Do-it-yourself eternal match
Quite often visiting and shopping in hunting and fishing stores, I noticed one interesting thing a long time ago - it’s called a “Gasoline Match”. Or “Eternal Match”, as it is also called... This is what it looks like in the original:
The thing is quite curious, useful and interesting; it must be in the backpack of any tourist, fisherman or hunter. It can be a good help in some force majeure or emergency situation, it is not afraid of rain, will not get damp in the fog and in general, it does not care about any moisture - even if it falls into a puddle, stream, or wet snow. In addition, it is not afraid of any wind, it is almost impossible to extinguish it like an ordinary match, with strokes of the brush (a visual example is in the video at the end of the article). It works on the principle of a gasoline lighter, only here, instead of a rough wheel, there is a chair with sharp edges. Having examined this product in the store more carefully and in detail, I thought, why not make one myself? In fact, nothing complicated - a container of about 3-4 cubic centimeters, a metal tube, a flint and a chair. It’s not that I would be sorry to pay a hundred for it... No.I just got interested - will it be possible or not to make the same one yourself? The most problematic thing was to get a ferrocerium rod (this is a flint like in a lighter, only long). Having visited many sports, fishing, hunting and tourist shops, I somehow found what I needed. It was probably easier to order from an online store, where you can buy this product of any type, size and price... In general, having prepared all the necessary materials and tools, I got down to business.
Will need
- Stainless steel (for the body).
- A metal tube with a diameter of 3-4 millimeters and a length of 4 centimeters.
- Two threads; internal and external (with threads like the nipple system of the wheel cylinder).
- Ferrocerium rod, 2 millimeters in diameter and 5 centimeters long.
- Rubber gasket seal.
- A piece of steel cloth for metal (1-2 centimeters, for a chair).
- Cotton wick.
- A piece of cotton wool for filler (sintepon is possible).
- Scissors.
- Soldering iron, flux and tin.
- Pliers.
- Round nose pliers.
- Ruler.
- Marker.
- Sandpaper.
- Boring machine or emery machine.
Making an eternal gasoline match
First, let's tackle the most time-consuming part of the manufacturing process - the body. When taking measurements, you must be extremely accurate and careful. A small error, even half a millimeter, will result in the container being skewed and crooked. So, first we cut out a blank from stainless steel, a square of 50x50 millimeters.
Next, measure out a strip 1 centimeter wide in the middle, and using a ruler and pliers, bend the edges from the marked strip.
You will get something like this:
Now we cut another strip of tin, 5x1.5 centimeters and bend it lengthwise with pliers.We make a corner of approximately 90 degrees, here accuracy is not so important; if the corner turns out to be sharper or blunt, that’s okay. The corner is needed to place the ferrocerium rod in it.
Next, we heat up the soldering iron and, having previously treated the edges of the workpieces with sandpaper and flux, tin the edges of both workpieces with tin. And we solder both blanks. The point of the corner is inward.
Now let's solder the ends. To do this, apply the soldered workpiece with its end to a piece of sheet metal, mark the edges with a marker, and cut out the lower end wall. Solder it to the main workpiece.
Before soldering all the parts, do not forget to tin the edges of the workpieces, otherwise the container will not be airtight. Now let's take care of the top end. We will have it with an external thread onto which the match-lid will be screwed. We also cut out the end wall from tin, drill a hole in it, the same diameter as the internal diameter of the thread. Solder the thread to the hole in the end wall. Now we solder this threaded end to the main workpiece.
At the end, we remove the sharp corners with a file, the protruding tin protruding outwards and we clean everything with sandpaper. You can also polish it all on felt with goyi paste to make it shine, but I didn’t. I prefer the matte surface of the metal rather than polished to blue - it’s not so easily soiled... Well, the container is ready.
You can check the tightness of the container by screwing it onto the pump hose (their threads are identical) and pumping the pump once, lowering the container into the water. Everything will become extremely clear where and what needs to be soldered. Now let’s make a lid with a “match” soldered into it. Everything is as simple as that: we put the internal thread as evenly as possible on one of the ends of the tube and solder this end of the tube to the center of the thread. Like this:
We process the soldered area with a file and sandpaper, thereby removing excess tin.Next, using a burr machine (or an emery machine), we cut out a small strip from a piece of metal cloth. This will be the chair itself. The strip should be small, but should fit into the tube with force. You can even leave small stops so that the strip of steel does not fall entirely into the tube.
Now we hook the wick on top of this arm and install it in the tube until it fits. It is necessary that the tip of the steel chair sticks out of the tube. We trim the wick.
The match lid is ready. Next, we push the remains of the wick, cotton wool, padding polyester, in general, anything can be done to impregnate it with gasoline, and install a rubber gasket so that gasoline vapors do not evaporate in the future.
Just don’t forget to leave room inside for the match itself. Now we lubricate the inner corner of the container with second glue, and apply a ferrocerium rod to it, wait until it hardens, and fill with gasoline. It is advisable to use a specially cleaned one, for lighters, for better ignition.
There you go. You can use it. Let's hope that we won't have situations where we have to use this thing, but as they say, it's better to have and not need than to need and not have!
Examination
Let's get a match.
We strike.
Burns great.
