Late 1940's / Early 1950's Zippo Restoration

Taking a break from all the DIY-heavy home improvement projects, I found this rusted out Zippo lighter at a flea market.

I've always been a fan of Zippos, their style (and that unique sound) is incredibly iconic, so I figured I'd have a crack at restoring it.

Plus I still have a bunch of spares left over from the trench lighter project I did a while back.

Before starting, I did some research to try and put a date on the lighter, just in case it was something super-rare.

 

 

 

 

The first thing to so is to check the stamp at the bottom of the case:

According to the table provided by Zippo themselves, based on the logo type and the patent number, this lighter was manufactured in the 1937-1950 date range.

Digging through some other online resources, I found that it could be dated further by the chimneys number of holes, and the pattern of the flint wheel.

Depending on the source, the chimney having 8 holes per side dates it as being from late 1946 or 1947 onward.

The diagonal-cut flint wheel puts it also at 1946 onward.

Finally, the hinge (again, depending on the source), puts it at either 1948 or 49 onward

So between all that, it looks most likely that this lighter was produced between 1948-1950.

It's pretty cool to know the lighter has some history to it, but it doesn't make it a massively rare artefact.

Removing the rust

The rust on one side in particular was quite thick. To remove it I started with a small rotary tool wire wheel, then moved to some high-grit sanding discs, before some wet and dry sanding by hand to even out some scratches, finally finishing up with a number of passes with the buffing wheel and polishing compound.

As much as I am trying to preserve the original chromed finish, it was clear even before starting that it had worn through in places - I was merely trying to not make it any worse.

However with that lot done, although it's not exactly 'showroom' quality, the lighter has it's shine back, but retains a lot of it's characterful aging which suits it's age.

Flints & Wicks

The obvious thing to note is that it's not functional. To start with, there was no flint to make a spark. Thankfully the flint spring was still there, so adding one of my spares was all it took to get it sparking again.

The wick had been worn down to nearly nothing as well. I thought that I would likely need to replace it, so had a spare to hand, but it appears as though there was still plenty of wick remaining to pull through. It's quite possibly that the previous owner just never knew to do this - or had lost the flint before it was an issue.

Then all that was left was to add fuel, and:

Fire Pit/BBQ Patio Area - Part 2 - The Reality

The plan for the firepit was scuppered by unavailability of materials due to Covid, so we had to rewind and reformulate the plan.

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For the most part, the patio plan came together well, but we had use more slabs from the shed side for the base layer than we thought, because the greenhouse itself was cemented into the ground by metal supports, and not sat on a slab base as initially thought.

This in turn meant we were two slabs shy of what we needed, but we were able to source some that were close enough in appearance.

 

When it came to placing the concrete blocks, we realised we could use fewer than estimated by spacing them out differently, which gave us a spare at the end. It also allowed for us to dispose of hard rubble by using as filler between the blocks, and also allowed us to create airflow from the back of the patio to the firepit, which should help aid combustion.

 

When researching the best materials to use in a fire pit, a few things became obvious.

• Don't use river rocks. They will likely contain moisture, which when heated, will cause steam, resulting in the rocks exploding. 

• Regardless of whichever other material you consider, you will find some articles and advice saying it's a good material to use, and an equal number saying it's not.

• One constant in advice advocating against any material is how it will degrade over time with the heat from the fire.

Therefore it seemed to me that the best course of action would be to use a material that is hard-wearing, but also fairly cheap and readily available, so that if the internet pessimists turn out to be right, it can easily be replaced.

For that reason I chose regular house brick as the lining wall. This wall should take the brunt of the heat, meaning I could use a more decorative stone for the outside.

A mix of brick sizes was used for the outer wall, both for aesthetic effect and it also helped fit the available space better.

The wall was topped off with white coping slabs with a mitre. The inner wall sticks out slightly from the coping, giving it a 'lip'. This is by design and will feed into a later project.

The finished patio and firepit. Still a few finishing touches to do, but perfectly usable as it is.

It wouldn't be a post about a firepit unless there was picture of some flames, would it?

Fire Pit/BBQ Patio Area - Part 1 - The Plan

I'm fortunate to have a great view over some fields at the bottom of my garden, and I plan to create a patio/barbecue/fire pit area so that I can make the most of it.

At risk of this becoming just another home improvement blog, I have set myself an additional challenge to differentiate it from all the other "I built a firepit in my backyard" projects all over the internet.

The challenge I have set myself with this project is to aim for 'zero-ish waste'. That is, there's inevitably going to be some waste, but to minimise it to the extent that there's no skip or trip to the dump required - to keep the waste minimal enough that it will go in the regular household bin collections. That means lots of re-purposing and re-using of what's already there - stuff that was left behind by the previous owners.

The fence that is currently at the bottom of the garden is in good condition, so I don't intend to remove or replace that, however at sitting-level, it's just high enough that it blocks the view. So the plan is to create a raised patio, so that eye-level when sat down is not obstructed.

Being a large household project, it was more important than ever for me to be able to communicate the project idea and plan to my partner, so I spent some time planning it out in OpenSCAD, to produce this 1 min animation.

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The groundwork

The area that the patio will occupy originally contains a greenhouse, and some slabs that have been laid around it.

This will create a solid base without the need to dig foundations.

Fortunately, the slabs are all an even 60x60cm (or 2x2ft), which makes a convenient grid from which to base the design and measurements.

The plan is to leave the right-most column empty, where a planter will be put. The slab in the left-most, plus two slabs from the other side of the garden where the shed is, will be used to square-off the corner, effectively making a 6x4 square patio (12x8ft)

With this solid base created, concrete blocks will be placed to raise the new patio. Gaps will be left between the blocks to minimise the number that we need, with the space filled with any rubble left over from the build.

Slabs taken again from the other side of the garden (they are currently a base for the shed), will be moved over and concreted on top of the concrete blocks to create the raised patio.

 

Finally, the firepit rings are a purchased kit (sold as quarter circles). We will adapt them slightly so so that the circular wall sits at both ground level and on the patio. 

 

Unfortunately there was an unforeseen obstacle in the the fire-pit kit we were going to use was on a lengthy back-order, and we'd be unlikely to get one this year.

But still, the plan makes a good jumping-off point for a new plan.

To be continued...

 

 

 

 

Metro 2033 inspired "Trench" lighter pt 2

In my last post I got the design and cap sorted for the trench lighter.

Sneak preview of the finished lighter

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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

Metro 2033 inspired "Trench" lighter

In Metro 2033 the main character, Artyom, carries a lighter fashioned from a bullet that can be used to light the way in dark areas and burn away obstacles such as cobwebs:

At a local country show I found an army surplus stand selling brass cartridge cases and saw an opportunity to make Artyoms lighter for real.

There is some real world history to this style of lighter. Known as a Trench lighter, items like this were quite common amongst troops in the trenches of the first World War, and relates to a wider concept of "Trench Art".

The case, I'm not sure what it's from.
It's approx .50" diameter at the neck,
but has stamp "SB 13"
 It seems too short to be a
standard .50 calibre round.

So with the case sorted, the next things to consider are:

• Cap/means of extinguishing the flame
• Wick
• Fuelling & refuelling.
• Ignition

Cap

I wanted to keep the lid of the lighter as a bullet style like in the game, but firearms law and lead content make the idea of using a real one infeasible and undesirable.

Instead I opted to grind the end of a copper bar down to a bullet shape, and hollow the inside slightly to make a cap.

The rounded copper bar.

Creating a hinge for the cap
The next stage is to create a hinge. A copper pipe clip was wrapped around the base of the cap, and secured with Araldite.

A second pipe clip was bent into a 'P' Shape and a bolt used to create the hinge (see gif below)

To attach this to the case, a brass olive from a pipe compression fitting (see pic.) was placed around the neck of the case, and the bottom half of the hinge was squeezed between it can the case to provide a frictional fit for now - it would later be further secured with epoxy.

Part two continues here