motorised lantern lighter

[Cosmic Muffin]

ay blokes.
i was just thinking, could you hook up a small electric motor to a lantern sparker?
so you could have a "continuous spark"?
and i was also wondering if any of the Aussie guys have seen them anywhere.

cheers

[rp181]

It would wear down the flint pretty quickly.

[Combustion Monkey]

I think its an interesting idea. But for the time and trouble in rigging it up, why not use a bbq igniter or stun gun?

[Cosmic Muffin]

bbq ignitors always break, and they dont even work most of the time.. and stun guns are a little harder to get over here
i think i might get one from BC though. i just thought i would explore all avenues before blowing 40 bucks, and the chance it could get seized.. stupid laws

[EphOph]

You might want to look into an electric BBQ lighter; I've been using them for quite awhile now and I've found them to be extremely reliable and they last a long time on a single AA battery. If that's not an option you could try the motor idea but set it up to fire remotely when a switch is pressed.

[Cosmic Muffin]

do you know where i could get an electric BBQ ignitor?
bearing in mind that im in perth...
do you know and sites that sell them?

[jimmy101]

do you know where i could get an electric BBQ ignitor?
bearing in mind that im in perth...
do you know and sites that sell them?

Folks do BBQ in Australia don't they?

Try any store that carries a decent line of BBQ parts. They should have the push button piezos (which last forever) and better stores shoud have the battery operated one.

I was just in a Meijer here in the states and they had the battery ignitor for US$20.

[Sticky_Tape]

Nothing else to say but

[sputnick]

If you are really desperate, and want a HOT spart, for very little cash, get a USED disposeable camera, ( go to photo developing place, ask for used disposeable camera, they will give you as many as you want for free. Now open it up (being carefull to discharge the capacitor, biggest part of the board, big black tube, use a screwdriver to touch both wires so you get rid of any charge) next just hook up two long wires to both leads of the capacitor, put onoe straight to a screw, and the other through a heavy duty switch, then to a screw thats barely touching the other. Now just pop in a battery, charge it as you would the flash, and hit the switch to discharge 330 volts through the screw contact point

makes a great spark.

[Biopyro]

If you are really desperate, and want a HOT spark

any spark is MORE than hot enough to ignite a good mix in a combustion.
The "best" (depends on your point of view) thing I found about cameras is the spread of sparks will often ignite a bad mix too

[sputnick]

Exactly why they work, they send little bits everywhere,

Maybe later today I can post a video of the sparks my "super camera" that built make, its just the regular circuitry, except I added 5 more capacitors to it, it takes about 15 seconds to charge, but the flash temporarily blinds you, and the sound reverbrates around my whole house (my parents think I'm playing with fire crackers)

[Cosmic Muffin]

thanks for the info guys.
i will deffinatley try that camera idea.
and Sputnik, could you get a vid up of that super camera? it sounds pretty awesome

[sputnick]

for sure man, I don't know if the sound will come through right, but trust me, its massive (also quite capable of killing me)

[starman]

FWIW sticky, that "off center crank like thing" ( ) you show in your graphic would usually be called a "cam"....or possibly an "eccentric" follower, arm, or cog....

Carry on.....

[TurboSuper]

Sputnick, how long can you use that system before the electrodes wear down? It sounds like you're vapourizing metal instead of getting a true arc.

I'm curious, because if you can get a decent number of shots out of it, it would be alot easier than an ignition coil rig...