Homemade Weapons

[Liver Punch]

The smashlight attachment has been officially submitted to the professionals. We'll see what sort of responses we get.

Edit: It's looking like a little bit of lathe time and an appropriately sized steel ball will be the way to go. Outlook is positive.

[Liver Punch]

Update: I've found someone who can do this at a fairly reasonable price. He is currently about 3 weeks behind on work, but I have been in contact with him and submitted a drawing of what the final product would look like. It's looking like early to mid-august should give us a working prototype. I've increased the size of the attachment to a full 3" so aluminum might be the final choice for it, I'm still on the fence on that. That aside, it's just a matter of waiting now.

Edit: With the 20% increase in size, Steel would now weigh 2.766 lbs, and aluminum would weigh .96 lbs. If anyone has any input about which would be more combative efficient...I'm all ears.

2nd Edit: A fair amount of this is going to be machined off, so the initial weight of the ball is irrelevant outside of calculating final weight. I'm guesstimating that about 25% of the sphere's volume will be removed. That would give us about 2.075 lbs. if made out of steel. The original weight of a 2.5" steel ball was 2.32 lbs, so with final machining, we will be under that weight. Aluminum would weight somewhere around .75 lbs. after machined. I'm still open to suggestions on that particular part of the project.

3rd Edit: For anyone remotely curious about that this is going to end up looking like, this is a link to the schematic that I sent the machinist. I took all the measurements from the stock flashlight cap with a dial caliper and micrometer. I've maintained the maglite company tolerances, thread count, and retained the open space where the o-ring goes. This should allow everything to function as it would stock - with a proper fit and water tightness.

http://i463.photobucket.com/albums/qq357/gdiel1/Print.png

[Groinstrike]

Awesome, we need to get the Bujin challenge coordinated to coincide with the release of the prototype.

[Liver Punch]

I completely agree. Here is a very rough idea of what the final product might look like.

http://i463.photobucket.com/albums/qq357/gdiel1/Prototype2.jpg

[tallgeese]

So.....Happy.....

[Liver Punch]

Alright, I am in the process of acquiring two mild steel 3" balls from a supplier in England. They are "grinding balls" that are used in a ball mill, and because they do not have to fit a precision device, this will knock down significantly from the large ball-bearings I had intended to use. I've got some photos of some very cool maglite work that the machinists I've been in contact with have done. I'll post them later - I plan on buying an item or two, and I think Tallgeese will be pretty happy about the uses some of them might offer.

[JusticeZero]

My main concern with this idea is that it will look substantially more like a weapon than a tool after finishing. I'd almost think that going up to the 6 cell mag, stepping the bulb down to a 3 or 4 cell version, and replacing two or three batteries with a tight fitting, snug steel rod with an end cap that looks stock might be a better move. That way, you have a flashlight that would pass visual inspection as "just a flashlight", that happens to have substantially more heft and durability to it than the norm. One could even do that by making an extension to a small light that mimics the shaft.

[Liver Punch]

My main concern with this idea is that it will look substantially more like a weapon than a tool after finishing. I'd almost think that going up to the 6 cell mag, stepping the bulb down to a 3 or 4 cell version, and replacing two or three batteries with a tight fitting, snug steel rod with an end cap that looks stock might be a better move. That way, you have a flashlight that would pass visual inspection as "just a flashlight", that happens to have substantially more heft and durability to it than the norm. One could even do that by making an extension to a small light that mimics the shaft.

I completely agree. If this were for myself, I would have the machinist cut a new flashlight shaft out of steel and then powdercoat it. This would give me a flashlight that was more than three-times as heavy as a stock one. I would then fill it with the heaviest batteries possible (because when a battery contains lead for example, it's heavier than an equal sized piece of steel.)

The end result would be something that was a maglite in appearance, but would weight several pounds, and certainly pass visual inspection.

However, we're dealing with a group of people who frequently travel with guns and build giant un-wieldy spears, flails, and other ridiculousness. It's a matter of building a flashlight with a ball hitch on top of it (for whatever reason). We'll build something concealable later...

[tallgeese]

Yes, it does fit a certain niche market. Justice, you're logic is sound; however, this thing has pretty much been designed for weapons purposes from the get go. No use making it anything else.

Now, you're concept has great merit. I've spent enough time in tactical catalogs to make this work out best for all of us:

Step 1) Market the Smash Lite as pictured above. Capitalized on the uber-cool factor.

Step 2) Then release the Smash Lite, Model C (for concealed). This is obviously for those people what want to be armed but not looked armed.

Step 3) Wait till the demand slacks and release the Smash Lite and Smash Lite, Model C in a Tactical Line. This means you'll have both a Tactical Smash Lite and a Tactical Smash Lite, Model C. The only real difference in the two lines is that these will both be painted completely flat black and come with a lanyard.

Step 4) We release first the Smash Lite and then the Smash Lite C (because by now people will just drop the model and call it the "C") with one of the high end strobe lights that has flooded the light market lately. This will wreck your vision just as much as the bad guys, but people will buy them by the boat load anyway. This will be the Smash Lite, Model X and the Smash Lite Model CX. Why? Because "X" is cool. Marketing note, of course you'll release the tactical line with these options as well. Now you can really get wordy in a catalog or stack on more endless letter combinations. Nothing ensures more SWAT geeks will by your product.

Now that we've established a Smash Lite empire, it's time to market accessories. Everything from light filters for the caps to belt holsters with more retention mechanisms than the one for my gun.

By the time the zombies invade, we won't have to use our Smash Lites, we'll just need to fly to our private island, probably near the Blackhawk and 5-11 principalities, and wait out the undead out in blissful, well-lit, peace.

[MasterPain]

I was thinking about that guard pass that I invented, grrrrr... And then googled smashlight. The name is trademarked for a flat flashlight. Smash Lite isn't, but it is similar enough that they could stand a chance with a lawsuit.