Hola Stovies Here's the silly mini-rant first. Why are we using prickers? Ya, ya, I know to clean the nipples/jets on our stoves. But, these items are (or were) designed to be disposable. And, I don't think they're being made any more. Especially the ones stamped Primus and Optimus, with the cool part numbers. So..... aren't they worthy of collecting and reasonable preservation care? And, what *is* a pricker, anyway? Why, it's just a piece of steel sheet metal, perhaps plated, with a wire of the proper diameter crimped in the end. Recently I ran through my supply of prickers suitable for use with #96 and #100 stoves. As these are not items that are even remotely possible to find in the US, I turned to Base-Camp in the Mother Country where one can find all things kero-stove. Alas. With shipping, it turns out I would pay £1.22 or $1.96 per pricker. This is not a problem for something I collect or preserve. But, for a disposable item made of a slip of sheet metal and a tiny fragment of wire, well, just silly. (I confess that a combination of poor eyesight and ham-handedness may have contributed to an early demise of my prickers.) How hard could these things be to make? Well, not very hard. This is a piece of brown-painted roof flashing I obtained at Home Depot for $2. It is 8x10". Here, I am using a scriber (you could use a pencil, a pen or a marker) to trace around an intact pricker. I added a bit at the end for the folded-over part that holds the wire. I cut it out with tin snips and smoothed the sharp edges by hand-sanding with some 220-grit wet-dry sandpaper. The key to how a pricker works is this end crimping which holds the thin wire and keeps it from falling out. I reckoned I needed a "crimping tool" so I made one out of a little piece of steel I found on the floor among the shop dust-bunnies. Used a hacksaw and a file. Here are all the necessities to finish up. That wire is a 1149' coil of 0.009" (0.229mm) stainless steel spring wire which I acquired from McMaster-Carr for $16.63. I also obtained a 646' coil of 0.012" (0.31mm) stainless steel wire for $13.79. I could have gone for the plain steel wire, and saved three or four dollars, but stainless is more fun. Fold the end tab over the wire with pliers. Beat it a couple of hits with the end of the crimping tool and a hammer. Voila! A new pricker. Note: cutting the wire with wire cutters will squish it flat on the very end and make it too big to fit your jets. I solved that by using a scrap of 220 wet-dry and pulling the cut end through the paper several times. It removes that end burr on the tip very nicely. Total time invested? About a half an hour. But, 20+ minutes of that half hour was spent looking around on the floor for a little piece of steel and making the crimping tool. That done, I'd reckon 5-10 minutes per pricker. Now. Eleven hundred and forty-nine feet of the 0.23mm wire oughta make me somewhere in the neighborhood of 27,576 prickers at the rate of 1/2" per pricker. So, anyone want some wire to make your own prickers? I got lots. Cheers, Gary
Not silly at all. Valid point Gary & great tutorial. I do collect the prickers & have box several trade boxes full plus odd single packets from varied manufacturers. I have a tin of odds & sods on the workbench but trying to find a thin one for a 96 burner is getting very hard & I won't break out my preserved ones. I also have a 'user' of one of these (from Basecamp) https://classiccampstoves.com/threads/9285 It comes with wires for the standard jets but I too am going to get some of the thinner wire for the 96 & use it in this tool.
I wasn't going to comment but have changed my mind. Well maybe not. Then again who knows. Errrrrr, aaaaahummm, okay, so there is going to be a bunch of prickers at CA3 'ey. Good reason not to come. A much better reason is it's too far away for a trip this year. lance
Impressive! Just thinking aloud here, and wondering if a two-piece crimping tool for the end would make things neater and more consistant, with a female tool and a male tool pressed or bashed together, with the piece in between? the depressed area in the main body of the pricker could be formed the same way. Then all it would need is the lettering inscribed with a cheap set of punches. Any makers name that was required, and who could tell that it isn't the original 8)
To avoid raised eyebrows, it would have to be patented as something like "The jet decarbonizing tool manufacturing aid"
Steve! Too funny! Thanks for that! Blackdog, that's a good idea! Hammer and anvil. Both shaped to fit the groove. I like it. I'll work something out on that. Thanks for the tip. Ron, I do plan to bring along some materials so we can make prickers at CASG#3. Sort of DIY party favors. Lance, you'll have to wait and see whatever pictures are posted from the CASG#3, but I'm guessing there will be at least one photo of an old pr**k making new prickers. Me! Ross! Thank you for the tip on the Ideal Pricker. I thought those were all bought up. I didn't realize they were still available. Base-Camp order on Monday, I'm thinking. I did try a couple of Ideal Pricker-like prototypes about six weeks back and may do more. They're a wee bit too much work for what you get and really should be in the hands of a competent machinist rather than a metal hack like me, but here's a pic anyway. The upper one can store wires in the barrel. Cheers all, Gary
Gary, I will try to bring my crimper which I use for the fishing wire and does exactly the same thing on the original prickers even better I would think. Ron
Ross you can get the correct gauge wire by buying guitar strings they sell them in singles for about 0.99 each and they are about 3 feet long. Si
Hey, Dawg, Thanks, very much, for the outstanding tutorial, Gary!! Well done, and a perfect result!! You, and a few others here at CCS, have a wonderful and creative mind for thinking up solutions to our stove problems, and I very much admire and respect that!! Again, well done, Mate!! See you at CASG3, and yeah, a bunch of "Prickers" we'll all be, except, of course, for our Lovely Ladies! CWO, I know that, if the distance were not so great, you would be with us in a heartbeat, and we shall miss you at this upcoming Gathering!! One day, I'm sure we can arrange a Gathering that will make your attendance, and that of other CCS Brothers, more easily accomplished. Take care, and God Bless! Every Good Wish, Doc
My penny-worth extra: When I put a new piece of wire in a pricker, I make the wire stick out both ways. Thus if I bend one side (and the thing is too hot to touch), I still have the other end for immediate use. My favorite source of wire is a strand from a steel-wire brush. Yonadav
