I will restore this Zippo lighter someone had found from the ground. It was most likely lost by an US army man years ago, but I don’t think it has been in any war. The lighter is very oxidized and most of the old plating is gone. The insert is in much better condition but it also need a little restoration. Luckily the hinge is not broken so I don’t have to repair it. That is not easy. I started the restoration with disassembly. The lighter doesn’t have many parts so this was easy to do. I used a miniature propane torch to loosen the emblem. I decided to use rust remover for the steel insert and ketchup for the brass shell to remove oxidation.
After oxidation was removed, I needed to sand off the remaining old plating from the shell. If I didn’t it would be really hard to get a good finish on the piece. After sanding the plating off I polished the parts with wool buffing wheel and metal polishing compound.
Before I could re-plate the polished parts they needed to be cleaned from grease and polishing compound. I used acetone for the job. Then it was time to replate the parts with nickel. I used electroplating method. You can learn more about that from here:
After the plating, I attached the emblem back on with some solder. I used flux to help the solder flow between the parts. It might look like the solder didn’t go between the parts but it only needs very little solder in there because the layer is so thin. As you can see I scratched the part quite violently and it sticks.
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Then I assembled the rest of the lighter and added new cotton, wick and other parts on the inside.
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Tools used in this video :
NICKEL ANODE:
NICKEL PLATING SOLUTION:
ZIPPO WICK:
ZIPPO FLINT:
ZIPPO LIGHTER FLUID:
ZIPPO COTTON & FELT PAD:
SCREW FOR FLINT:
Other tools:
ROTARY TOOL:
PRESS FOR ROTARY TOOL:
2-AXIS TABLE FOR THE PRESS
POLISHING KIT:
CORDLESS DRILL:
CHUCK NORRIS’ TOOTHBRUSH:
MY FILMING GEAR:
MAIN CAMERA:
MAIN TRIPOD:
MICROPHONE:
VIDEO LIGHTS:
MAIN LENS:
CINEMATIC LENS:
WIDE ANGLE LENS:
GOPRO:
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