Vintage ronson lighter and cigarette case

#Vintage ronson lighter and cigarette case how to#

I have had many lighters that I beat my head against the wall that was that particular obstructed flint tube for so long and literally gave up so many times that I didnвЂ™t think IвЂ™d ever clear it and then out of thin air one day, I just broke through. Something about the way the flint gets stuck in those aluminum inserts, I swear it feels like the hardest thing on the planet. The worst to me, seem to be the old Park Industries aluminum insert lighters. Other times, you might as well forget about it, there are some tubes that youвЂ™re just not going to clear. If the 5/64 bit breaks through, then the bigger 3/32 bit will likely chew through the rest without much effort. This smaller bit may have a tendency to break up the bigger mass of the flint better than the bigger bit. If the obstruction is neither immediately cleared nor good progress observed, then hit it with the smaller 5/64 drill bit. Canned air or a compressor will come in handy to blow the old flint dust from the lighter. Hit it with the 3/32 first and a good portion of the time that will be the only work required to clear that tube, lickety-split. So, I typically have the two drill bits ready, a 3/32 and a 5/64. With straight flint tube lighters, you are more likely to be able to get by with a cheaper drill that accepts hex-shanked drill bits rather than a drill with an actual chuck like you will need for the curved tube method of clearing flint tubes. Straight Flint Tube, Zippo, Insert TypeДЄs with most things in life, the more straightforward a problem appears the simpler the solution required.

#Vintage ronson lighter and cigarette case how to#

If it is a piezoelectric lighter you are trying to repair then please skip down to that section, otherwise keep reading to learn how to repair vintage cigarette lighters that wonвЂ™t spark. If you can not seem to find a flint or file wheel and the action of activating the lighter is more of a вЂњclickвЂќ of a button than the striking of a wheel, then it is probably a piezoelectric ignition. If it is offset then you are likely dealing with a curved flint tube. If it is straight up and down, then your flint tube should be straight.

Are these two points on a straight line from top to bottom of the lighter or are they offset from each other to one side or another? Next find the screw on the bottom of the lighter that retains the flint and flint spring. Look at the top of the lighter and determine where the flint meets the file wheel. So, how do you know the difference? ItвЂ™s really just basic logic. This is a bit of an oversimplification and I will provide some clarification later in the article but the categories should suffice here. For the purposes of this article, I am going to break flint ignited lighters down into two categories: straight flint tube and curved flint tube. If the lighter in question will not spark, first on your to-do list is determining the source from which the lighter should produce a spark and whether it was designed to be renewed when failure occurs.ДЇor most vintage cigarette lighters that people collect, flint(or auermetal) ground against a file wheel produces the spark needed to ignite the flame. If you need help disassembling and reassembling an Evans TRIG-A-LITE mechanism, this video will be helpful: If you are looking for help clearing an obstruction in a curved flint tube lighter, the following video may be a shortcut to your solution.вњЊпёЏ

None of them are foolproof and I have encountered more obstructed flint tubes than I care to recall that forced me to admit defeat.) Some of these techniques I learned elsewhere and some I developed on my own. (Full Disclosure: clearing old, degraded, sometimes petrified flint from old lighters is without question my least favorite part of the job. In this article, I will cover the main issues associated with vintage petrol lighters that fail to ignite and a few common techniques that will help to get most lighters functioning again. Whether you have inherited a family heirloom, hit the jackpot at the flea market or perhaps landed that lighter of a lifetime on Ebay, if it wonвЂ™t spark you may have your work cut out for you before you are able to light your bowl with it.