I was gifted a keychain light for Christmas 2022 & noticed it was made of ABS, at least the front & back shell parts. I looked up the product online using the paper instruction included in the box & learned about COB chip on board LED lighting technology. This 110 lumen flashlight operates on 4.5v from 3 super heavy-duty Zinc Chloride batteries included with it! I decided to custom paint it & upgrade it with glow power right away!
I removed the back case & then used my pocket knife to remove the front case, lens & button.
The inner shell made of dark grey plastic & houses the 3 AAA cells & nickel plated steel battery spring contacts, COB assembly on the LED driver circuit & spring-contact controller switch.
One click to full bright, another click to dim, one more click to strobe, a final click turns the unit off.
I bent some baling wire into a mount to hold the front & back case parts, using pliers & fitted the holder to the shell parts so that it could hold the parts even if the holder held upside down.
I then lightly sanded the ABS shell parts with 220 grit sand paper & wiped it down with acetone on paper towel & let them dry. I primed them with ABS primer, then painted them with "Montana Gold, NC ACRYLIC, Poison Light Poison pale ve ne mo claro CL6310".
After several very light coats from different angles, I let it cure overnight. The next mooring I used 220 grid to sand down imperfections & smooth out the finish. I quick wipe with a damp paper towel & dried. Then another few light coats of paint from several angles. I used different heating methods to boil the paint solvent away faster, then applied a polyurethane flat crystal clear KRYLON COLORMAXX protective finish from 3 angles as light coats. I then cured the finial layers by placing the mounted shells near a radiant oil filled space heater until the VOC emission rate radically reduced & the finish was hard enough to handle. Further heating to a near perfect cure level.
While the paint was drying, I took some Europium UltraGlow powder in a creased piece of paper & gently dusted the inside surface of the COB protective lens, then dripped 3 drops of TESTORS Glosscoate Top Coat lacquer optically clear bond the glow-in the dark powder. I moved the lens around to distribute the glow powder towards the outer edges of the rectangle, so the COB LED's near the center would be able to transmit better through the lens while also energizing the glow powder.
This means there is a 30+ hour after glow after the light is turned off. After the lens powder & gloss-coating was dry, I installed it upside down into the front case part, then dropped the button into place. I snapped the body containing the COB assembling, mid frame & batteries into the front cover. I then snapped the back cover onto the mid frame completing the assembly. I tested the light & its glow function & demoed it for my wife Meg :) She said it was a cool upgrade to the OEM state :)
Few people would do a 5 stage painting process for such a cheap device, but I enjoyed customizing mine with my favorite color, high performance glow-in-the-dark powder from United Nuclear. I enjoy customizing stuff. I recently added glow powder to 2 part epoxy & upgraded a Fenix E16 EDC flashlight with 4 glow in the dark accents near the light emission end to make it easier to find the flashlight in the dark.
This kind of sand, primer, paint, sand, paint, clear coat on ABS makes a durable chip resistant finish of near automotive quality that will hold up well over time. I call this an imperial upgrade because of the time & effort invested, something that transcends the value of the device, or even its function. It turns it into a work of art & that gives me a special spark of joy every time I interact with it, knowing that I put some of my heart & soul into it! It's now a reflection of me in a tiny way & also gives photon output to light the way on dark days ahead while I am still alive & not dead :) Cheers friends!
Meg was gifted one of these keychain lights too, & wanted me to improve it. I started by carefully taking it apart with a pocket knife, to remove the font cover, rear cover, button & lens cover.
Have a look at the Super Heavy Duty Zinc Chloride Batteries that came with the unit, obviously a Chinese device made in China given the batteries manufacturer & address.
I took some of the United Nuclear Europium UltraGlow Glow Powder & sprinkled it into the inside of the lens, then used a q-tip to move some of the powder out of the way of the COB chips, so they would still charge the powder when on while still allowing more light to exit the lens for general purpose illumination.
Using 150 grit & 220 grid sandpaper, it took me about 30 minutes of hand sanding actions to remove all the purple paint & to produce a flat white appearance in the ABS :) Much better
The sanded flat white appearance mades a nice combination with the purple inner fame border that appears as an accent color stripe on the finished unit :) Meg really likes it!
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