S.T. Dupont Lighter Owners Club

[BT1974]

And here is how it all began…
This is the first ST Dupont lighter i bought. And I STILL have trouble with it! It is a L1 BR. I have used a variety of nozzles on this-pipe, cigar-but it has a regular nozzle right now.

These are the lighters in the order in which I bought them-left to right, except the second lighter I bought I gave to a friend who is probably checking her bra for a Bic at this very moment. They all run except the Table lighter and the one to the right.
The black lacquer one has a cigar nozzle, which I really like. But twice the flame = twice the buildup.
The one to the left of the Table Lighter is a L1 BS, which I enjoy working on. The one second from the right is a D57 which I do not enjoy working on.

The Gatsby was really beat up but is cleaning up nicely. It has a chip in the lacquer. I am trying to decide what to do about that, but have a few options.

@EA-6B I STILL can’t find the gas shutoff spring that screws into the castle. Thats the one with the delrin spring box. Also, can you get just the D ring for the Gatsby valve and regulator? Both broke trying to get it disassembled, but the rest of the cap is fine.

 

[BT1974]

I've been communicating with the parts-supplier, & he's saying that he's switched his supply to the good Pipe-Flame nozzles that I'm familiar with using, & will be send replacements.

-Current report on testing the rest of the new parts so far:

-The nozzle-tools that I bought are actually for the older 'BS' Line1 models, not the 'BR' models that I work on. That was my mistake, but he is giving me credit for them as a return.

-They made a mistake on the Line1 Tall fill-valve threads, & he's going to send me correct replacements in a couple weeks once he has more made:
(New aftermarket Line1 Tall Fill-Valve above, original below.)
View attachment 433730


-Finally, I noticed that he makes a variety of Line1 slotted & D-ring fill caps, so I'm going to have him add a gold-plated D-Ring fill cap for Line1 Talls, so I can evaluate it.

I've been happy so far with everything else that he sent, although I did mention to him that his L1 Shortie fill-valves might run more reliably if he switches to the 3-eared seal instead of the included circular disc seal.
(I'm not even 100% sure on that one, but that's what I seem to have been noticing in the short amount of time that I've been testing them so far.)

So hopefully in about three weeks I should have some more good news. He said he would even ship the D-ring & nozzles out now, but I said 'just ship them with the replacement L1 Tall fill valves, if that makes more sense', so that's the plan.

Is your supplier making those with a CNC machine? I looked at one of those machines and immediately thought about making replacement valves.

 

[EA-6B]

The black lacquer one has a cigar nozzle, which I really like. But twice the flame = twice the buildup.


@EA-6B I STILL can’t find the gas shutoff spring that screws into the castle. Thats the one with the delrin spring box.

Also, can you get just the D ring for the Gatsby valve and regulator? Both broke trying to get it disassembled, but the rest of the cap is fine.

Never seen just a D-ring available. I've de-pinned & re-pinned an aftermarket D-ring from an aftermarket adjuster cap, onto an authentic L2 gas valve adjustment cap, because the aftermarket gas adjustment cap splines will start skipping over the stock splines after a few uses. At least, that was my experience.

You might have to keep hunting for that spring, but something like that should be common enough to find someone parting one out eventually. Buying an entire parts-lighter for that part can be tough because you won't know what's in there until you get it open; it could be the other style.

I've seen L1 twin-flame Cigar-Flame nozzles on the aftermarket, but the original L1 Cigar Flame nozzles burn with a wide single flame. I've seen those on the aftermarket too, but not for a long time.

Authentic Cigar-Flame nozzle on left:

Cigar-Flame on left:

Is your supplier making those with a CNC machine? I looked at one of those machines and immediately thought about making replacement valves.

I'm not sure exactly how they are making them. Could be digital or analogue machines, but I'm guessing probably some sort of CAD & CNC is being used.