From this video on alternative ways to light a bic lighter (useful for when you're hands are numb), I found myself on this lighter hacks video. One of the suggested hacks involved carefully attaching a paper clip to a lighter to create an improvised soldering iron.
I was curious if this hack truly worked, so I busted out a Bic, a paper clip and some Gorilla tape. I haphazardly folded the paper clip into position and taped it in place:
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4BtY6uQ4p3e2EUsCCDkgCe3AAfmdPXN6QaWHs1dXLGKGQkwONWi7DL4K7tRrfLV1O3JEa3XmXZIYvdlCSs_cqNfGQj5SGt9b3GjwEC42z5Hpiv2kJy-DneJFh9_tRhBQIf9uE/s320/20180227_123423.jpg)
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZFKiSkkaNDNKc7-rQg35LCiDWgS38TfS-5QEGK5jrdjlb37i86aKVMvfZm-mLeDYN-Ys4IyB5qAjHIHZ54ncTUIGuKhr_dTt3NHhWqOExiyc3Ydw8GA5cQOjdMQEgtrs6mpFZ/s320/20180227_123440.jpg)
I fired up the Bic for 20 seconds or so and then attached a plastic yogurt container:
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWgMXCGEPUsNeeAJKiMO-Ai4WtB0qeVz5T3Uk22sLW3nE7katIrG_vbHskg9dZyKCupFmrjsA3COrQhbZ7Wx4NI-8dJgH4zPyO5RqHMlUAuiTUZeNUt4FKh6bnDJ_4W-ZwssNV/s320/20180227_123633.jpg)
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-CI9n0EhabVL-qZ_oMs0U0hAmJRsC6p3a-aGzyLZRVhb_2g85TgLuDZqDtWpJnMLMydkN1OYeNMYi-gcMQkme9gyViCxgdX6L4Vf1UBoqW2J1qX7cKVwHCNvElZ3U3qpYSNNH/s320/20180227_123809.jpg)
Like a hot knife through butter, the metal tip trivially pierced the plastic. Looking around for what else I could play with, I sliced up a ziplock bag.
I then went and grabbed some solder and tried melting it. No luck. Perhaps I need lower temperature solder for this to work?
This trick does get the paper clip hot enough to melt hot-glue-gun-glue. I grabbed some items recycling bin and confirmed that you can improvise a glue gun if need be:
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6KCAJW1xTaHugXf5v8cl4mgWiPZy8FGxKH1iumh6aMlYtOnP4X4bKgwT2XmM9iGBzhHAtR4dJ6D_R4HlkNVLAkeDR9ZOxk0fsMbUlxQyBa3ZoZzFHXnobRi4KieYChYUUQurS/s640/20180227_141716.jpg)
How practical is all of this? Not sure yet, but being able to rig up a hot knife in a few seconds with minimal supplies shows promise to me.
The video opens with a slick hack for keeping a lighter burning continuously. It involves a using a large screw, a nut and a hot glue gun to attach everything. This works, though a simple hair band works equally as well:
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvA6ZEMetqVTeTjmsMsd0PGJvfo53fBIkx6ZUnxVqNzOHR_gtWXTP7zBPeml0WvNn_LPc1nKfrLZjxSLPUIoOKJx4bg3jpsfPOhbRJdprS3RBjbA5n4CGWDx82updo0lT3ffzq/s640/20180227_123127.jpg)
But I think calling that a hack is probably being a bit too generous.
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