How a Zippo Armor lighter should have been made

I have the original Titanium War Armor, which sold for $120. Sadly it’s been discontinued.

Anyway, as an experiment, I decided to see how long the fuel could last.

It was fueled on July 30th, 2018. It’s now Feb 7th, 2020, and its still holding fuel (checked it last night.)

I wish a company would produce a version out of CNC Aluminum.

Gebes head explodes… :smiley:

There are quite a few other versions, even a lighter weight ti model.
Never seen an alu version though. 7075 would be nice.

I use 0.5mm thick watch gaskets for sealing o-rings, forget the diameter, got a multipack years ago.
A tiny amount of lube helps too for sealing/ longevity prior to installation, like on our lights plus use extra refined fuel.

Mine after four years, purple anodized.

The Purple anodized looks great.

CRX, yes, my head is exploding!

spyderco
monkey, That’s truly amazing but for $120.00 it SHOULD hold it’s fluid forever! :money_mouth_face: I agree that a aluminum version would be great as my version is too heavy to even consider as an EDC but it was relatively cheap and is built like a tank.

I replaced the original gasket with one of the extras that was included with it and it seems to be holding up but it’s a long way from being proven long term.

CRX, it seems like a good tip on lubing the rubber gasket before installing. What do you use?

All in all, for $20.99, (what I paid), it is how a Zippo should have been and should be built. If they constructed it out of high grade aluminum, it really would be a winner.

Oh yeah CRX, what’s EXTRA refined fuel? Here in the U.S. Ronsonol lighter fluid, (refined naphtha), which has been around forever here is as good as it gets.

Although silicone & petrol don’t mix I’ve just been using a tiny smear of silicone grease for the o-ring.
There is most probably a more suitable grease though.
I believe the o-rings I use are some type of chemical resistant NBR or similar and are a firm neat fit.
I appear to be on my last one though so will need to find more.
My lighter gets used a lot and I do a monthly maintenance clean etc of it as any dirt or debris on the CNC machined seal edges will affect proper sealing closure.

I also use swan extra long flints. I keep two in the flint tube by replacing the brass plunger on the spring with an extra flint plus one tucked into the slot in the bottom of the ti fuel tank.

I say extra refined fuel but that is my judgement after using quite a few brands over the years and not what is printed on the can.
What I judge on is the smell.
Some fuels stink to high heaven with that petro-chemical smell while some others I can hardly notice.
Obviously the least smell coming from the lighter is desirable too.
I don’t know why some fuels smell more than others but assume it is because they are less refined or have extra crap in them/ made from different substances.

Ronson Permafluid is the least smelly I have used probably followed by a cheap brand called atlas.
Ronsonal isn’t too bad. Been a long time but zippo brand & others like that seem to be worse smelling.
There seems to be dfifferent cheap brands in the local shops every time I look with varying differences to them.

The O-rings used in the Titanium War Armor we’re very high quality. Perhaps someone can find a source for them; presumably its a specific grade of rubber designed for petroleum product / naptha resistance:

I did find these but out of stock, don’t know the material either.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32972673176.html?spm=a2g0o.cart.0.0.52033c007DTVwg&mp=1

Thanks for that CRX! I did clean up all the seal edges when I replaced the original O-ring and the replacement went on fairly easily.

spyderco
monkey, quality O-rings with your Titanium War Armor are probably the reason you’ve had such good luck with sealing. The ones that came with my Zorro are definitely lacking. It would be great to find some quality replacements.

Here’s a list of O-rings materials that are chemically equivalent with Naptha (the material lighter fluid is made of.)

https://www.efunda.com/designstandards/oring/oring_chemical.cfm?SM=none&SC=Naphtha#mat

The question is, what size O-rings for the case? Once we know that, we can get samples of different 0-rings, and leave them submerged in lighter fluid to see if they are disolved.

Meanwhile, I just ordered this Black Zorro case:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000309124461.html

The ones I linked say 20mm.
Measuring the groove on the lighter is 36mm x 2 + 12mm x 2 = 96mm track length, / 3.14 = approx 30mm diameter.

So 20-25mm x 0.5mm o-rings might be a safe bet.

Ok, so this is the rubbers recommended for Naptha:

This 0-ring seems to the right size, and is rated a ‘2’ for ‘good’ on the chart:

Still trying to find one rated ‘1.’

Thanks much for your efforts in trying to find replacements gents!

You people….You damn people sent me down a damn rabbit hole and now….I have a Zorro 912 - Curved Lid - Polished Brass on its way to my mailbox! :smiley:
This thread…I swear it almost moved me, I am the proud owner of a very…VERY optimized edc, the thing has been going on for close to 10 years and I am truly running out of things to optimize!
The lighter (I am a smoker) I currectly use is a lovely polished brass armor Zippo whith a nice patina on it and a few dings and dents which I’ve come to love on a brass lighter, but it always felt like a very vanilla choice, it is a Zippo after all.
Anyways this got me going on a hunt for something different, I’ve checked expensive stuff like DuPonts but…MEH…I have a solid silver Dunhill from my Great-grandfather, which is far classier than anything new and if I want to go fancy, a Heriloom is always a solid choice.
I’ve checked cheaper stuff like Douglass lighters and whilst very interesting, they are a tad too much for my tastes as I’ve always been drawn towards more streamlined shapes rather than a Steampunky feel.

And then I see this…A gorgeous Zippo-like lighter, that weights 3 times as much, with a perfectly indexing lid, flush integral hinges and machined from a solid block of brass??

A clear case of “Shut up and take my money!” for me.
I wanted one exactly like CRX’s titanium one but in brass, somehow that curve line on the lid pleases me greatly, and a lot more than a flat one…God only knows why…
The closest one I could find with a curved lid has a hinge setup that’s a little different, CRX’s one is defined by the sellers as a 3-hinge design, I went for the 5-hinge one, I doubt it will make any difference in daily use and I am seriously considering straight up copying CRX and getting a Carson Wararmor in titanium as apparently they are still available from some AE sellers :slight_smile:

A bit long I know but this thread was truly a wonderful find for me, many thanks to everyone who posted, you made an obsessive madman happier…And now far more obessed :smiley:

s. I will give my 2cents review with pictures and wahtever else anyone might like to see, as soon as it arrives, ETA 27 November at the latest, hopefully it’ll get here sooner XD

Welcome Swosh! Yeah, CRX sold a lot of these. :slight_smile: I’m a smoker too and as you stated, these are heavy duty, (except maybe for the Ti models), and I use mine as a table lighter. I’m still looking for the replacement O-rings.

Hey there! If it can be of some help I’ve seen sellers on AE that actually sell a replacement o-rings package for the Zorros, otherwise have you considered simply waltzing into the closest watch repair shop in your area and asking for help?
I have been talking to a guy who says that the Zorros are “cheaply made chinese lighters” because he broke his doing, and I quote, “Extreme tricks”, now why would anyone try tricks on a lighter that clearly has stiff hinges it beats me…
I am curious which one did you get? I went for the 912 with a curved top lid, it weighs roughly 150g, there was the option for the 912S but that thing is even bigger and it weighs 210g, that one is too much lighter for me to carry but the less heavy one I think will be perfect for the 5th pocket in jeans :smiley:

Anyways I am extremely curious to get my hands on mine, I cannot wait!

Living fairly rural, there’s no watch repair shops around here. Looks like mine is the same one you ordered. The stainless 912. Like I said, it’s too heavy for me to carry around. I’ll look into those O-ring replacements on AE.

So far the replacement O-ring that came with the lighter that I replaced the original with which deteriorated into pieces is holding up pretty well.

I ordered the 912 curve lid but in brass not stainless, I love items with some “heft” to them.
I will end up buying the Douglass Field S at some point if only for the “Classy social dinner” feel that fits very well any formal look.
Btw here’s the link to the orings I’ve told you about :
https://www.aliexpress.com/i/32972673176.html sorry if the page is still in italian :smiley:

Btw it’s actually quite positive that the replacement one did not disintegrate, it could simply be a case of the one that did being “off-spec” for some reason.

I have one question for you, I’ve seen a few people call these lighters “cheap” and saying that Zippos are better made, I think this stems from the fact that people tried to use these lighters to do tricks with, to me this seems like an awful, awful idea.
The Zippos are perfect for tricks because of their innate loose tolerances that make them very fidgety and easy to fiddle with.
These Zorros on the other hand seem to have quite the stiff hinge, imho if you treat this like you would a Zippo and do tricks with it, you’ll probably break the hinge, mostly because I don’t think these kind of hinges would take well to a lateral force being applied to them, the best example I can think of that is when you open the Zippo by placing 2 fingers on the top, one on the bottom and giving it a squeeze and a twist (I hope it made some sense :smiley: ).

What’s your take on it as an owner? Happy? Any other gripes exploding o-rings aside? :slight_smile:

Mine has been rock solid so far. I’m happy since changing the O-ring.

Uuuuuuuh…
IT has arrived…What a “Chunky Boi”!
Wonderful experience with aliexpress so far, I got both the lighter and a tritium fob for my keychain, arrived within 2 weeks and in the span of 1day from each other so, overall quite nice experience with the shipping too.

As soon as I am done with the day job I will post my pictures and findings on this wonderfully heavy new toy :smiley: