Here's how simple it is...
I started out with the following materials.
- Three corks from Jenlain beer bottles (because I didn't have a big enough piece of cork for this).
- A crown cap from a bottle of Żywieć.
- Some 0.7mm diameter brass wire.
- A piece of cable-laid cotton string.
And the following tools.
- A pair of pliers.
- A douk-douk.
- An awl.
I cut a slice from each cork.
Then used the awl to put a hole in each.
Then used a bit of the brass wire to stitch them together.
Next, I used the awl to cut a slot in one of the cork slices.
Then I used the douk-douk to make two cuts in the rim of the crown cap and then used the pliers to fold down the rum leaving a little tab sticking up.
The tab fits into the slot cut into the cork.
Next, I flipped over the cork floater and used the awl to pierce a small hole in the centre of the crown cap.
Then I removed the crown cap and used the douk-douk to enlarge the hole.
The hole is too small to be able to easily push the very soft cotton string through it, so I wrapped a bit of the brass wire tightly around the end of the string.
This goes through the gap where the three corks meet, then through the hole in the crown cap.
Then I filled the jam jar to around 1/3 full with cooking oil, and trimmed the string to not have too much coiled around in the bottom of the jar.
This was a commercial blend of rapeseed, sunflower and grapeseed oil from the supermarket, but any vegetable oil should work. These kind of lamps are often used in Greece, with olive oil as the fuel.
A side view to show the level of the oil and the string. I waited for five minutes to allow the oil to be drawn all the way up the wick
Lighting can be a bit tricky... it's not easy to reach down into the jar with a burning match to get the wick burning.
Now a few pictures with the lights out, in my basement workshop with no windows, to show how much light this gives.
