Cigarette Papers

I rain disapproval on bad habits passed on to youngsters by thoughtless conservatives, but I approve of Cigarette papers because they work so well.

The paper is thin, typically a thou, sometimes less. Being slightly absorbent means a little oil or spit sticks it temporarily on a spinning job. Then, slowly bringing the tool to bear whips it off a tiny fraction before the cutting edge touches the work. Cigarette paper is a very effective way of zeroing the tool on the work, and it's accurate, cheap, and easy!

I don't smoke either. Like to think when I buy the thinnest papers the shop has, that they think I'm an aficionado stoner, an elderly hippy dismissive of weed and fully prepared to argue the merits of Sour Diesel over Amnesia Block hashish...

Dave

Back in the day when I was working at a University I would sometimes pop into the campus newsagent for a packet of papers. They would always give me the King Size (spliff rolling) variety, Students eh!

Robin.

This was a long time ago in a galaxy far away, but:

Rizla Blue worked for setting the ignition timing on 1950s BSA magnetos. I had a wooden timing stick to put down the plug holes marked with TDC and 11/32" before. You chocked the magneto to 'fully advanced' with a nut or something, made sure you had all backlash taken up the right way, then rotated the magneto till the Rizla *just* dragged out between the points before (IIRC) tightening up on the taper.

Then you smoked the Rizla wrapped around whatever you happened to have...

Edited By Mick B1 on 10/02/2023 10:09:19

Somewhere, I bought a pack (Lots ) of Zig Zag papers. Theybare white and are 0.0015" (0.037mm ) thick.

Ideal for just "touching off" a job when "secured" with oil.

My executor will wonder why a non smpker had so many cigarette papers!

Howard

Back when I smoked, the Rizla red and green papers were 0.0015" thick and the blue were 0.001".

Just stumbled on this thread and it prompted me to check out paper thickness using my comparator.

I use black OC papers for smoking and workshop use as they seem the thinnest and don't burn down as quick.

These appear to be just over 25 microns, handy if you're working in Imperial.

The most common rolling paper, the green Rizla, is slightly thicker at 32 microns.

I knew I'd find a use for the comparator one day!

Edited By Steve Crow on 12/02/2023 17:29:25

Edited By Steve Crow on 12/02/2023 17:29:51

George Thomas wrote that he cut his papers into strips and they lived in a special tin. A single pack would last almost indefinitely.

Sainsbury's Non Stick Baking Paper comes in 15m x 380mm wide roles at GBP2 per roll and is very consistently 2 thou thick. Very good to use in the workshop when referencing. Suggest raiding the kitchen when the boss is at the hairdressers. There are other brands available.