Any Comet stove is worthy of attention, but I'm calling this a project as it does seem to be a couple of steps beyond a mere fettle One day it might make it into the reference gallery. But in the meantime I can make myself a hostage to fortune by recording progress in this thread. This first post is the first 3 days. So the photo above is 'it', all of it. And the obvious first step has to be the strip down: Serviceable items: one tank, most of the burner, and one leg good enough to use as a pattern. Next stage: tank frame panel rebuilt using brass sheet and salvaged top rail to provide a platform to work from in future: A set of 3 new legs is made: Result, able to create a loose mock up to give an encouraging illusion of progress: Meanwhile, after the cap was coaxed off, not without difficulty, then the pump was cleaned out. The badly rusted pump rod replaced with a decent spare, but retaining the original end knob and cap, and a new leather cup fitted to the carrier (no harm in being optimistic). The NRV was dismantled, a new cork pip fitted, and the disintegrated spring replaced. Then finally the carefully removed filler cap has been given the once-over revealing an interesting little detail in the design of the air release:
Looks like something one might find in the surf, under the flow of a melting glacier on South Georgia Island.
@igh371 From the brink, Ian. Could so easily have been scrapped years ago. What’s your technique with the leg fabrication? Some neat matched bends there. John
@presscall For making legs I've 2 peg boards, each with 3 suitably spaced different sized bolts set in. These act as formers to bend the steel rod around. Having an old leg to act as a template helps but is not essential. After that its done by eye and using an old Sievert blowlamp to selectively heat the right spot for each bend or adjustment to bright cherry red first. Ian
Two days on, and whilst awaiting brass tube in the post, all attention has been on getting further with sorting out the tank, pump and burner. Some provisional tests look promising, although the jet shows signs of being close to excessively worn. @Rangie @optipri
A very productive day today. Brass tube arrived so it was all go! At least all go after a glitch with the tubing was resolved. Sold as 8mm o/d, 6mm i/d, but there was no way the 6mm diameter legs were going to go in. Had to bore out the tube with a drill - to 1/64" larger than the tightest sliding fit drill bit. Bit of a pain but that tiny measurement made all the difference. To back to the main job: building the 3 corner hinges for the legs to fit into. Cue some improvised Heath-Robinson jigging and some of @redspeedster's everlasting EasyFlo flux, off we go with the brazing blowlamp (Sievert Vapouria 12): And eventually we are ready for some rough fitting: Not looking too bad, so tomorrow should hopefully be round to the finishing off type tasks @presscall @optipri
You're doing a wonderful job of resurrecting your Comet 5 from the dead. You just need to replace that round trivet with a copy of the original triangular cast iron trivet. Ben
Finally for the moment, today, the main tasks were to cut the legs to their finished length and to fabricate the tank shield for adding to that side of the triangle. Then the 'little brother' No.6 was brought out to give an idea of scale and the relative size of the No.5. But whereas the No.6 is entirely original, the only original parts remaining on the No.5 are the tank and burner, everything else has been fabricated, not as a perfect replica but as a viable approximation: @SveaSizzler @optipri
