Cigarette Papers

Phew, relieved to see this is a relevant thread...

I've still got half the packet i bought ~20 years ago, so I must use 1 or 2 a year!

Neil

I have just learned [from a site which it may be against policy to link] that:

Rizla Blue Rolling Papers are chlorine-free

This may, just conceivably, have an engineering relevance.

MichaelG.

What colour are the Metric ones ? I have been looking for these for donkeys years 😁

I had no idea that there were different grades and thicknesses; I must go and have a measure. I've still got a stock of various cigarette papers confiscated from kids when I was a school teacher. I always told them they could reclaim them at the end of year eleven (fifth form in old money) when they left school, but none of them ever did, so they went home with me when I retired, along with a collection of cheap lighters. One kid did send his mother in to negotiate with me for the return of a Zippo lighter - apparently he had 'borrowed' it from his Dad, and was in serious trouble at home for it!

George B.

Nice challenge for all those blokes with micron and tenths micrometers. It's a good test of instrument and technique, because no-one knows the right answer, if there is one. (I doubt fag paper is made as accurately as a slip gauge.)

My un-calibrated G-clamp suggests 0.017mm for Rizla Silver Super Thin. ( About 0.0007" )

Dave

Edit Smiley exterminated

Edited By SillyOldDuffer on 13/07/2020 17:39:28

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Which, co-incidentally, is one tenth the thickness of a de-facto standard [*] microscope slide coverslip.

MichaelG.

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[*] other thicknesses are available, but that’s what many objectives are designed around.

What do people use cigarette papers for? (other than smoking!).

I ask the question because I've never seen them used them in engineering.

I've seen "fag paper" being used to set the ignition timing on old motorcycles, not with good effect, difficult to get any "feel" with them, 1 1/2" thou feeler much better, would the same be true in whatever way the may be used in engineering?

John

Ps, never heard the trueing of a mill head called "tramming" until I joined this forum.

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Attach a fragment of paper to a workpiece [typically on the mill] then bring the rotating cutter up to it ... the paper will be snatched away when the cutter is within about one thou of the work.

...

MichaelG.

I have written to RIZLA+ but NOT had any response

I presume that their boffins will know.

Incidentally RIZLA+ = Rice paper and La Croix (the firm that made them originally)

Very many thanks for your continuing interest

MC

A very long time ago I joined the Instrument Mechanics Dept of what became Severn Trent Water, was then the North West Gloucestershire Water board, based at Staverton Airport between Cheltenham and Gloucester

Two of the chaps whose unfortunate lot was to look after me and make sure i didn't get into trouble recounted how they had been employed in a Clean Room environment, I don't remember for whom.

Their angle on this story was that Rizla papers were the only thing they had found which did not shed fibres, yet would absorb liquid. Hence they could be used in a clean room without contaminating the dust free atmosphere.

Best rgds Simon

I started using "fag papers" for rolling a smoke when I bought a house and took out a mortgage in 1976, could not afford Players then and have always used fag paper for edge finding, feelers for flatness and for timing engines, infact I timed a 1954 Enfield this weekend and used the spoke down the plughole method to find TDC.

Casting my mind back the Red papers were the standard thickness as was the Green papers but the Green had cut corners for easier rolling in those little rolling machines, and the Blue papers were a thinner. My favourite smoke was Three Castles a very light brown tobacco, sadly it became unavailable in the 90s so I changed to tailor made Regal, then in 2015 I had a heart attack, had three stents fitted and the consultant said "you shouldn't smoke anymore" so I didn't, and I haven't since. But I often fancy a smoke but the fancy only lasts few seconds, but saying that if the heart attack hadn't happened I would be still be smoking I suppose costing me £3,500 per year.

Colin

I claim the award for the most improbable reference to Rizla paper: **LINK**

https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlehtml/2015/ta/c5ta00687b

MichaelG.

A mate of mine has spent the last 40 years maintaining oboe's for a living. He gets through boxes of blue Rizla at work. Not sure what for though.

Standard technique for woodwind players. The holes in the instrument are closed by a leather-covered pad when you press a key. The pads sometimes get a bit sticky with grut and moisture, so the action becomes slow and unpredictable. You put the paper between the pad and the hole, press the key lightly, slide the paper out and voila! (Not viola, that's in a different section.) The cigarette paper is strong, flexible, doesn't shed fibres, and at one time most players would have had a packet in their pocket.

George B.

Edited By Georgineer on 14/07/2020 12:49:49

For setting up the changewheels on a lathe. By putting a paper between the wheels it gives a small clearance and stops the gears from grinding together, and is spat out when you turn the wheels. I must admit I tend to use ordinary paper these days since the amount of clearance isn't critical.

George B.

I obviously have too much time on my hands - a while back I also asked myself about thickness of fag papers, and made measurements of stacks of 1,2,3,4 and 5 papers, taking five measurements at 'random' locations for each stack. Results for Rizla green (X number of papers, Y thickness in microns):

Linear regression gives a slope of 24.56 +/- 0.18 microns, with 95% confidence interval 24.20 - 24.92 microns. So I think we can say a thou! No doubt, in time, metric papers will be available.

Robin.

Edited By Robin Graham on 14/07/2020 21:08:50

Legge Millicutter Tobacco Cutting Machines use 4 tobacco papers to set the 4 Thou clearance for the knife clearances. Get it wrong and it can be very expensive.

Also used on milling machines stuck to a very lightly oiled work piece when the cutter rotating very slowly preferably by hand would brush it from the work you had 1 thou clearance.

Eric

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Edited By oldvelo on 15/07/2020 04:07:29

VHS video tape is good. About 0.02mm thickness. The long play tape is slightly thinner, but don't remember its thickness. EOC make 10um 0.01mm shim stock and 0.02mm shim stock as well. But is quite expensive per roll.

Disagree.

I've used green or blue Rizla papers timing points ignition (points just opening) on motorcycles for over 35 years. Even when i ran a professional workshop, it was my preferred method.

In the machine shop, i prefer Rizlas to edge finders or wigglers.

Re colours, thickness is virtually negligeable, blue being thinner if we are being picky, but red and green are more robust in a workshop enviroment, especially with oily fingers etc.