All, when I first saw the stove I was being given I thought that will make a good ornament. There was no way I would run a pressurised petrol bomb with a tiny hole in it. I was relieved when I discovered the stove should burn paraffin. I'm now restoring a stove not an ornament. There is plenty of evidence to support this stove has been run very hot, apparently in the past to melt lead to cast fishing weights.
I did say my Granddad had poor engineering skills. It appears the the stove has failed in the past and the solution was to throw lots of solder at it then file it down. On one hand I think that is part of the history. However the Engineer in me thinks, if I'm going to turn this thing into a pressurised paraffin bomb then I need to know what failed. If there is a crack in the tank then this stove is back to being an ornament. So my first question please, as far as I can make out looking from inside the tank that is a threaded flange with a down pipe. If I melt the solder I should be able to pull the whole pipe and flange out? Question 2, is it one piece or is the tube soldered into the flange? Question 3, any tips for cleaning that much solder off without painting the tank silver? Thank you.
Hi @Philip Ward Looks like your granddad might have fixed up some of my stoves too - I recognise some of that trademark solder build up! There have been some recent threads talking about such matters - You cannt sweat the centre riser mount out as it is flanged and soldered on the inside. It also holds the fuel pick up pipe that goes down to the lowest part of the tank. In the past week there has been a post about someone who cleaned a similar splodge of solder from the filler neck joint with pictures of the beautiful job they made of it and written description too the ones I am thinking of were threads by Rodger Willows - do a search and you'll soon find them!
Looks like a case of a repair to an overheated riser joint, common if the stove is used beyond the intentions of the designer. Very unlikely will it become a 'paraffin bomb' as long as is does not currently leak and is not overheated further. Paraffin stoves would tend to fail less dramatically as far as things go anyway. Desoldering is possible-as most of the tank is oxidised, solder will not stick. The safest way would be to suspend the stove by the riser, heat and remove solder by wiping or wire brush. You would need to be careful to avoid melting the filler cap join in the meantime. The recent thread on resoldering a riser is here.
Thank you all, it's coming out. I need to know what is going on there. Will report back when I have it out. In the meantime what do you think of this? The burner is scrubbing up but is heavily pitted, the down tubes in particular. I don't know how thick the pipe wall is but it didn't fail the last time it was used. If they fail how do they tend to fail, pin prick or rupture? I'll take responsibility for my actions regardless of any comments. I just need to understand what I'm dealing with.
@Philip Ward you cannot remove the central spigot without destroying the stove please don’t, when I find the thread I will post a cutaway stove to show you why Regards Dave
I've finally caught up with all of the recommended reading, very useful thank you. I'll be doing some thinking before attempting to tidy up the solder. Taken a look inside again. The pump appears to be soldered in position, why would somebody put a match in a fuel tank? The two halves of the tank are crimped and sealed with solder: The riser appears to be soldered with a large amount of solder inside the top of the tank. As @Dean described. If I take a torch to the outside that solder will drop to the bottom of the tank.
Do a search for underburn- an issue with silent burners- more reading to catch up with! The riser repair certainly looks 'interesting'- it would certainly be simplest to test for leaks and leave alone if ok....
Solder can be scraped,cut,sanded, or trimmed without the use of any heat I have removed excess solder successfully using a skarsten scraper and a very sharp knife followed by wet and dry and buffing with a dremel to remove any fine scratches. The skarsten scraper was suggested by Kerophile and I managed to find a couple as they are now obsolete.
Done a first pass crud removal today and wiped with an oily rag. Still have the detail to clean and a final polish but Ill do that when everything is removed. Still waiting for NRV and jet tools. Also got those rusted steel legs to think about. I'm going to try and avoid any heat on solder having seen the inside of the tank. So if I try to remove that solder it will have to be scraped off.
As suggested I have searched for underburn and read a few threads. What I did notice is that one stove that had issues had a second cap under the spreader cap. This all I have: I do have an inner cap missing? Thank you.
Yes, you'll need to source an inner cap which is vital for correct operation of silent burners. That damaged outer cap will likely cause problems too.
This is such a helpful group, thank you. Now I'm testing my newly acquired stove knowledge. This stove on eBay is underburning?
Yes, that is certainly not healthy! It's always funny to occasionally see a stove listed as 'working order' with photos showing a huge tongue of unvapourised fuel rising from the burner. Thankfully these clueless people have made the lucky guess to put paraffin in the thing, nothing more volatile...
Yes I was watching that stove as it’s in Plymouth where I live and the windshield is unusual +it has an original Optimus outer cap but the trivet is very pitted and I have 3 Parasene’s already ( it’s stove pox) so decided to pass. Generally one does not post live auctions ( against the rules)
