I found the Energiser batteries in my USA made Maglite 2-AA cell torch had died and expanded. I got the bottom one out by a violent circular arm swing followed by a short sharp shock, but the one up behind the bulb won't budge. The bulb assembly says "Don't Remove" on it, and I feel I must obey, so I can't poke something through. Has anyone removed a bulb assembly in one of these?
I've thought of poking an old-style gimlet down and trying to extract with that, but it doesn't really have a grippy thread. What I think I need is sort of a self-tapper with a long shaft. A quick gaze around the shed hasn't given any inspiration. Can anyone suggest a suitable tool or process?
On Wed, 9 Sep 2009 17:58:24 +0100, Bill had this to say:
It's quite likely that if the battery has swollen, it's also burst and possibly contaminated the inside of the torch. If this is the case (!) then you've lost nothing by just dismantling as far as possible to check or clean the inside.
Unless they've changed, I used to have one of those circa ten years ago and the seals in them were sufficiently good that it all comes apart and then goes back together again and still remains watertight.
There might be something in that, too. I like Maglites, at least the bigger ones (I've got an incandescent one here that takes two D-cells and an LED one which takes three*), and the cases certainly seem robust, but my little two-AA one that I used to have went through bulbs at an alarming rate.
the light output on the incandescent is *way* better than the LED one, despite the later having more batteries...
Well, I removed the don't remove bit and the bulb, Then pushed, but achieved only slight movement of the bulb holder. Went on to the internet and found lots of info about the bigger Maglites, but nothing confidence building about these smaller ones. Tried poking all sorts of things down from the bulb end, and found a long coach screw for the other end. Then discovered that if you leave the battery of an Aldi drill in the charger and the wife unplugs it, the battery seems to discharge. Both chargers plugged in.
Then, during the forced intermission, climbed on the roof of the shed under orders to pick the damsons. Further to a question I asked here some time back, Onduline cladding on the old felt roof seems fine underfoot and I didn't need to use the offcuts I'd kept as load spreaders.
Then back to the Maglite, drilled hole in bottom of battery, used lathe key handle (nearest thing to suitable I could find) to push and coach screw up the battery to pull, and it all came out.
I've checked the bulb holder and it still seems to work, so all that remains is to improvise a sort of miniature sweeps brush to clear away the slight amount of corrosion in the body of the torch. I can get new batteries in and out, but it's just a bit too tight.
I do have many other torches ready for the winter's political-ineptitude generated power outages. This Maglite has a certain sentimental value and is a nice colour.
Had a similar problem with a 3 D cell Maglite but at least you can strip those down. The corroded area inside the tube I rubbed down with a bit of ali oxide paper on the end of stick.
After a battery leak I'm always concerned about on going corrosion from the chemicals. Assuming an "alkaline" battery what would be a suitable household chemical to neutralise and residue after manual cleaning?
I found a flash gun in the back of a draw the other day. Got the batteries out and the leakage was bone dry powder it had been there so long. I'd like to clean that up a bit, I do find the residue will eat away any flat plate type battery contacts given time.
I recently got a pair of 3w led torches from Tesco (own brand) one was 2xAA batteries, the other the next size up. The one with the larger battery is extremely bright compared with tungsten equivalents. Metal sealed case in each case. They aren't cheap but seem a very good buy.
I'd already thought of that and any other acid as you don't know how much to use so could end up with an acidic residue rather than alkaline.
Idealy the products of reaction with the battery residue need to be neutral and the substance itself neutral. I know bicarbonate of soda would be good for acids but I did organic chemistry to A level so the inorganic side is a bit, erm, hazy...
In the case of my original torch, someone privately suggested that they had got a battery out by squirting WD40 down. I haven't done this, but I was thinking of squirting something down after the internal cleaning. If the batteries are out and the reaction has stopped, isn't all that's needed is a coating to bind the residue and stop further air getting to it.
I was thinking WD40, but lately I've been applying another aerosol that came from a pound shop called something like "sprayable grease". It's like WD40, but leaves a thin layer of grease as a residue. It seems to be grease in an evaporating thin solvent, and I've used it in lots of places recently and it seems to lubricate much more than WD40.
I don't really want to put acid onto a stable ex-reaction and get it over the other unblemished surfaces. Am I wrong?
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