I could not resist.....and bought another Svea 123 on DeBay. It was affordable and some of you all may have seen it. Stained totally black and missing the flame spreader. It looks as if it may have been roasted as the rim of the bottom has been expanded. At least it is a different contour than my other 123's. If it ran well, i'd never want to pull the main spindle, but after discussing it with Doc Mack it seems it might need a new wick. Unscrewing the spindle to allow me to make this change has proven to be a real problem. I have tried a variety of wrenches and vises and straps and locking pliers.....to no avail. I tapped on the lower part of the spindle with my fancy little fretting hammer. I soaked it for days in a "liquid wrench" sort of lubricant. And, i have been inventing new cuss-words as i went along, carefully used when no one else is in the shop. So, I'm looking for suggestions, ideas, methods to try. And, any cuss-words that may have worked for you. Thanks in advance! Piper
I might of been doing it wrong but it worked so cant be that bad. Ive replaced the wicks on 3 of my stoves and never taken out the spindle.Just take the whole riser tube off the font.
Here's what I do and it has worked with Svea 123s, 123Rs, Primus 71s, Optimus 80s and even Coleman 530s, 536s, and 520s. First, I put a good, adjustable wrench into a very large vise. The adjustability of the wrench is important so that you can snug it around the nut at the bottom of the burner valve body so that it doesn't slip. I put the stove into the wrench and tighten the wrench down as tight as I can. The wrench's jaws can not have any play in them, so good quality matters. I believe the one in the jaws is a Crescent brand. At this point you could use your hands to remove the tank from the burner valve body. But if it is still too tight, the next pictures may help. I have a rubber strip made out of nitrile that is about 1/8" or 2mm thick. I wrap it around the rim of the fuel tank since it is the most rigid part that you can grab. Anywhere else, will cave in and damage the tank. I have a set of Channel Lock brand pliers that allows me to adjust the size of the jaws to fit around the tank. The key is to grab the tank at the rim and contact as much surface area as possible. Here's a wider angle to show the length of the handles. The longer the handles the better the leverage to turn the tank. You have to be careful and watch the grip so that it does not slip off onto the tank, and, you also have to keep the valve body nut within the jaws of the wrench at the same time. This photo was taken after I had turned the tank about an eighth or quarter turn. I couldn't turn the tank by hand but with all my new leverage it turned very easily. Finally, below, we have the valve body and the tank apart and no damage. You can see another wick (far right) that I had done recently on the vise. You can also see the rubber strip has the teeth marks from the pliers and none on the tank. Hope that helps, sam
I used an oil filter wrench on mine. The type that has a metal strap that keeps a good circle. It doesnt crush filters and did no hark to the 123.
I have tried all of the methods mentioned so far in this thread. But a stubborn old Primus 70 would not budge. The old 70 had no "nut" at the bottom were it meets the tank. I just put it in a plastic bag with keroseen and atf-oil in the stove project bin and forgot about it. After some months I found it when looking for something in the bin, the fount came off at the first try. The fount is a bit twisted (from my primary tries) but with a new wick it still burns..... As one of my friends puts it "procrastination alwyas pays off", and in this case it might be that capillary forces need a lot of time when the capillars are few or very narrow. /Lars
I finally got it off, using the "locking pliers and brass hammer" method of many-small-taps. Sounded like the drum corps was setting tempo in here for a bit. the wick , in brass screen, was carmelized and crusty, no way it would really burn right. Pics later. piper
I shredded some pure cotton kitchen twine and made a wick and lo and behold the old 123 fires up and runs. It seems a little quieter than the others, but that is a guess. It came without a flame spreader so i cut one out of some brass kick-plate and dished it with a ball pein hammer . My only issue is that it burns with long yellow flames. i screwed off the whole head and replaced it with one from another stove and it runs fine, and the symptoms are now transferred to the other stove. So, it must be my home grown flame spreader. Is there a rule for how high or low the dome should be from the jet? I'll keep fiddling with it as sitting on the patio and messing with stoves is better than anything on TV. piper
Good job getting that apart and back together. The pictures demand some some comment about using vise grips on your nuts; can't come up with one however. I have one of the Asian (Pak) clones of the Svea on which I had to fashion a spreader plate, and it also burns yellow. However, in my case the spreader is thin steel and I dismissed it to poor heat transfer. Hope you get it figured out.
Putting vise grips on ones nuts has a rather ominous sound to it. How about "vise grips on the burner spindle" ? I tried the proper metric end wrench....and it spun off. I moved to a fits-all, crescent wrench, tightened down...and it spun off. Then, into the quite new, crisp machinist vise, inverted tank. No go, with the vise tight, it resisted and rounded the corners. So, on to the vise grips and brass hammer. Yup, i messed it up, but as stated earlier, it was burned black and showing signs of overpressure when i got it. So, i figured at the very worst, i'd end up with a tank and some spare parts. As it turned out, it now works as a stove. I'll pull it again and graphite the joint and hope it is better the next time. humbly, piper
Piper, I may (possibly) have a vaporizer/riser in a bag of SVEA parts. I have/get to go up the mountain to cut wood today, I will look later. If I forget, please PM me to remind me. Ken in NC
Maybe we need one of the following tools. Something that will grip the fastener or burner spindle and not harm it. Any thoughts? Stanley MaxGrip with locking mechanism: ViseGrip locking wrench plier: Here's the locking wrench in action: I kinda like the ViseGrip product since there are small and large sizes and the fact that it can grip from three sides of the nut. The smallest one has a range of 1/4" to 9/16". I might have to go and have a look at one of these to see how it could possibly work in a really tough situation. I guess I've not had one that was really, really stuck like yours, Piper. I've had some tough ones but none that required extra holding pressure. sam
The adjustable wrench had me thinking this was a wish such a tool existed but those vice grips look very real
The "Stanley MaxGrip" looks like some edited photograph, but a web search shows it as a real item. That's the funniest thing I've seen in a while. The other one looks worthy of it space. Ken in NC
Sam. I have never seen that type of vice grip locking wrench before. It looks very handy. Something to look for next time in the hardware store. Thanks
Yeah Sam, thanks for the quandary! Which of the two designs to go for first. My shed is already in mortal danger of bursting at the seams but both types look too useful to be ignored when I see a set I'm going to have to part with some cash. Regards John
I purchased a Harbor Freight rubber strap wrench. I grip the spindle in a GOOD vice, snugly but not over tight then unscrew the fount from the spindle. Ive used this on myriad stoves and have yet to have one not come apart easily with this setup. No marks, either as I use a couple of 3" lengths of alumin(i)um angle for jaw pads in the vice. A good small machinist's vice is an investment, not an expenditure. Mine is a 3" Wilton machinist's vice found at the flea market for $10 fifteen or so years ago. It retails new for around $350 or thereabouts. Record makes a fine small vise for not much money. There's an Aussie brand too, but I can't for the life of me remember the name. A cheap vice is money down the drain. I've never seen a good mainland Chinese made vice. Taiwanese, Indian, yes; mainland Chinese, scrap iron and not very good scrap at that. Gerry
I've 'parted with some cash' and two of the Vise Grip pliers will be arriving at my doorstep on Friday. Can't wait to perform some experiments. Should be interesting. Sorry, Piper, I guess this topic has taken a new turn, but not too much off course! It's all in the name of better fettling! sam
