i had just finished fettling my 123 and was looking at a spare bell. A sudden thought "what would a bell for a shelf-queen look like?" (123 shelf-queen=contradiction to me) my ocd kicked in and... So- if any one needs a highly polished bell for a 123(NOT R), I need a regulator key for a 123(NOT R)
The burner bells and keys are the same. Also the burner bell and flame spreader were not polished when the 123's left the factory, just bright brass. I too, prefer the "not R" units. They seem to work better. I think it's because of fewer moving parts and no pricker needle in the orifice preventing full fuel flow. Of course that can be cured by removing the pricker needle from the "R" units. My light up protocol is: Top up the tank, clear the nipple. Prime. Light and cook. I do this every time I light the stove. I've yet to burn one dry or have a failure to ignite. As a matter of fact, I've yet to have a serious hiccough. In a 123, anyway. Gerry
I know they weren't originally polished, but my OCD doesn't know that. Once I get started, I can' seem to stop with just " bright". I keep seeing the little surface imperfections and they have to go away.
Mr. Ralph, were you in a sea-going service? You've done a yeoman's job of polishing the brass there, sailor! :-) willie on the F-A-C Gulf of Mexico
Avast, ya Swab! Steve FTG-1 '68-'78 If it's brass, polish it, if it don't move, Paint it... Painted a few BM's in my day...
Small world! The DE's became FF's in 1975-ish, My last ship was the USS Stein, FF-1065, homeport San Diego.
Awww, my friend. When? Possibly while I was on her? '72-'75???? Maybe we spoke on the phone, I was a phone talker for unrep station. We carried about 8 1/2 million gallons of fuel. I guess I was a stovie before I knew it. Ken in NC
Well, I was on the USS Blue DD744 from 1968-1970, the USS DeHaven DD727 from 1970-1971, The USS Douglas PG100 from 1971-1974 and finally the USS Stein FF1065 from 1977-1978. Three WestPacs, and a two year foward Deployment to the Med... We unrep'd From the Hass, the Mispillion, bunch of other AO's, every few days in WestPac, once in a while on the west coast too. The Hass went USNS in '78, scrapped in ...91, I think. All of my ships are gone, one to the scrapyard, one used as a anti-ship missile target,one to the Mexican navy, and my favorite, the Gunboat is a target hulk at Cherry point MCAS,NC...
So, probably not, unless the Douglas got fuel from us. She is almost scrapped, but not yet. Welcome home, sailor. Ken in NC
We probably did, I do remember doing real unreps with AO's, but we did a lot more unorthadox refuelings off LST's, and other smaller ships. Most of those were the "we get towed, and they float a hose back to us" variety... We did cross the Atlantic, in 72, with an AO, don't remember the name now. Daily unreps. We only carried 10,000 gallons of JP-4 (Kerosene) for the turbine, 10 hours worth at full throttle (40+ Knots) JP-4 was 11 cents a gallon, back then... Thanks for the welcome home, those have been quite scarce! Welcome home to you, and Thanks for being there for us!
I did a bit of RAS-ing (the Brit term for Unrep-ing) meself back in the day. I was AB in RFA Olmeda for half-a-year in '78. Went with the old Ark Royal on her farewell tour to US before she was made into razor blades. Took part in the Northern Wedding exercise on the way home, doing 83 RASs in 19 days. Happy, happy days. L-R: RFA Olmeda, A124, HMS Ark Royal, R09, RFA Reliant, A84.
