Hi everyone. I have been searching the internet and this forum for a picture of the underside (side facing the jet) of the flame plate for a Primus 96 Stove without luck. I recently acquired a 96, but the flame plate is missing. Being in South Africa, trying to import one is not really an option. From what I have seen is that some of the early flame plates appear to be made out of brass. I would like to try and make one to get the stove operational again but need the specs for the side facing the jet as well as dimensions of the plate. It would also be handy to know the distance from the jet to the bottom of the flame plate although I'm not too sure how critical this is. Saying that, if there is anyone in South Africa on this forum whom could help out with a spare flame plate, I am more than happy to buy it from you to save myself the trouble of trying to make one.
@GBC You might like to look at this thread, which was not about a 96, but a British made 1/2 pint stove of similar design. I gave a detailed description of the cast flame plate for that stove. I am no expert on the 96's (or anything else, come to that) but would have thought the older ones were more likely cast. I have a Primus cast plate which is the same dimensions as the one previously described, but thinner and with shorter feet.. The cast ones I have pulled out this morning all have a slightly convex underside (the RM is mostly flat but with pronounced radiused edges). An advatage of using thick brass sheet would be ease of making it as well as the ability to adjust the flame to plate distance by bending the legs up or down. The late sheet brass ones have a distinctly curved/convex underside. Hope that makes some sense to you!
I have read the thread as you recommended and there's a lot of useful info there. Thanks ever so much!
@GBC Having revisited the older thread, I do hope you are not a teacher of technical drawing! Whilst there is some good stuff there about burning too rich etc, my thought is that the flaring pictured is almost certainly caused through insufficient pre-heating. All the other matters raised are valid causes of rich running with yellow tipped and sooty flames, but probably not of the magnitude shown in those photos. Yellow tipped flames are a sign of generating excessive carbon monoxide, which can be fatal if done in confined enclosed spaces (indoors, in a tent etc).
There is a batch being sold on ebay UK for a reasonable £7.40 each delivered, but I imagine it's customs/importing issues which prevent this option being viable.
Thanks so much Dean. I have since made a flame plate out of brass and results are encouraging. At least with the help of your measurements, I was able to get an idea of what is required. Flame is still a tad yellow, but I succeeded in making a fine cup of tea with this stove with no soot on the underside of the kettle. I also notice that the stove gets rather warm, even the tank does. Is that normal for this type of stove?
So right you are with the customs issue. My last parcel sat with them for 3 months and after customs released it, it took another 6 weeks to get to me, because as was explained to me by the post office staff ..... " We have a problem with transport and our electricity has been cut because the post office could not pay the bill". Rather frustrating.
@GBC Sounds a nightmare! Well done for making smething suitable, if you can raise the height of the plate slightly you may be able to clean the flame up a bit. Stoves of this size do heat up in use from heat reflected down from the cooking vessel, nothing to worry about.
I'll try and post some flame shots soon. Thanks for setting my mind at ease re the heating up. I also have a No 00 and that also gets warm, but nothing like the 96.
Well done you! Yes they do get warm. Do you have a jet pricker with it? If it rattles around in the hole in the end of the lipstick, that suggests that the jet hole is oversize. You can sometimes carefully re-size them by gentle panel work - I have used the striking (wrong) end of a small nail punch (6-7mm diameter with a slightly domed head) dropped down into the barrel of the lipstick (after removing the roll of brass gauze) just gently dropping the tool a couple of times while the jet is rested on a hard surface cab be enough to massage it back to size. Recheck with the pricker might show less sloppiness. Cleaning the carbon off the gauze roll can help too. Then, as Blackdog says, create more distance between jet and flame spreader plate by bending its legs.
You can fill the fount more, so more fuel is there to absorb thermal feedback, leaving air space of course to allow pressurization. Duane
Once again, thank you everyone for your kind advice and tips. Here's a shot of the little beast in action.
So did you sort out the yellow flame - it is looking good and blue in the picture. What did you do for it?
The secret was in the distance between flame plate and jet. I'm indebted to blackdog for his suggestion to bend the legs of the plate to adjust the distance. I'm amazed at how little difference in the distance between plate and jet there is between a yellow and blue flame. I also managed to pull the brass mesh out of the tube and there was quite a bit of carbon on it that I removed. I also scrubbed the inside of the vaporiser tube with a 30-06 bronze brush. My vaporiser is the chromed steel version.
I'm totally in love with the 96 stove, but will probably just use it for tea & coffee. When long-term camping, I will revert to either my Optimus 00 or 111b simply because of the larger tank capacity. I still have my MSR Whisperlite from my backpacking days on standby and it has always served me well. I cannot seem to find a total burn time for the Primus 96 stove on one tank of fuel. Any guesses? Once again, my sincerest thanks to all the kind people here who provided me with assistance.
Period catalogues give a running time of two hours at full power on a filling, although the quoted figures sometimes need to be treated with caution....
