Making a Bic lighter easier to use

Everyone uses a bic lighter from time to time. We all know that at times they can be a bit difficult to get to light. The trouble comes from the child tamper resistant spring that sits above the flint wheel. The spring is rather strong and not really necessary. The lighter is much easier to use once this spring has been removed.

Do not preform this modification if children (or those who act like children) are going to be anywhere near the lighter

Also, be careful when working with the lighter, it is full of flammable material and could explode if you do something wrong.
Safety glasses are not a bad idea for this project

That said...

Step 1 What you need

1. Bic lighter. (large or small)
2. Prying tool. Small flat head screw driver works best. do not use a knife blade
3. Pliers.

Comments

[Vijster1]

Scripto lighters come without the spring, but have a child safety machanism, where you have to push down on the flint wheel with some force before pulling back in order to light it.

[Noddie]

I thought this was common sense to do this to a lighter before you used it?

[fizicalgraffiti]

 hahaha you're definitely right I always do this. You can just use your keys to do it too. It's nice to help people who can't figure it out though I guess...

[The 4th Doctor]

i just took that thing off because it gets hot if you have the lighter on for to long, was about to make an instructable on it :/

[ruben_boeing]

OMG this is so cool! Thank you so much it's really easy and fun to do and makes it possible to light with almost nothing but a touch.

[googbar]

interesting... in brazil these come ALREADY without these child springs... :0

[superballistix]

Our country too (SA)

[craig3]

You can buy them with and without i think, or at least i can in ausralia

[JuCo]

first, just pop a key into the hole and twist... then pull the metal tab off. second, that spring keeps the flint grime off your fingers.

[Nexnaught]

I just take off the metal guard at the front with a screwdriver, then pull the metal thing off of the wheel, then put the metal guard back on.

[klingonprins]

lol just remove the whole damn metal case. the flame is bigger and it won't burn your pocket.

[Big Nasty]

yea, but if you want to light a bowl and tilt it, the plastic will melt. :(

[cantth1nk0fnam3]

this is awesome but very unnecessary the lighter isn't that hard to use. I'm 14 and it's realy easy for me

[bobobob1230]

awesome/simple instructable. definitely worth the three minutes it took to do. i was stupid and took the spring out with the flathead, cut my thumb, warning not to do that.

[=SMART=]

Nice 'ible great pics too :D

[rockerton]

well done, nice PICs

[struckbyanarrow]

lol nice instructbles and somehow it reminded me of a story here it is! when i was six i was watching this cartoon where a guy had a cape that was on fire and didn't hurt him i always called super fire man. so i figured, wouldn't it be cool to have one of my own so i got a hooded sweatshirt and dipped it in some stuff my dad sad not to touch because it is flammable?!?? which made me want to use it more so i put on the jacket, ran inside and got my moms candle lighter. i lit my hood on fire and stared running yelling dunt di dum!!!! then i started screaming because my neck started hurting and my hair was on fire so i unzipped the jacket and put out my hair i was crying for so long when my mom found me outside and had no idea what i did and seeing a flaming coat outside.....

[callmeshane]

Yeah I am way olde enough to remember when "child proof / dope smoker throttling modifictions" were forced onto the general public, by do-goody-good idiots... and some of the designs were REALLY really really really STUPID. Some of them were like rubbing the side of your thumb on coarse sand paper, while parking a car on it...... Personally I think well the lighters could have done with a simple sort of a flame size limiter... cause people smoking dope would from time to time, unscrew the valve enough to eventually set their heads on fire.... And kids playing with lighters??? Like I am not into beating children to death for little things, but I am pretty much against kids getting matches - and learning how to set fire to things.. unsupervised. I am also against irresponsible parents leaving matches and lighters around, and also never taking the time to demonstrate what happens when things catch fire in a bad way....

[jakezcop]

to late us kid's (geeks thats me) have already figured this fire stuff out and can prety mutch use our brains to figure out how not to get hurt when playing with dangerous crap. but then i agree with you too, all you morons out there, STAY AWAY FROM THE DANGEROUS STUFF, YOU STICK WITH UR SPORTS. sry

[bedbugg2]

i thought they were just on there to stop the wheel getting damaged...i always used to pull of the spring anyway.

[Yerboogieman]

or just take a pocket knife under the safety and pry it off

[conceptualstratagem]

Man this safety thing pisses me off, it give calluses too. Some of the best best torches I've ever owned were purchased in Vegas where they don't idiot guard things.

[sgt.paper]

ive bean doing this for years

[sleeping_gecko]

Great and useful instructable. I'm more of a match-usin' fella, but the next Bic I buy is getting de-springed. And I second the great photos compliment!

[Hodge-Podge]

thanks for the camera complements. I really couldn't say if it is regional or not. I have never bought a bic lighter outside of Albuquerque New Mexico. The fact that the spring is meant as a child deterrent makes me think i could very well be an American thing. We have lots of stuff like that here

[GorillazMiko]

very good camera you have there

[zupHC]

Quote to goldenland In Italy there isn't that spring! But with this piece of metal the lighter looks better..

[goldenlad]

Is this a regional thing? Lighters in the UK don't appear to have this spring thing and look like your after photo at time of purchase.

[Trans_Am]

Whenever I get a new Bic lighter, this is always the first thing I do, much less annoying to light. By the way, excellent use of the macro mode on your camera. +