured up a piece of mystery metal rod and figured out a way of making it all fit.
she got a bit bored after 1/2h so I finished off some stuff 



Bored out, for no real reason other than that I wanted to practice boring.



parted off (the rest will do Evie's, who's 5), turned around and finned using my parting tool. I need to make a shorter grooving tool to reduce chatter.






Then Sophie helped me center drill, drill and then start boring out the LED and optic cavity. I finished it off with the help of my super awesome DROs 



Next to the original stock



And amazingly everything fits perfectly!



Finished wiring up the light last night. Sophie helped with soldering the wires to the LED, but the rest of the stuff was too fiddly for her. She is very happy with the finished light, it's surprisingly bright for an XM-L T6 @350mA!
Old module:



Head with LED in place and optic superglued in:



Tangle of wires from the 7135 chip - red is +ve to the Vdd pin, yellow is +ve to the LED+, brown is -ve to 7135 ground (center) pin:



Old module plate wired up. I ended up drilling a small hole for the two +ve wires to make a more robust joint:



Before the retaining ring:



After:



Head JB welded in place and everything assembled. The head doesn't screw down onto the o-ring, but that's not the end of the world. I'll make the next heatsink a bit shorter to help with that:



It works!




Now I just have to do the same, all over again  Well, I did want to practice boring I guess..


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## wquiles (Jan 18, 2014)

Nice work, and nice to find you here in this forum as well )

Will


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## mattthemuppet2 (Jan 18, 2014)

thanks Will, the heatsink was inspired by your mill lights  Haven't rustled up the gumption to start the 2nd one as I spent my spare time today working on the car, plus it's -7C at the moment.


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## DAN_IN_MN (Jan 18, 2014)

Nice work!

Where are the action shots of your daughter helping?


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## mattthemuppet2 (Jan 18, 2014)

DAN_IN_MN said:


> Nice work!
> 
> Where are the action shots of your daughter helping?



thanks!

I caught some flak on another site for showing her doing some turning whilst wearing a winter coat, so rather than have to go through the hassle of defending why she was dressed like that, the efforts I put into ensuring her safety and so on, I decided simply not to bother.


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## mattthemuppet2 (Feb 3, 2014)

finally finished Evie's (Sophie's younger sister). Thought I'd grind a tool for grooving to see if I could get a better finish (less chatter). Turns out I couldn't, but it still looks nice and she's happy with it 






Thought I'd try and be clever (always a mistake) and make the inside bit shorter so that the head would screw on fully. Turns out I made it too short and the head wouldn't screw on enough until I removed an o-ring  Live'n'learn!
Current projects are doing fit'n'finish on a Harbor Freight X-Y vise for my drill press and resurrecting my recently deceased bench grinder


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## wquiles (Feb 3, 2014)

*Live'n'learn!*

Can't tell you how many "learning experiences" I have had like that one.  Keep at it, you get better (and more clever) the more stuff you try out )


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## Rbeckett (Feb 3, 2014)

Eh, 
You wont have to defend yourself here.  We all understand that we take extra special care when kids are in the shop, so don't be shy post up some pics of the daughter having fun helping dad build her a cool light!!!

Bob


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## mattthemuppet2 (Feb 4, 2014)

Rbeckett said:


> Eh,
> You wont have to defend yourself here.  We all understand that we take extra special care when kids are in the shop, so don't be shy post up some pics of the daughter having fun helping dad build her a cool light!!!
> 
> Bob



all right, twist my arm 







I made sure she put her hair in a pony tail after that pic. It was -5C or lower in the garage, so she did really well to stay at it for 1/2h! Both of them are very pleased with their lights and they use them if they need to get up and go to the toilet when it's dark. Hopefully they'll get a lot of use when we go camping in the summer.

Thanks Will, the idea is to make the mistakes now while I can fix them instead of 1/2 way through machining my new helmet light


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## Pmedic828 (Feb 4, 2014)

It is great that you take your time to teach your children the "hows" and "whys" of building something.  I remember as a child, that my dad would scream, throw things, and threaten me with " now do you see what you made me do" when he made a mistake.  I didn't hang around much but instead helped my grandfather with his projects.  He helped me to develop my skills 1 day at a time without ever a negative remark.  I am 60 y/o old and he has since passed away years ago, but I get the feeling that he is still looking over my shoulder.  Keep on keeping on!


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## mattthemuppet2 (Feb 4, 2014)

thank you for the kind words. She's always been that kind of girl from the moment she could focus her eyes. She used to insist on helping me wash the car as soon as she could walk, which made for a funny site in her diaper! My youngest, not so much, she's more of a girly girl, but she's still sharp as a tack. Hopefully with enough support and encouragement they'll end up doing something they love for the rest of their lives.

Plus it gives me a free ticket to play with my toys without taking away from weekend family time  Now I'll just have to see if I can convince Sophie to help with some of my other projects...


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## churchjw (Feb 4, 2014)

Dang heat your shop so the poor girl doesn't have to dress for the arctic.  :roflmao:  Just kidding its cool that she is into working with you.  I have two nieces that are about that age (11 and 9) one likes the shop the other is less interested, but I am trying to bring her around.  Unfortunately they live several states away so I don't get much time with them.  

Jeff


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## mattthemuppet2 (Feb 4, 2014)

ha, that's funny, I'd love to heat my shop  I have a little 1.5kW oil/electric heater in there and I've screened off that end of the garage, but even so, it doesn't make much difference. I just wear more clothes and stuff a hot water bottle up my t-shirt!


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