Sneak preview of the finished lighter
Wick & Fuelling
Most refillable lighters such as the Zippo refill from the bottom, but I didn't want to make unnecessary modifications to the case itself, so I decided to create a removable wick mechanism that would allow the neck to also be used for fuelling.
To do this I needed to create a screw thread in the neck.I started with this, and using a grinder rounded off the outside diameter until it sit snug in the neck. Finally added some solder to secure it in place.
Then I took this F-F coaxial (satellite cable) adapter, and drilled out the plastic middle, leaving a hollow tube with threads on the outside that fit the lighter.Some wool strands twisted together to create a wick and pulled through this creates the removable wick.
Also at this point I filled the lighter with some wool padding to for the lighter fuel to soak into.
This just leaves the ignition source.
Ignition
I still have the inner components of the lighter that I used for the screwdriver bit holder. The flint is long gone, but the wheel could still be useful, so I pulled it apart and took that. There was also a spring that is used to press the flint to the wheel, so I scavenged that too.The assembly was constructed from a piece of a picture hook, which was widened to accept the width of the flint wheel.
A small hole was drilled and a hollow copper tube attached to the bottom, where the flint and spring was placed, and held in place with a small screw. (see below GIF for clearer explanation)
This assembly was fixed in place using another plumbing olive around the neck of the cartridge and secured again with epoxy.
The lighter in action
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