ARARA resurrection? possible? COMPLETED!

She certainly has now!

She'd probably be saying, "Ouchhhhhhhhh".

Now I think I want this one up-and-running as much as you do, Lou!

 

just what I say every time i get up in the morning
pressured test done.
40 lbs PSI
60 lbs PSI
80 lbs PSI
100 lbs PSI
120 lbs PSI
wahhhh the repair I did with plumbers 63/37 gave way at over 120 Lbs PSI ; all the originals + ones repaired with 5% silver bearing held thank I over pressured her a bit
well nothing to do except do it again; guess the plumbers is not as strong as the silver bearing; but it was what I had at hand
cheers
Lou

 

Not much pressure. It only takes 5 or 6 pumps to get the stove operating well with a good pump leather and fine working NRV. So, 5 psi? Yours and others like it are low pressure vessels that don't need a lot of pressure to operate.



sam

 

Sam, thanks for the follow up; found that pressure thing out the hard way again; Oh well another learning experience
resoldered the rupture after tapping it back into place; used the 5% silver bearing solder.
have one of Sefa's lovely leather cups soaking in Neatsfoot oil to put in later this evening.
have the reservoir soaking with acetone and BBs; have sloshed them around about 500 times with my assistant ; have an old noiseless burner installed; just want to slosh the BBs around some more, amazing the amount of crud that have gotten out just wondering when she came to the US?, aprox. time of manufacture; the history of ARARA stoves Dresden is pretty sparse and it kinda peters out about 1945, cheers
Lou

 

Hi Lou, learning by Experience is a hard Road. You should have done a CCS search on Proof Test:

https://classiccampstoves.com/posts/118464

Note also the dangers of carrying out pressure tests with gas rather than with mainly water.

Best Regards,
Kerophile.

 

Amen!

I did do a search on pressure but did not know what or how to ask the question Re: pressure testing reservoir so passed this important piece of information by ; in any case I was pretty safety conscious and had it partially filled with water; it was not dramatic; just a sudden release of bubbles .
Interesting that the silver solder repairs + originals held but the plumbers solder 67 Tin/37 lead repair was what gave way; well; it helps to collect this data so others won't make the same mistake.
feel very good about what has been accomplished even though it has been a heck of a process
there was a very large POW camp in Aliceville close by where many German captives were held during WWll at one time over 5000, they used to come for yearly reunions till about 7-8 years ago; it could explain why this pre ww2? old girl showed up, they have a lot of personal items at the camp museum; can't find any information on ARARA stoves 'cept they were made in Dresden till 1945.
have her washed out and have sloshed acetone + BBs around in her many many times and keep getting out just black tarry like stuff; will keep on doing it till she clears up; put in one of Sefa's lovely leather cups and she does pump up and hold pressure though with her beat up NRV that I could not get out.......don't know why but she does; will take a look in a bit and if clear enough will load and fire , proof is if and only if I can get her to burn .
thanks again for all the support, advice and encouragement as always my best
Lou

 

SHE IS ALIVE :o

yippiiii
plug ugly but she works; guess kinda like me
beat up around the edges + more than a few dents

She is ALIVE YIPPIIIII

with my lovely helper

starting up and hot

settling down

and from the side

hmmmm now have to think about breakfast with my two orphans, electrified Solus and resurrected Arara; Gentlemen as always my appreciation for the help, advice, encouragement and support to bring this old girl back to life and burning; could not have done it without it; cheers
Lou

 

Well Lou, all I can say is !!!

All the best,

Wim

 

After all you've been through this is a real pleasure to see it working again , well done 8)

The next 50/100 stoves will seem easy to fettle after this

Stu

 

Lou,

You did it!!!





Have great day!


sam

 

Well done!

 

shucks; could never even thought of trying to fix her till I saw what y'all have done here and got inspired so have to blame it largely on all the help, suggestions, advice and encouragement from this group .
'course my helper was always wanting to "lets go fix the old stove daddy"
here they are at work this morning the 2 orphan stoves ......Electrified Solus and the Beat up Arara had to watch my helper closely but she wanted to do it all from pricking to preheating, cooking sausages and eggs to shutting down.....I had to clean up
two orphan stoves

my best helper preheating


it has been fun and am truly indebted to this group for some great moments and as always my best
Cheers
Lou

 

G,,day . well done !!!!!!!!
if it made your lovely little helper happy it was definitely worth the effort.
I admire your persistence , and I am sure you have learnt a lot . especially pressure testing
there is a saying ;
"I never make mistakes , I just learn how not to do it"
cheers
kerry

 

Have the mods change the title.... ARARA resurrection! POSSIBLE!
Congratulations and well done.
John

 

You have done a briliant job but the following comment will probably see be hated by everyone.

I wonder how many stress cracks havnt shown up yet.

Despite now being a working stove its just too risky to use regularly. I would drain the tank put a label on it saying "I fixed this" and only bring it out for special occasions.

 

Wih the amount of heat this old girl has had pressed upon it i think that its been well annealed so stress cracks should be of little worry , & with the experience gained during this restoration a stress crack repair is not going to be any problem now

Stu

 

have a technical question to others in the forum with more experience; most everybody have been using her daily and she gets a nice lovely blue flame but after about 6-8 minutes starts to underburn so pump her up again; pumping her up again and doing a bubble test there is a very tiny leak under the left side of the sorry base repair that I did with 63/37 lead plumbers solder.......for peace of mind till now no stress cracks
I know it is under the sorry repair I did and then over stressed with 120Lbs pressure;
how should I approach the problem?.
a. remove all the base repair solder by heat? and redo totally?
b. very tempting to wire brush the heck out of it; clean over and over with solvent and then heat everything up and see if the leak quits after solder re-flows?.
she gets used a lot does very well for about the time it takes to get the coffee pot to perk and want to keep her going as she seems happy being worked by my lovely young helper.
appreciate advice suggestions and shared experiences......cheers
Lou

 

Again my appreciation to all on this site; George pointed me in the right direction again thanks
was tempted to take the entire sorry a** solder base repair out but dreaded doing this as felt it might be a bit like chasing smoke.....eg: unsolder one place and repair then another pops up, then another and so on; and the leak was TINY the old girl would hold enough pressure for a 4 cup pot of coffee to perk but after several minutes would have to pump her up with her new leather cup
so following my mentors sound advice just washed her out, over and over then wire brushed the repair and its seam many many times then brake cleaner spray then dry well then liberal amounts of flux and reheat till the flux bubbled and the solder flowed
George; here she is after 20 minutes going non stop and no pumping after she was lit, kinda like "Black Beauty" after 70 years rough but still able to put in a days work



tonight she will get a good workout; have some ground deer meat and sausage to make the kids some pasta. thanks again and cheers
Lou

 

methinks this burner is way too hot

the outer cap is glowing red and with quite a bit of light on it !



reviewed the topic of underburning and the jet I have in here is a very loose pricker fit; have no idea of what brand jet , burner, inner or outer Cap I have on it but it; seems the supply of 0.23 jets has dried up for the silent burners and am thinking this is what is needed here a new 0.23 jet; the work John/Presscall has done is gorgeous with lipsticks and coil burners and the "nipple squeezing" technique George has shown will get one out of a bind BUT has there been a permanent fix like John has done on the lipsticks and Egyptian coil?; just trying to look ahead from a maintanence man point of view, appreciate input on this possible future problem that eventually a lot of us will have;
Cheers;
Lou