- Joined
- Jan 4, 2011
- Messages
- 110
- Points
- 18
So, about a year and a half ago I ordered a 100mW WL E3. Now, this was before I had heard of LPF and I just wanted a nice laser. Of course, the laser took almost 6 months to arrive after numerous my attempts to contact WL, however I was happy with the quality of the laser and the glasses that I got with it. But enough about WL...
Being an idiot, about a month ago, I dropped the laser and the button popped out. No damage anywhere else except a MINOR dent in the very front of the laser. Being even more idiotic, I attempted to put a drop of glue on the momentary switch and press the button back in. So as you would imagine I had a laser that was permanently on if batteries were installed....
I figured that I would rather have a toggle switch instead of momentary on my laser anyway, so I started taking the tail cap apart to see how easily I could take the host apart. Sure enough there were 4 screws that connected the case to the batteries. The whole inner plastic frame came out. Also there was a removable pin that could disable the laser from being used (I suppose for safety when letting others check it out?). I cut the metal pin part off of the cap and super glued it into place to make the tail cap completely hollow. You can see the back off of the pin with the ridges on the right side of the tail cap.
I got a small switch from Radio Shack and soldiered the pins to some wire. I screwed the red lead into the threadingwhich is the case lead. (The threads that I used are also in the above pic surrounding the center pin)
The blue lead is forced between the center pin in the bottom and a plastic ring to insulate them.
^^^The cylindrical black plastic on the right side was inside of the tail cap originally.
I also covered the top of the blue wire with thermal glue after I took this pic to insulate the top of that pin.
So I screwed the cap down before fastening the hex nut on the top so that the switch didn't have to rotate at all. This worked perfectly
After screwing the hex nut down this is what I got.
And here is the final product.
Now you may be wondering... Why are there strips of electrical tape on the front?
For style!... and to hide the glued in button...
The led still works though and of course I left it uncovered.
Overall, I was satisfied with my repair!
Being relatively new at the hobby I still have lots of room for improvement with my precision. Hahaha.
This is also the first time that I've uploaded pics or written anything other than a reply here at LPF, so I would love to hear any constructive criticism or any other comments at all!
Hope y'all enjoyed!
EDIT:
So here is a beamshot too.
Being an idiot, about a month ago, I dropped the laser and the button popped out. No damage anywhere else except a MINOR dent in the very front of the laser. Being even more idiotic, I attempted to put a drop of glue on the momentary switch and press the button back in. So as you would imagine I had a laser that was permanently on if batteries were installed....
I figured that I would rather have a toggle switch instead of momentary on my laser anyway, so I started taking the tail cap apart to see how easily I could take the host apart. Sure enough there were 4 screws that connected the case to the batteries. The whole inner plastic frame came out. Also there was a removable pin that could disable the laser from being used (I suppose for safety when letting others check it out?). I cut the metal pin part off of the cap and super glued it into place to make the tail cap completely hollow. You can see the back off of the pin with the ridges on the right side of the tail cap.
I got a small switch from Radio Shack and soldiered the pins to some wire. I screwed the red lead into the threadingwhich is the case lead. (The threads that I used are also in the above pic surrounding the center pin)
The blue lead is forced between the center pin in the bottom and a plastic ring to insulate them.
^^^The cylindrical black plastic on the right side was inside of the tail cap originally.
I also covered the top of the blue wire with thermal glue after I took this pic to insulate the top of that pin.
So I screwed the cap down before fastening the hex nut on the top so that the switch didn't have to rotate at all. This worked perfectly
After screwing the hex nut down this is what I got.
And here is the final product.
Now you may be wondering... Why are there strips of electrical tape on the front?
For style!... and to hide the glued in button...
The led still works though and of course I left it uncovered.
Overall, I was satisfied with my repair!
Being relatively new at the hobby I still have lots of room for improvement with my precision. Hahaha.
This is also the first time that I've uploaded pics or written anything other than a reply here at LPF, so I would love to hear any constructive criticism or any other comments at all!
Hope y'all enjoyed!
EDIT:
So here is a beamshot too.
Attachments
Last edited:
Even as crappy as WL's customer service can be --- they sent me a new endcap for free when mine died. 
Still could be worth a try! Nothing wrong with having two endcaps!