My Home Made Swirl Spotting Torch

Vexorg

I read the home made torch thread on detailing world last year and wanted to make a torch but never came across a cheap drill for the project, so over the weekend while buying some plant pots, I spotted a 12v drill for less than €20 (after 15% discount). I could not remember what additional parts to buy so left with the just the drill (and the plant pots).

A quick read of the DW thread and out with my tool box and reckoned I could modify the drill with a small block connector and an old 12v 20w MR16 Bulb that had been replaced with an LED bulb.


Heres what happened.

Open drill



Cut cable as close to drill motor as possible.



Remove the motor and chuck (all that is left is the trigger mechanism).



Get a small block connector, the smaller the better.



Break the block into 2 individual pieces and trim the edges, so the it can fit on the individual pins of the MR16 bulb.



Trim back the raised edges of the case, the if you pop the MR16 bulb into the top of case you can see where you need to trim back the case.



I wrapped some elastic bands around the case and just kept trimming the raised edge until the bulb was held snug when I pushed it in.

I fitted a 20w halogen and a 5w LED bulb as I has one of each.



Nest step was to trim the cables to expose the internal wires, I carefully trimmed the cables with a sharp blade to expose about 0.5cm of copper wire. I also moved the ferrite rings closer to the drill trigger.



Next fitted the block connectors to the cables.




Then put the block connector directly to the pins of the MR16 bulb.




I then reassembled the case, leaving out the forward reverse button above the trigger as I wanted the wires from the trigger to run forward in the case. This allows the bulb to be pulled out and have the block connectors exposed to try different MR16 bulbs.

Finally some swirl Pics.

In Daylight



With 20W Halogen





The Halogen seems to give better results than the LED.



If I can get my hands on higher wattage halogens and cluster SMD LEDs I will add some more pics.

With the 20w halogen, it can get quite hot after about 2 minutes continuous use, no smell of burning and when I checked the connections and cables all seemed good. With a higher wattage bulb there will be more heat, so it may need a ceramic bulb holder rather than block connectors direct to the bulb base.

So for less than €20, not a bad way to kill an hour on a bank holiday Monday. Only problem is I can see more swirls and need to find time to do a bit of paint correction. Dam you swirl spotter, dam you to hell....

randy hickey

Nice work there Vexorg.

Just to put the saving into context, the 3M Sun Gun II retails for the equivalent of around €580!

Vexorg

Thanks.

Now if only there was a similar work around for a paint/coating thickness gauge....

Curran

The LED will be WAY easier on the battery....the halogen will drain the batter quite quickly!! Changed one to the LED for doing quick inspections and had another with the Halogen for doing final checks.
Its actually good to also have different coloured light for inspecting paintwork also, as different colours of paint react differently to light.

Ded_Zebra

That's an awesome job!!!

Any link to the drill you used? or where you got it?:)

Vexorg

Got it in homebase - Link to homebase UK