Anyone know a way to remove a broken pricker wire in a 96 size lipstick? I bought an old 1913 primus96 last year in a box with two pricker tools that didn’t have wires on them. This week I decided to work on the stove but when I decided to clear the orifice I found it was plugged up. I am guessing it has a broken wire in there. Any tricks?
Be careful heating so you don't melt the soldered nut. I've heated up the tip, poked and prodded. I used some phosphoric acid on a different stove. Duane
Soak it in a hot alum solution, the steel wire will dissolve away. Old watchmaker's trick for dealing with broken taps, drills and screws in brass clock/watch movements. Murph
Hi, I believe that the majority of “lipstick” burners have the tubular section made of steel (the lower part containing the threaded portion being made of brass). It is not a good idea to immerse a steel lipstick in a solution intended to dissolve steel….. Best Regards, A Friend……
@Doug L I’d be happy to repair it for you Doug, as co-originator of the hypodermic needle insert method of ‘lipstick’ vapouriser repair. I recently encountered a ‘100’ series vapouriser that produced a lopsided and over-rich flame due to unsuccessful ‘peening’. A hypo needle insert in the existing hole would simply have produced a lopsided flame with correct combustion. Solution was to drill a 2mm hole on the vapouriser’s axis and do the repair in two stages. Firstly, with a higher melting point silbraze insert a short length of this … It’s 2mm diameter brass rod with a 0.55mm hole running through it, used to re-bush clock gear bearings. The central hole gives a clearance fit for the correct hypo needle to give a 0.23mm bore. Second stage then is to use a slighly lower melting point silbraze to secure the required hypo needle insert in the vapouriser tip, the silbraze flowing into the joint without disrupting the bond of the 2mm brass tube already in place. So, if you’re unable to remove the remains of the pricker wire (and maybe then the jet orifice will be oversized or deformed) I would propose a repair using the methodology I’ve outlined. Regards, John
Removing a broken drill bit from a lipstick is almost impossible, and the best resort is the hypodermic needle repair mentioned above. Alternatively, you can cut off the top of the lipstick and repair it as shown here. removing a broken pricker wire is a bit easier. I have had some success using a 1-2cm section of suitable size guitar wire, soldered into the end of a copper or brass tube, and used either as a pusher, or as a 'drill bit' in a hand held drill. The wire doesn't have to be perfectly central as these wires are designed to bend and flex.
John thank you for your kind offer. I may look to try Murphs hot alum method first and if that doesn’t work I’ll take you up on your offer. It’s a 1913 C font so I’d like to resurrect it.
Alum is the way to go. I recently used it to remove a steel pipe from a brass blowlamp, and a steel screw from a copper blowlamp burner. Works quite well. Make sure to use distilled water though, alum will react with calcium carbonate and lead to acidity which will eat the brass. Definitely make sure the lipstick is not steel, but otherwise, alum is quite safe.
