A few years ago, I bought a very cool little keychain flashlight called a Veleno Designs Quantum D2. Great little light, with infinitely variable output and super small, perfect for keychain carry. That little light has banged and bumped around with my keys for three years and it has a pair of the exact same size 1.5mm x 6mm tritium vials, mounted in the same fashion as I designed into the Atomic Ray Gun Bead. It’s been very robust and I haven’t yet lost a vial so it seemed like a solid approach for the bead.
My own Veleno has the vials installed by simply dropping a dab of Norland 61 at the top of the vial where it sits flush with the outer surface of the flashlight. The method outlined in the video below is without question more secure and at $7/vial x 12, probably worth doing for the negligible difference in Norland epoxy required. The stuff dries completely clear so if you get a little extra somewhere it’s really not an issue.
Rather than re-creating a how-to for this whole thing, the Oracle of Google showed me that fellow EDC enthusiast Nico (ClusterFlux on USN, @zendemic on Instagram) created a YouTube video a few years ago that gives you the full walk-through on how to do exactly this kind of trit vial installation, with exactly the same size vial into the same kind of arrangement:
Nico’s video is very easy to follow and I recommend it highly to those wishing to install trit vials into their Atomic Ray Guns for the full Atomic experience. Beyond the instructions you’ll need two things: Some form of epoxy (your choice, I recommend Norland Optical Adhesive 61 or “NOA 61”) and some 1.5mm x 6mm trit vials.
You can easily source the Norland via eBay or the flashlight enthusiast sites. You only need a tiny bit to do many beads, so you should be able to find a perfect small quantity for well under $10. A quick look at eBay shows a Top Rated seller called “acme_gp” selling it for $6 a mL. I bought a similar quantity some years ago and have done many beads and flashlights with that tiny amount.
For the vials, I suggest contacting Daniel at www.mixglo.com or checking with the various flashlight forums. I have had excellent customer service and assistance from Daniel on other projects and the prices at MixGlo are very competitive.
Whether you choose to install vials in the Atomic Ray Gun or simply use/carry it as-is, I hope you have fun! There are plenty more designs and materials in the works, so keep an eye on my Instagram feed @mstheiner and on the website here for info as things progress.