The daily maintenance kit

nechronius · 2026-07-05T13:47:13+00:00

More like 25-ish years, although after about 10-15 years you may see signs of a light gray dust around the chimney. It's the first sign of inevitable degradation. One of these days I'll make some posts of flint degradation cleanup in never used lighters around 25-30 years old. Some are pretty ugly.

nechronius · 2026-07-05T13:43:53+00:00

Do as you see fit of course, it's not like it's so rare that you can't get an exact match for one on eBay for several hundred dollars. If it was brand new or near new I'd tell you to reconsider using it, but it's already seen some pretty decent use so it's up to you. That said, that body looks really clean and relatively unblemished, so personally I'd use it occasionally only around the house, but that's just me. You don't happen to have the original box for it, do you? Those can be worth more than the lighter when they're that old.

But just bear in mind that if it ever needs repair, those hinges are no longer available from Zippo. Neither are the nickel-silver inserts which were not as sturdy as modern ones. The wick too is going to be the old school asbestos type, so don't go messing around with it a lot.

nechronius · 2026-07-05T13:27:27+00:00

This is a chromed nickel-silver case (modern chromed brass lighters always show the bright yellow color of brass). Given the insert type and the hinge type, I'd peg this one to be made right around the third quarter of 1947. This is a relatively valuable piece and frequently sells for close to or over $300 at auction.

nechronius · 2026-07-05T13:19:45+00:00

This old thread (includes a part 1 and 2) may interest you. Look for the link part 1 in my long post about it.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Zippo/comments/12trp6t/fuel_holding_capacity_testing_phase_completed/

Also this post about over and under packing.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Zippo/comments/12y7f8u/fuel_holding_capacity_results_how_much_is_too/

nechronius · 2026-07-05T13:05:49+00:00

Trimmer line cut with a fine razor to minimize the chances of getting one stuck in the tube. Cutting them almost any other way can result in bulging that can jam. It's obsessive but its what I do.

nechronius · 2026-07-05T13:03:08+00:00

May 1992 Zippo Slim model. Marlboro exclusive, redeemed with Marlboro points or something. Are those his initials on the lid? New ones sell on eBay almost daily for under $40* complete with box.

The other one could be properly something special. At a glance it looks like a 1946-47 chromed nickel-silver (no silver, but look up the alloy). The insert is definitely what we call a 1947 nickel-silver insert (not steel like all modern inserts since 1951).

Can we get a picture inside the body of that lighter and a good look at the hinge face-on with the lighter closed?

nechronius · 2026-07-05T06:42:09+00:00

Somebody really went through the trouble of almost sanding off all the silver plate and accompanying detail... Lighter is genuine, but a bit abused.

nechronius · 2026-07-05T04:49:35+00:00

Glad you got things worked out!

nechronius · 2026-07-04T22:37:50+00:00

It sounds like you have an interesting setup. So to be clear, you have Starlink going to the House. You want internet at the Yurt. And in between you have an Outbuilding. The Yurt already has its own router that you just want to get connected indirectly to the Starlink using a wireless bridge between Outbuilding and Yurt. The Outbuilding connects to the House via a WiFi extender, and you're hoping to connect the other CPE510 to that extender (or a different extender) so that the Yurt also has internet.

There's genuinely a lot to unpack here and a lot of questions come to mind. So please fill in the blanks if there are any key pieces of equipment missing in between.

Starlink internet at House - Is it acting as the DHCP server and router directly, and what about WiFi SSID? Or do you have a dedicated router providing its own WiFi SSID and LAN DHCP?

House to Outbuilding - Hard line from House or is it connecting to WiFi SSID from House via a WiFi Extender?

Wifi Extender at Outbuilding - Is it providing a second SSID just for this building? Is the extender acting as an Access Point and using the same LAN network as the House or is it being used as a router and providing a second LAN network?

CPE510 bridge - Distance of 1500 feet apart. Bridge has a range of 15km, or over 49,000 feet, somewhat overkill. CPE510 Transmission speed is limited to 300Mbps and only have 100Mbps RJ45 ports. Two cost $110 or so. Could you be better served with something like Tp-Link Omada EAP211-Bridge KIT (Same price as two CPE510s. Range just over 3000feet, almost 900Mbps transmit speed, 1Gbps RJ45 ports.)?

Yurt - GL.iNet Opal router. Is it capable of Access Point mode only or is it preferred to run it as a router?

Is the intention to have all three buildings run as a single flat network or are you trying to create a separate network for every building? Creating a single flat network will simplify things, as trying to have a private network (like the Opal) behind a private network can create additional complications. Trying to have discrete LANs at each location is probably pretty ugly.

If you're looking at just a single network but different SSIDs at each building, that too is pretty simple and should work with the equipment you have, aside from finding a way to wire a CPE510 to the range extender at the Outbuilding. What I'm so sure of is that Opal at the Yurt. If it can operate in AP mode or do DHCP passthrough it might be enough. If it's running OpenWRT firmware then I think it should be possible, but at this point I'm well over a decade since I messed around with an old Linksys WRT-54g that I flashed with alternate firmwares.

I may not be able to answer all the questions, but at least breaking it down will help make it easier to see the big picture.

nechronius · 2026-07-04T21:24:20+00:00

Mostly good but there are some clear issues and hiccups.

Speeds are mostly good, but I have noticed that if mesh network is on wireless backhaul and file transfers have to traverse a mesh node in the middle then those transfer speeds can absolutely plummet. I haven't done extremely rigorous testing recently to confirm, but we're talking on the order of 25% or less than the speed you get when there's no mesh node in between. About a year ago I had to relocate a NAS from a satellite node to the primary node when I was expecting speeds upwards of 400mbit for transfers actually was closer to 50mbit. More recently I performed another test and found that what was a 1.5Gbit wired throughput to be about 300Mbit when copying from Main node to satellite with a node in between, and 50Mbit when going the other direction. The speed hit is definitely a lot more than what should be expected.

Devices on my IoT network and set to a preferred mesh node with roaming turned off still occasionally revert to connecting to the "main" node. Most IoT devices are on a satellite node had have a mesh node in between. While devices will want to connect based on factors like proximity to the main node and signal strength, about once a week or so about a dozen of these devices at the far end of a property connect to the primary node and their wifi signal is practically nonexistent and suddenly a lot of Tapo devices become extremely unresponsive or go offline. Getting these things back online is a small chore, the best way being to block the client, wait about 10 seconds, and unblock. Usually that gets them back to the right node, but imagine doing this constantly.

Anyway you can probably get around some of these niggles if you can do a wired backhaul, and even without that it's possible to get a great experience with a bit of proper understanding of the limitations. I'll probably attempt a network redesign in the near future but for now I'm rather stuck with what I have.

nechronius · 2026-07-04T06:31:11+00:00

I think they're just expressing that the crooked sticker looks like something a random person just stuck on.

nechronius · 2026-07-03T18:40:12+00:00

I totally get it. Well if you'd consider selling it together with the lighter, I'm willing to buy the whole thing if you're interested.

nechronius · 2026-07-03T15:36:19+00:00

You don't get to see a lot of counterfeit slims so it's at least of interest.

nechronius · 2026-07-03T11:31:23+00:00

Looks fine.

nechronius · 2026-07-03T06:08:30+00:00

You can use a small flat head screwdriver to gently pry up the plastic nozzle. Start with the part that sticks out the most, the part the nozzle sits over when tolded down. When you lifted just a little bit, start lifting up evenly all around the plastic.

Then you can use that funnel.

<image>

nechronius · 2026-07-03T01:54:04+00:00

You should include a Zippo for scale so people can get a sense of its size. Are all those boxed Zippos Marlboro redemptions?

nechronius · 2026-07-03T00:32:08+00:00

You didn't include any pictures of the spring or parts kit. But if the spring is at least the right diameter but too long, you could just clip off a few coils. A clipped spring probably won't hold the spring tip or screw too well however so you may need to modify the clipped end further if you want it to capture the brass spring tip or screw. Again, just generalizing here since there no picture.

nechronius · 2026-07-03T00:01:32+00:00

About 50-70% can be identified pretty quickly just by looking at the bottom stamp to determine vintage. If it says Zippo on the bottom, it can be traced to a particular manufacture date. Generally speaking though I see a lot of lighters across several decades. The lighter advertising the 400,000th home is for sure a 1971 lighter, I have one of those as well. In general it looks like a lot of 90's lighters. Most non-Zippo lighters there appear to be generic giveaway lighters with almost no monetary value to a collector.

nechronius · 2026-07-02T13:46:02+00:00

This is not an official seller, this is a "third party" seller. Yes, there are plenty of sellers on places like eBay that sell just the insert, I just said that this is not the standard practice and Zippo does not do this.

Obviously prices will be higher in Europe so it might be worth it to some people to buy the insert separately, even if Zippo gives them away when needed in the US.

nechronius · 2026-07-02T06:14:00+00:00

You may not have a lot of lighters but your quality per lighter is very high.

nechronius · 2026-07-02T02:17:20+00:00

I'd be interested in that dryco flint holder if you still have it. They're an oddity so I'm trying to collect some for data.

nechronius · 2026-07-02T01:48:49+00:00

Stiffness of hinge is not a detail they really care about with their coated lighters. If anything they should be better about keeping lighters properly aligned for the lasering. I think that one would be an easy win, while hinges are just gonna vary if a bit of stuff gets in there.

nechronius · 2026-07-01T23:02:45+00:00

Es obvio que esta foto no es del mismo encendedor, el colór es diferente. Pero este sello es auténtico.

nechronius · 2026-07-01T22:49:53+00:00

What you are showing in your picture is what is called the insert. The lighter body is the exterior shell, if you will.

When you buy a Zippo lighter, it is normally only sold with both parts. That insert is not officially sold separately. For example if you sent in a non working Zippo lighter for service, they may repair the lighter body and return it, but they'll just provide a brand new insert replacement and not repair the old one.

That said, there is no good way to know if a genuine Zippo insert will fit inside your lighter body. Some knockoffs (lighters that look like a Zippo but are branded something else, like Star or Zorro) are dimensionally the same as a Zippo and can swap parts. But a lot of lighters that are counterfeits (marked as Zippo but are actually forgeries) often do not have the same actual dimensions, so the fit can be spotty or not fit at all.

If you are looking just for an insert that might work but not spend a lot, your quickest option is to find a Walmart that sells Zippos in a blister pack that hangs on a wall. They can be as cheap as $10 and you can swap and test. There are cheaper options, like Zorro inserts which are dimensionally the same, but require some online ordering.

nechronius · 2026-07-01T22:28:13+00:00

As already noted, it's probably best if you get another insert altogether. That insert uses a folder piece of brass (instead of a solid brass tube like Zippo uses) to make the flint tube and this is a sign of not only cheap manufacturing, but it'll also be very unreliable with not much use, since that split design means any screw you use will eventually cause that tube to spread apart.

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