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Scripto piezo lighter w/ onboard fueling problem
Posted: Wed Feb 04, 2009 8:14 pm
by freakishgnome
Alright, so I've been making full size cannons for awhile, but I decided to throw together a mini to piss people off in my dorm. I'm doin' the pill bottle and pen tube configuration, and I took apart a scripto kitchen lighter (the ones with the long stem), making the standard 2 screw sparker system. I took the butane hose (took off the metal ground) and made it connect to my pill bottle. Theoretically this should work with a short burst of butane and a spark, but alas, I haven't gotten it to fire yet. Any suggestions?
Posted: Wed Feb 04, 2009 8:17 pm
by jonnyboy
Your using too much fuel.You'd be surprised how much is too much for something that size. I would try and find a premixed fuel so you can't get the ratio wrong.
Posted: Wed Feb 04, 2009 10:24 pm
by freakishgnome
Is there anything I can get premixed that I could still use on board? I wanna be able to just fill and shoot real quick, then air it out
Posted: Wed Feb 04, 2009 10:26 pm
by jor2daje
With my minis i just do basically the smallest spray I can do and if need be blow into the chamber a little.
Posted: Wed Feb 04, 2009 11:02 pm
by freakishgnome
That's usually the case, but this sucker just refuses to work
Posted: Thu Feb 05, 2009 4:33 pm
by jimmy101
You might take a look at
my popper.
Using a 35mm film canister as the chamber it takes about 3 seconds of fueling (butane lighters supply fuel pretty slowly). You need to wait several seconds after injecting the fuel to let the fuel mix well. Doesn't matter if the ratio is correct, if the fuel isn't well mixed it won't ignite.
Since the fuel supply rate is highly variable between different lighters it'll take several tries to get it to work. Start with one second, then 2, then 4, then 8 ... until it works.
Flush the chamber after every unsuccesful firing. Unsuccesful firings consume fuel and oxygen, so it is likely that even if your second injection gets to the correct amount of fuel you will have used too much of the oxygen in the chamber up on the preceeding ignition attempts.
If you have a small graduated cylinder you can measure the fuel supply rate of the lighter using water displacement. Calculate how much fuel the chamber needs and you should be able to get it to work on about the first try (if you give the fuel time to diffuse before pulling the trigger).