Improved homemade oil lamp

I saw a simple oil lamp on MAKE blog today, and thought it was a neat idea. After reading more about it I saw that the oil level had to be maintained as best as possible to keep the wick from burning out, and it suggested adding marbles to compensate for dropping oil levels. I tried to think of a solution that wouldn't require monitoring, and wouldn't have trouble pulling oil up the wick as the oil level fell.

I came up with a floating wick holder


It's pretty simple


Simple coat hanger metal bent into a wick remover



The floating wick is three sections of cork cut 1/4" thick, strung together with some craft wire, with a short piece of wick shoved through the middle. Use a bit of foil with a hole in the middle for the wick to keep the cork from burning.


Should work for a long time, and be easily refilled without extinguishing the flame. The wick can be rolled up twine as recommended at the link, but I just used a rectangle of shirt cotton rolled up. For different flames experiment with thickness of wick, and how much the wick sticks out of the cork. Should work with most oils, but apparently olive oil burns cleanly. Dunk the wick in the oil and heat the wick for a while until it starts burning, it might take a bit the first time. Extinguish it smokelessly by dunking it in the oil with the wire wick remover.

Stock up on that veggie oil for reliable emergency lighting.

Consider adding some craft wires sticking horizontally out of the wick in three directions to keep it centered in the lamp.