Not a mis-spelling, it's a Brillant stove For an gravity-feed alcohol stove, it's large, certainly compared to that Austrian Phoebus alongside it Over a foot in length (300mm) tip to toe Quality of manufacture is outstanding. All joints are sealed by tapered threads. No rubber or fibre washers to perish The stove frame is enamelled cast iron, cast in one piece The brass burner vapouriser tube forms a doughnut shape, sandwiched between cast-iron burner base and top plates Curiosity got the better of me and I wanted to see the interior construction, which required some delicate drilling to get the fixing screws out, which no amount of heating or soaking in releasing oil was going to shift I re-tapped the holes in the base plate to take metric replacements Here's the arrangement inside the burner In this component, vapourised fuel enters at the left, air from the bottom and fuel/air mixture is ejected out of the right-hand opening into the combustion chamber The regulator spindle tip mates up with the hole in the centre and when the spindle is twisted open, fuel (liquid during the priming phase, vapour when in operation) passes through the other hole ... ... which is the fuel injector orifice in the vapouriser tube/ring Bit of a snag, the filler cap was missing By happy chance, a British Standard Pipe end stop had threads a very close match TO BE CONTINUED John
A good fit as I said With a half-inch thick disc of brass silbrazed on to it and the assembly turned and pilot-drilled from end-to-end (to prevent fuel starvation) it made an acceptable replacement The wick-carrier is that brass tubing on the left, perforated throughout its length. I tried a couple of options - made out of solder mat fibre (the grey one), a piece of woodstove door seal rope - before realising the original wick (next to the wick carrier) performed just as well so had plenty of life left in it in spite of the slight scorching Wick/carrier gets installed in the vapourising tube Burner trials. From a simmer ... ... to an intermediate setting ... a bit more (bit of yellow starting to appear) Full heat. I'm hoping the yellow will burn off after a few firings Fired up, ready for the kettle Brew time John
Hi John a perfect name for a brilliant stove, and a brilliant documented restoration. That beautiful kettle John looks like it was made for that stove, they go together so well a perfect combination
Cheers Brian. Obvious point I should have noticed earlier occurred to me making coffee this morning and it's that what I've been calling the top plate of the burner is also a trivet for pots with a base of small diameter The effect of the flames emerging from the base plate of the burner and playing up and around the contours of the doughnut vapouriser tube means that they don't actually impinge on the base of any pot of any diameter and placing pots directly on the top plate/trivet doesn't of course smother the flames as it would if placed on a burner with outlet holes at the top. Stating the obvious I know, but it took me a coffee and a ponder to work that out! A perfect configuration for simmering too So, coffee pot on board ... A hotplate for very small pans - taking it a bit too far here John
John, you are some sort of evangelist, because you have converted me. I have owned only one of these gravity-fed alcohol stoves. My example was not as nice as yours and I was not impressed by it at all. In fact at one of Gary's N.E. meets I gave it away. Now I am having second and third thoughts about these stoves. Thank you for opening my eyes.
House rule not to discuss politics or religion other than in the CCS Lounge ... and you a Moderator too, Trevor. Tut, tut. Although the huffing and puffing, bells and whistles of a pressure stove are always going to get my vote, so too is the quiet efficiency of one of these and having the priming fluid 'on tap' (literally) is a great convenience. John
