The Storacell AA-AAA Combo Caddy they gave me was BLACK. I was thinking it was either yellow or orange like the AA and AAA caddies I bought. Seeing as it's not the same color as either one, I'll know at a glance it's the combo caddy.
The Sniper Hog Lights 18650 to 21700 battery adapter they sent me wouldn't work in any of my 3 21700 flashlights. I tried 4 brands of batteries in one and it still didn't work. The description of the adaptor said that it had a spring in it but it didn't. They said that was the old model and what they sent me was the new model. Maybe that's why it was red instead of black like the picture. They changed the description after that, and sent me one of the old versions with a spring in it for free. It's black like the one in the picture. I tried it in all 3 of my flashlights and it didn't work in any of them. Then I put the bottom of the battery into the adaptor so the - was at the + end. I put it in upside down so the polarity was right and it worked in all 3 lights. The button on the top of the batteries didn't seem to make contact with the adaptor in any of my flashlights, or else the adaptor didn't make contact in the flashlights, but with the adaptor turned around it made good contact. I ordered a Thyrm CellVault-21 Battery Storage for 21700 batteries and will put the adaptor with an 18650 battery in it. Then I can use it in any of my18650 or 21700 flashlights. I'll take the 18650 out of my CellVault XL and have Tinder-Quik Fire Tabs like the one in the bottom of my PyroVault 2.0 Lighter Armor take up the extra room. Amazon just delivered a 50 Pack of them a little while ago. I have another PyroVault 2.0 Lighter Armor for another Zippo on order. The one for liquid fuel and one for butane will be different tactical colors.
While I was waiting for the new (old) adaptor to come in the mail, I tried fixing the old (new) one. I was planning on drilling out the button on to of the adaptor and putting a small machine screw with a nut through a small hole. I gave it a little tap with a center punch and it fell out on the floor. I still haven't found it. Now there was big hole, so I dropped a flanged bolt inside it. It wasn't a regular machine screw, it was a self tapping bolt, and I think it had metric threads. The head was so thick I knew it didn't need a nut on the outside too. So I found a toothed washer with the teeth on the inside and forced it over the bolt. I kept hammering away until it was down as far as it could go. Instead of cutting the bolt off flush, I decided to just grind it off. The bench grinder was barely doing anything because the steel was so hard. So I started using my angle grinder. It already had a sanding disc in it so I used that instead of a cutting or grinding wheel. The sanding discs usually take metal off pretty fast, but not this time. I kept at it until it was ground flush with the washer. It got so hot I dunked it in water a couple times, but it melted the top of the adaptor anyway. I dried it off and put it in one of my flashlights and it was too long.
I gave up on it and cut the top clean off. I used it in one of my cheap tactical lights that uses a plastic sleeve with an 18650 battery if you aren't using the battery holder with 3 AAA batteries. One of these was missing the plastic sleeve and I had a piece of cardboard from a cereal box rolled up in there as a spacer. It turns out that a 21700 battery will also fit in these 2 lights if I don't use the spacer. It compresses the springs an extra 5mm but it works. I also made a cardboard sleeve to hold 2 CR123A batteries snugly in the flashlight. Two of them are only 2mm shorter than a 21700 battery, 21x70mm. They're 16x34mm, and 2 x 34 = 68mm. There's more than a 2mm variation in different brands of batteries, so the spring contacts allow for that. Since that makes 6 volts instead of the 3.7 volts of an 18650 battery it's A LOT brighter. Oddly enough, the 4.5 volt AAA battery packs never seemed any brighter to me than an 18650. It probably depends on how good the batteries are. Anyway, if I didn't already have a bunch of 18650 batteries I would run a pair of 123As in these flashlights. If it eventually burns them out, no biggie since the cheap lights all break somewhere down the line. One of mine is an itek tactical flashlight and the other is a Seal Torch 2000 tactical flashlight. The only difference is that the latter is 1/8" longer than the former. They come in dozens of brands, and if you want them to shine bright, you can forget about using 3 AAA batteries or an1860, and use 2 123 batteries instead. You just need a sleeve to keep the 16mm batteries centered in the 21mm hole. A piece of plastic tubing would be great if you found some the right size. My small "tactical flashlight" is similar in style but uses a single AA battery.
https://sniperhoglights.com/18650-to-21700-battery-adapter/
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Topic: Battery Storage -- THYRM CellVaults and Storacell Caddies (Read 2492 times)