I've been using THIS technique of restoring lipstick burners with worn jet orifices for some time and Doug (Doug L) ran an idea past me that he'd been mulling over as an alternative approach. Doug's ingenious idea was to use a length of hypodermic needle to insert in the over-large jet orifice and he wondered if it could then be successfully silbrazed in place and trimmed down so that it wouldn't project from the burner tip. We agreed that we'd not want too much of the needle to project on the inside of the burner, fearful that there'd be a restrictive effect on the jet stream. So, a length in position no longer than the thickness of the lipstick burner tip. Timely as you please, John (Jeopardy) got in touch by PT to take up my offer to restore his Thermidor lipstick burner that he told us about HERE . So I had a candidate for experiment, confident that if I couldn't get the 'hypo' approach to work I could always resort to my tried-and-tested method to get John's burner tube back in shape. Here's John's twin-holed burner tube Doug shipped me a few hypo needles. This one's a larger-bore one that I didn't use. The fine one I used has a bore very close to the required size of 0.23mm In the end I combined the 'hypo' and the 'brass insert' technique, my reason being that I wasn't sure I could get the hypo sliver to stay in position when silbrazing (I didn't want it to slip through the hole due to expansion of the brass surround. Although as John found drilling a 0.23mm hole in brass is very difficult, get up to the outer diameter of the hypodermic needle (around 0.35mm) and drilling that hole size becomes a lot more certain. Moreover, I could peen my brass insert hole (before cutting the insert out of the sheet) on one side - the side that would eventually be inside the burner - so that the hypo needle would only insert so far and would bind in the hole at where the exit hole had been slightly peened over (but without stopping up the hole of course). It wouldn't fall through then while silbrazing. Took much longer to describe than to do, but this is what I ended up with Next step, drilling out the Thermidor burner tube to take the insert A dry run before silbrazing Silbrazed and time to trim off the excess hypo needle. I was careful to make sure that the molten silbraze flowed over the top of the insert so that the needle was silbrazed in place. I'd wondered beforehand if the heat of the silbrazing would vapourise the needle but they're obviously made of top-grade stainless steel and it coped with the heat fine Here I'm just making sure that a 0.23mm pricker will still pass through the needle stub after silbrazing - it was remotely possible that a film of silbraze metal might have impinged on the back surface of the hole, in which case I'd have had to start again on it. It hadn't Finished job I think there may be some variation in the tip contour of Thermidor burner tubes. Mine's the top one in the picture and it's obviously more domed. I'm certain John's peening of the jet hole hadn't flattened the tip and it must be a variation as I say Borrowing the gauze burner tube insert from mine, it was time to try out the repair I'm happy with that. My profound thanks to Doug for his outstanding idea (and for the needles) and to John for the use of his lipstick burner tube as a guinea pig John
Hi John, As usual your tutorials are very good indeed. And also as usual the workmanship is always top notch. Another lipstick saved and can be used for many more years. Well done, John, well done. Cheers, Norman
Very fine work. A great idea. One thing to remember is it would not be possible to drill out the hole now with the hypo in there. A note kept with the stove would remind the owner. Ken in NC
Hi John excellent work and a brilliant idea from Doug. Using the syringe system, it is far easier drilling out the orifice with a larger drill bit to except the outer wall of the syringe, than a 0.23 drill bit. Another good point is the steel inner of the syringe being steel is harder than the brass/gunmetal original orifice so it will last much longer before it becomes enlarged. Well done John and Doug on your brilliant work and idea, in fact i would not be surprised if this fettle gets moved to the master class well done there fellows
Great work John .I'm happy to see this worked out If I need a "fix"...ha ha sorry for the pun . I'll know where to get it.
Cheers fellas. Update! All three needles Doug sent me are the same size - trick of the eye suggested otherwise. Outside diameter of each (which I've now checked with vernier callipers) is 0.54mm. A 0.23mm pricker wire is a snug fit in the interior bore. 0.5mm is an easy hole size to drill, so next time I'll dispense with the brass insert and drill out the hole in the lipstick tube to 0.5mm (even a well worn hole is usually less than that). I'll then put a shallow-angle chamfer on the end of the needle with a Dremel abrasive drum and jam the needle in the hole, where I'm expecting it'll stay in place and won't fall through during silbrazing. With no lipstick burner to repair at the moment, I'll try out the technique to convert a 0.32mm replaceable jet (abundant) to a 0.23mm one (hard to find these days). John
John, you've done it again. I'm truly in awe of what you and some of the other guys can do to rescue a bad situation. I almost doubt it ever burnt that blue when new. Except.... Thank you John Cheers John
Excellent job Presscall. I realize that the proliferation of hypodermic needles creates an ample supply of raw materials, but if you want exacting tolerances in different sizes, then ............. http://www.mcmaster.com/#standard-stainless-steel-tubing/=w4kte6
well done . an interesting way of achieving it . in theory the stainless syringe will take a lot longer to abrade to being oversize . kerry
Great idea John 8) As Kerry said it should abrade less than a standard jet orifice over time depending on the hardness/temper after brazing , but stainless is hard old stuff so should give many years of trouble free use A great idea for an instant 0.23 I/D straight out of the box , proper job Stu
Good Morning, Presscall, and All, WOW!! What an outstanding idea and fettle!! I'd have NEVER thought of combining the needle with the burner to make a "jet liner", as it were! John, your skills are simply fantastic, and I am always impressed with the wonderful things you can accomplish when fettling stoves, and other goodies! Well done, my friend, and many thanks for sharing the perfect International cooperation that resulted in this great project. Take care, and God Bless! Every Good Wish, Mark
This would be the solution to repair hard to find nipples! I am thinking of Russian Tourist (Opti N8 clone) and Phoebus stoves for example. Great!!! Best regards, Wim
Thanks! You're right, Wim. In the case of the 8R Russian clone, a 24-gauge hypodermic needle would be necessary to get the worn jet back to 0.32mm spec and the existing jet pricker wouldn't baulk at working in conjunction with the insert, since there's no insert projecting in the interior cavity of the jet if it's measured up right for the pressing in of the insert stage. The various hypo needle gauge sizes would provide insert material to get any jet back to specification. It's just a case of choosing the right needle from THIS Wikipedia hypodermic needle size chart and choosing a size of drill to ream out the hole to get an interference fit with the needle insert. I've progressed with the process in THIS POST on a no-silbrazing way of getting a needle insert in a replaceable jet. John
I got my needles delivered today from Amazon and looks like I’m a bit confused. The pricker on my 96 barely fits the 26 gauge needle (very tight) and the 25 gauge looks like works best. Now I need to order some micro drill bits
No need. Take a Dremel with abrasive wheel and machine an angle on the tip of the one you want to use. Holding the plastic connector of the needle you want to insert between finger and thumb and with the tip of the needle located in the vapouriser jet orifice, twist the connector back-and-forth and the needle will ream its own hole. As regards the ‘too tight’ pricker in the 26-gauge needle. I’ve noticed that prickers give some variable results when measured with a micrometer. A nominal 0.23mm pricker varies in my collection from slightly under-to-over sized.
Well, it’s very hard to do this. My lipstick it’s steel and I don’t know if I did ok but here is my finished job.
From the look of the tip of the vapouriser you seem not to have silbrazed the insert in place. A push-fit in a tubular burner brass jet works but the thin metal of a lipstick vapouriser tip isn’t likely to hold a push-fit insert for long. Here’s the process. Hypo needle having reamed its own hole. Point dressed square, having been damaged a bit reaming the hole. Plastic connector cut off, insert re-inserted in the hole. Silbrazed in place. Trimmed, vapouriser tip re-profiled and polished.
