Jack Daniels Burner (inspired by Tjesse's Glass Bottle Tiki Torch)

I have a large motorhome which is used most of the year. Flies and mosquito's are a common pest so I've been looking for a while for some sort of Citronella burner to help keep them away. Upon seeing tjesse's "Glass Bottle Tiki Torch", I was immediately inspired with visions of a Jack Daniels bottle. My process if probably very similar to tjesse's, though there are a couple of differences.

It took about 30 mins between starting and lighting, so well worth the effort once materials are collected. The best part of it was the first 10 mins (drinking a litre of Jack Daniels).

This is my first attempt at an instructable (and I've just downed a litre of JD to make this project possible), so give me a break!

Step 1: Collect Parts

First and most important, a bottle of JD. Citronella, wick (I used 1/4") and a metal bottle top. The JD bottle comes with a plastic lid, so not much for this project. Noting this at the weekend I had an excuse to drink a bottle of wine so I'd have a metal lid for this project.

The Citronella and wick had to be ordered as it's not the stuff I tend to have on shelves. A one litre bottle seemed ideal as I was going to empty into a one litre JD bottle. The wick was ordered as one meter. Both of these were found quickly on Ebay.

Step 2: Modify the Lid

My first problem with the lid was it's too big, both in height and diameter. The hight was solved with a pair of scissors to cut round the bottom of the lid removing about an 1/8".

Gently sand the rough edges of the lid on a sander or possibly a sharpening stone.

Drill a small hole in the top of the lid.

Find something cone shaped to expand the drilled hole - a nozzle from a silicon tube was ideal. Using a second nozzle as support on the underneath of the lid, the hole was opened up to the desired size by pressing the nozzle deeper into the hole.

I then used a bolt and mallet to tap the rough inside edge of the lid, removing the sharp edges.

Pass the wick through the hole and feed to desired length exposed.

Test fit the lid to the now empty JD bottle.

I found the lid to be slightly loose so used a pair of pliers to gently turn the bottom edge of the lid in. This was then a perfect fit on the bottle. However, it should be noted that over tightening will cause the turned in lip to turn out again.

Step 3: Fill and Go

Empty the Citronella into the JD bottle and wipe down the outside of the bottle to ensure the oil won't damage the paper label on the bottle.

Make sure only a small amount of wick is poking through the top of the lid then feed the wick into the bottle. Screw the lid on and adjust the wick. to about half an inch height.

Swirl the bottle content to ensure the wick is well and truly soaked, possibly tipping the bottle slightly to make sure the outer wick absorbs the Citronella.

Take outside and light. It was raining, but I wanted to try it so out I went. Immediate ignition then the question on how to put it out.

I found a length of tube in my garage which I chopped down to a couple of inches long. It's got a small bolt in the end and three small holes, but that didn't matter. Upon placing the tube over the flame, the flame immediately went out. It continued to smoke for a while so was left to cool down.

Step 4: What's Next..

Well to complete this, I now need to make a handle for the cap that extinguishes the flame. But more important, I need to find a way of colouring the Citronella to make it look like JD :-)