Dear CCS friends I took a deep breath and jumped .... can be called inexperience, or being foolhardy or just nuts. I acquired a rather battered Juwel 34 stove for approximately 1.5 Euro and decided to bring it back from the clench of the decay. A quick inspection and initial autopsy revealed the following: Warning, the following pictures are not for the faint hearted The first look - I would say she has a certain charm. The later stages of the "undressing" revealed the extent of the decay and rust both in the windshield, the tank and the top and bottom caps. The brass components (control valve, burner assembly and the SRV/fuel cap) are more or less in good shape, though the burner bell probably is not the original factory finish... Fortunately the steel tank seems to be fuel tight and even included a fair amount of good old school leaded benzin. There is no residue or particles of additives. That fuel in itself is at least 20 years old. Both the SRV/fuel cap and the burner assembly came undone very easily. The fuel cap rubber seal is in perfect condition. The tank was flushed, cleaned - no rust spots found which is good news - then plugged and prepared for paint removal. The burner assembly wick was interesting, it doesn't seems to be cotton, rather an early type glass fiber bundle. And finally the accessories in a little very rusty tin box. Everything seems to be made of rust, though you can identify a pricker with 4 spare needles, a spare fuel cap rubber seal, a graphite packing roll and a spare hex jet. The stove comes with the original funnel (not pictured), but sadly without the original control key. Based on the information I found in the Stove Reference Gallery I would say the little rusty lady is from the early 70-es. But I'm happy to accept an expert date identification. The stove steel components are given to a friend of mine for careful sand blasting and base painting. I will start fiddling with the brass components. More to come ...... Zoltan
@SomiZ I have seen worse but the restoration should make for an interesting challenge . Enjoy the experience Martin
Dear Tony (@Tony Press ), John (@presscall ), Martin (@ROBBO55 ) and @Deider Thanks for the encouraging words, we will see how it is folding along .... I had a little time to continue with the autopsy/strip-down of the burner unit and the assorted part of the Juwel 34. A more closer view of the burner bell and the flame plate. No markings or engravings, but the bell needs a bit of straightening. Most probably with a wooden tool/hammer. I wonder if it makes sense to heat up the brass to soften the material a but to prevent cracking? The actual burner unit came apart quite easily, only the graphite packing was a bit tight, therefore the valve rod (whihc is steel, not brass) needed to be pulled out with a pliers. A very strange/interesting "feature" of the jet nipple was discovered. Either it had a very fine micro filter of glass fiber material which has been built up fuel particles and burned to hard coal OR its the buildup was purely caused by the particles in the fuel (which would be strange as it is a upright standing stove with a vertical wick, so I cannot figure out how actual particles could go up in the jet.) A closeup and comparison shot with the replacement jet next to it. I was not able to remove it via brute force and persistence or with the subsequent citric acid bath so I will try with heat & clench. The completely disassembled SRV using my old and trusty Swede wrench (literary ). The rubber nip is in good shape so I'm keeping that, but the cap washer will be replaced as the old seal was too hard for my liking - and it came apart when I removed it. The metal assorted components - like the foldable pricker and the spare pricker nips - went into a anti-rust solvent (phosphoric acid and boric acid mix) bath for a couple of hours. After that all the particles was removed with an old toothbrush and treated with Remington gun oil. All the brass components has been washed with household degreaser (normal dishwasher stuff) which resulted only a very light improvement. The everything was placed into a citric acid bath which worked much better indeed. Fun question - in the citric acid bath there are some odd components ( 4 item) can you find them and identify to which stove they belongs to? After the bath, rinsing and drying, the burner unit is almost ready for assembly. I'd like to have some polishing exercise and see if a heat resistant lacquer could work. Already has some details popping up. The Gustav Barthel logo in the foldable pricker and the 026 markings on the pricker heads. and the same GxB logo in the fuel cap/SRV to be continued .......
@SomiZ Great work! Have you tried a small saw to cut a slice off the bottom of that thing sticking out of the nipple to find out what it is? Tony
Optimus 8R control valve, jet, pricker rack, packing nut I'd say. Very good work on the Juwel Zoltan. John
@Tony Press, thanks Bloody good idea, I just did it - using my "juweller" saw - and figured out that my initial assumption was wrong. It is not glass fiber material nor just a pure shoot buildup. Its a purpose built brass wire micro-filter ....which is apparently clogged. Does anybody was aware of that advanced "feature" of the Juwel 34? Pics of proof... @presscall Hi John, thanks for the encouragement, its still a long way to go. You almost hit the jackpot. The components are correct, but the stove is a Primus Touristy (a 8R clone) for a long planned Frankenstove project. The jet nipple thread makes the difference, its metric compared to the original Swedish 8R one - which is still on my long wish list. Cheers Zoltan
A good thread showing the strip down and cleaning of the stove and all its parts. Very good photography. It is very valuable for others wanting to do the same procedure.
@SomiZ You can unroll the brass gauze and clean it (sometimes a flame from a blow torch is helpful - but be careful not to overheat it). Cheers Tony
... well, its been a while (almost 3 months) I managed to get updates on the Juwel 34 above. Real life gets in the way and I also made a mistake telling my friend that the painting of the parts is not urgent - he certainly took his time Nevertheless finally I have some progress. The brass parts has been cleaned thoroughly and lightly polished - hand buffing will never by my favorite activity. I tried to bend/squeeze/hammer the burner bell into shape with moderate results The fuel cap and the SRV was a much easier part. I kept the old pip rubber as it is soft enough to function and put the apparently "slightly used" fuel cap seal. I will see if it pressurize the tank properly or not Last but not least the steel tank and the casing, lightly sandblasted then sintered (dry powder painting with electrodes). I chose a RAL 7009 Grüngrau (Green-gray) color as it was the closest to the issued WWII metallic personal equipment and similar to the Juwel 33 casing color I saw a few times. I believe it was worth to wait 3 month for that .... isn't it? Then I can finally managed to start the assembly. First inserted a new wick - I took the advise of Tony Press and used 3 smaller separate strands rather than a single thick one. I replaced the original steel wire with solid copper electrical wire, test fitting the width to the burner tube and bending the length in a way that it will touch the bottom of the tank when put in place. That way the unintentional displacement of the wick can be avoided. Then the burner assembly has been inserted to the tank. To ensure good sealing an special Teflon sealing tape has been used on the threading It should withstand the fumes of the benzin /petrol as well as the heat-load. The added the rest of the burner assembly, control valve, fuel cap/SRV and the jet nipple. I decided to use the spare jet and applied the same Teflon sealing tape to the threads. Finally the crown of the juwel has been placed ... Well, the look of her definitely improved since we first met. Fully assembled ... In order to achieve insulation from the ground (during winter action) I placed a layer of cork sheet at the bottom cup and to prevent rattling the same cork sheet has been added to the top cup as well. Next the moment we all waited for - fueling, ignition and the compulsory flame shots .... in my next post, after a short break In reality I run out of time and Missus arrival at home was imminent, so I choose patience instead of explaining a results of a fireball and a smoke covered house More to come (I promise ) Cheers Zoltan
On popular demand I took the time this morning to fire up the stove. So without further ado .. Stove has been fueled up with high purity benzine (2x the price compared to the gas station one) Priming with meth Warming up .... pilot light has apeared Main jet engaged .... .... and we have a lift off .... errr I meant to say full throttle Stove running in cherry red - for better visibility I moved from the kitchen table to a darker room. Surprisingly good on shimmer with a sweet purring sound that even our cats appeared (curiosity will certainly kill the cat ) Interestingly only 2 of the 4 pot stand has burned off the paint - despite the seemingly even flame distribution. The wind shield did not loose any paint at all. The cork sheet insulation is working nicely as the stove can be lifted by the bottom cup, while the side wind shield and the tank are way to hot to touch. Now all that remains is to fix the adjustment tool (will try to make a new one) and make a new strap for keeping the stove and the cups together. I hope you enjoyed Cheers Zoltan
Very good indeed Zoltan. Perfect flames. Aligning pot rests with the 'gaps' in the four flame spikes is never an exact science, hence the paint flaking off a couple. John
