Pocket Burglar Alarm

Step 3 Modifying the Insert

This is quite a lot of work because I wanted to preserve the hinge mechanism of the Zippo.

You could easily get rid of the insert entirely and have the lighter close with some small neodymium magnets placed either side of the opening.
But I like the action of the hinge system so I did it the hard way.


Remove any cotton and wick from the insert and bend the chimney walls out flat.
Cut the chimney off but keep the hinge supports.

Using pliers or a drill remove the flint tube.
Using either some pliers or a drill remove the rivit that holds the spring onto the insert.

Take a large drill bit (slightly smaller than the width of the insert) and drill two large holes in the top of the zippo.
Stay well away from the hinge and remember the spring must be re attached later (a bit further up).

You now have your main hole and using pliers you can pull out the remaining pieces and clean up the opening (see pictures to get and idea of the size / location of the opening)

Now using either tin snips or a hack saw cut off the majority of the insert leaving roughly 10mm (again, see pictures)

Drill a small hole (same size as that in the spring) into the top of the insert and reattach the spring using a short nut and bolt.

you will also need to drill 2 small holes at the far left of the insert for the wires to run through. Carefully drill these using a 2mm (or larger depending on your wires) drill bit.

Finally you will need to drill a 2mm hole in the lighter body. This is where the red LED will poke through.

Whilst looking at the base of the lighter with the hinge on the left, you hole needs to be in the bottom left. (see pictures in the last step showing LED poking through case)