Monitor No. 17B Touring Stove Stove came last evening. The tin is in near mint shape. Removed the bits, assembled it and it lit right of with a good priming. Fantastic! Burns nicely with a bit of yellow on top of the four blue fingers of fire. Cherry red flame spreader even in daylight. My first old style brass kerosene stove. Being my first of this sort, I must make it shine! Now the work began. I took everything apart including the check-valve below the pump. Soaked all in a small plastic container full of vinegar for two hours. Started taking the pieces out and working the remaining tarnish off with a fine brass brush, a rinse in water, and drying. Most cleaned well and easy. The primer cup took some extra work removing the residue of priming paste I think. Gave the jet on the end of the riser tube a good pricking. Now the tank. I think it had lacquer applied at one time. It had browned and cracked a bit,and took more effort. Had to use a plastic scrub pad to remove the lacquer and then brushed lightly with the brass brush. rinsed tank inside and out. A good rinse and shake inside with alcohol to remove any remaining water. Emptied and let the remaining alcohol air dry while I worked the tank outside and other parts with Brasso. Oh, what a shiny stove I had now. Time 11:30pm. Wait till midnight I tell myself... O.K., It's July 4th, Independence Day! Take the newly shined and filled stove out on the porch and carefully put it all together. Fill the sparkling priming cup with alcohol, arrange the windscreen light and wait with airscrew open . As the alcohol flame started to die I closed the airscrew, a very slight push on the pump, heard the kero move, and AHA! We have fire out the burner head. A couple more pumps and let the ROAR begin. It drowned out the sound of neighborhood firecrackers and bottle rockets! Couldn't hear them any more. The flame was pure blue now, and the flame spreader and burner head were a bright cherry red. What a pretty sight. I grabbed my Bialetti and getting it ready in record time, went back to the porch and placed it atop this beautiful little stove. Sat on the swing waiting for the smell and steam to appear. Surely one could not hear the pot working over the stove. Three minutes later I have poured myself a tall espresso to toast the holiday. I sat in the swing, lights out, and let the stove burn as I sat there drinking in the roaring sound, the cherry red burner, the nice blue flames (no yellow any longer), and a good espresso. (/temporary link) I will edit it out when pictures disappear from eBay Alas my camera insisted on new batteries as I was preparing to click away. I will take some pictures later and post them here after I go down to town for batteries. Here is the eBay posting of condition it was in as sold. Nice pictues really. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=180001625669&ssPageName=STRK:MEWN:IT&ih=008 (/end temporary link) Sleep came later after the espresso wore down , but I had a smile on my face as I nodded off. Hal
Fantastic! I'm sure it will be only the first of many but it will always be special. The tin (sorry Rik) is one of the finest out of the UK - most were quite bland.
Hi Ross, This was actually my second classic old style kero stove purchased , but first to arrive. My first purchase was a Radius 1C from Australia. Still anxiously awaiting it, and will post pics of it in a seperate thread upon receipt. Hal
HAL2U. wonderful,arn't they--after i fired up my first one i asked where have these been all my life???--
Well done on scoring your Monitor 17b, and particularly well done that it has had its pump leather replaced. The original piece of plastic used as a pump bucket, tended to harden and fail from the heat of the stove. I'm not into the cases/tins as much as Ross, but when I first saw the 17b tin I was smitten. Quite evocative!! You are correct, it's next to impossible to hear the gurgle of the espresso pot over the roar of the stove ... I tend to leave the lid up on the espresso pot , and remove it from the flame just as it begins it's spluttery gurgle. Enjoy the Flame ... and hurry up with the batteries for your camera , we need photos Spudz
Hello all, Here is the promised pics of this little gem all shined up and in action. The nice tin. Open kit with readable instructions. Bottom view with all bits. Top view all shiny. Assembled and shiny. Ready to prime. First fire on freshly cleaned burner. It will clean up again. Continued in next post....
... continued from previous post. Kettle on! That would be your's truly appearing in the reflection in my tie-died finery. shaky close-up. checking flame again. Full steamer! Cherry red, blue flame another view. Cherry red from above. Hope you enjoyed looking at the pics as much as I did cleaning and firing this baby up! I only regret not having darkness pics of the lovely flame. Best to all, Hal
Thats the shiniest stove I've ever seen !! Absolutely gorgous pix !!!!! What did you use to polish it ???
Thank you Spudz! Your 17B is burning very nicely now too. Wait til you can give it a couple good pumps! Very nice little stoves are they not? Hal
Hi Steve, Thank you for the great compliment. I gave details of the cleaning in my first post of this thread. To summarize here: 2 hours in tub of vinegar and 4 hours of elbow grease with plastic scouring pad, fine bristled brass brush, cotton soaked in brasso, and a clean soft cloth. Hal
Hal, Ive done Brasso till my fingers go numb,but I never had a stove look like that ! I might have to get a wheel and polishing compound! All I can add is...WOW Very nice and the Flame , Ahhh,the Flame
We Squids used Neverdull,which is raw cotten soaked in something.Brasso was reserved for belt buckles,as it cost $$ but worked better. You would be amazed at the amount of brass on a ship,all needing daily polishing
I used to detest polishing these. All awkward bits, and heaven help you if you nudged it back to half whilst you were doing it. I think it was having to polish such things that has made me so reluctant to polish stoves.
Ahhh,Ian,you must have been a quartermaster,which in the us navy takes care of the bridge and also navigation . Engine order telegraph,if I remember correctly 8) Ours weren't so pretty
Another little Monitor stove, this one used to be shiney as well, but these days I can't be bothered really nice little stove Watch how long you leave in vineger, too long and the brass goes pink and is a real bugger to polish up then. You've done a cracking job on yours bajabum, nice one
