@igh371 Thank you for posting an old "gem"! As has been previously said " Necessity leads to resourcefulness"! Is that a wing on the top left?!!! Having said that, there is now way mechanically that the stove I posted would hold a pot. Makes me wonder how/why it ended up with a furnace-style burner?
The holed Primus of igh371's is most curious. Although the 'war wound' may just be a tall tale, it would certainly take an incident very much out of the ordinary to produce a hole through that thickness of brass in that position. A freak isolated stress crack perhaps? Seems unlikely. An ideal candidate for borescope investigation!
This stove I intend to clean up a little more in the future, before posting it in the reference gallery. Since such a topic has arisen, I'm posting it here for now, for the reason that seems to be a fitting example. I won't reveal the brand, although I think many of you can recognize it. I received it in this condition ( exterior). I only had to replace the parts necessary to get it running and make minor repairs. The repair consisted of unsoldering the pump tube, because the NRV did not inject air and also in no way I could unscrew it. After removing the tube, it turned out , it was a "blind" check valve.... in no way it was impossible to inject air. This was the first time I encountered something like this. In addition, it was soldered to the tube.... I drilled a small hole in the valve sleeve, allowing air to be forced in, and turned the NRV back to the tube. I then soldered the tube. Since the spirit plate was chewed through with rust (!), I decided to use for kindling, a Primus 1205 coil lighter. Everything worked as expected. In addition to the unprecedented for me case of "blind" NRV and steel spirit plate, I must add that the thickness of the walls of the tank is extremely thin, which means that the stove must have been manufactured during the years of some crisis. Thanks for your attention. Greetings Stanisław
I seem to remember a loverly paraffin stove with a blown-out bottom, the repair of which would fit this category quite well. Likely it can now be found in the fettling section. Quite a write up by the bloke that did the fettling. ATB Lance
@Knee whatever you do with it in future, it's great to have these photos here, they show the wonderful sequence of a stove in 'as found' condition cosmetically coming back to life with green flames followed by blue. It looks most impressive, especially the photo of preheating with the Primus 1205 (itself having some interesting soldered repairs). The NRV has me puzzled- a manufacturing defect?
Thanks @Rodger Willows . @Blackdog .I don't intend to clean it very much, just want to discover some embossing that makes it easier to identify ( there are only few examples in the gallery) As for the NRV, I'm wondering about that too. Maybe it's a manufacturing defect. The burner and nozzle, are in very good condition. The same goes for the condition of the filler cap and the knurling on the pump cap. On the other hand, looking at the soldering of the feet, it looks like it was used.... This is really puzzling
I'm clutching at straws here, but perhaps it stopped working, so a new NRV and burner were fitted, but due to the undrilled NRV it still didn't work so was abandoned? This one is a puzzle! It will be great to see it in the gallery once you've 'excavated' the inscriptions!
@Knee A blind NRV is an unexpected find! I wonder if anyone else here has come across this? The stove burns beautifully. Looking forward to finding out exactly what you have there. Great photography also The background suits the nature of the stove well. Photography plays a large part in my enjoyment of CCS. Thanks for sharing. Regards Scott B
Hi Scott @Scott B I'm glad you like my photos. This NRV, is indeed a curio. I think that in some time, the stove will be ready to be published in the reference gallery. Greetings Stanisław
I have a dilemma… I have a one-legged stove that I’ve been fettling. Do I post it legless or do post it after grafting new legs?!!!
"Crusty but Running" might be a more appropriate title for this old mystery stove! $10 in Murwillumbah, NSW. I've not encountered a stove here with a removable pump tube before. The origins/brand of this stove is well hidden. My searching of the Stove Reference Gallery (SRG) tells me that Monitor, Thermidor, Governor, Burmos and Valor all produced models with removable pump tubes - there may be others that I've missed? When I first found this stove I contacted @Tony Press. He described it as "Interesting Bitsa" and when I queried about the removable pump tube he said "Some Aussie and Brit war stoves". I have noticed in the SRG that the "Military Specification" stoves often have a removable pump tube. Why? "Primus" on one side of the air release screw, both sides of the filler cap. Steel pump rod with interesting knurling of the knob and cap (with elongated hole). A "Prince" (Ericksson) burner. The pump leather arrangement I took the stove with me to Stumpys Bay No 3 campsite (Mt. William Nat. Park) NE Tasmania to start fettling. A lot of time with a sharply pointed hobby knife on the gasket (asbestos) eventually yielded the pump tube Considerably more time with the hobby knife picking away at what appeared to be an asbestos burner/riser enabled me to remove the burner. I had first attempted to "clamp" the riser for removal of the burner only to find that the diameter of my clamp was too small (16mm). The riser on this stove is 19mm and has a 3mm thick wall Another interesting feature is riser is a double female tube similar to early Primus stoves. The tank filler also has an approx. 3mm thick wall The only marking that I been able to find (so far) is an indistinct "N" There appears to be another letter on the very right side of the image as well. To be continued...
I decamped to NW Tasmania yesterday where I was able to collect additional fettling supplies. I expressed my dilemna about posting the stove with one leg or three, to which @Christer Carlsson suggested both! Further exploration under the stove revealed nothing I assembled the one-legged stove and pressure testing revealed a very small leak at the base of the riser and a slow leak from the NRV, so I decided to fire it up This image is for the leg profile Today I grafted three replacement legs harvested from the Companion donor stove used in my previous fettle. I've never re-soldered legs before so after two attempts at heating the leg and holding it onto the tank unsuccessfully, I opted to use the circular clamp approach. Where would I be without my Dremel?!!! They're a little rough, but in keeping with the stove and I haven't damaged the patina too much. The removed leg So here we have the "new" three-legged version You may have noticed something distinctly "angular" about the riser. I was able to straighten it with a little heat and also re-flow the solder at the base of the riser to rectify that leak. A further confirming pressure test and then a firing up I put the kettle on There was minimal "sooting". Thanks
Hi @Rodger Willows .Excellent work! Good that you took Christer's suggestion. A great two-step entry was created. I also like the company of the kangaroo in your "under the cloud" (or rather, under the sun) workshop.
@Knee Thanks Stanislaw! There are usually lots of wallabies around that campsite which is adjacent to the beach - I had my kite flying for most of the day too! A little different to conditions you’re experiencing at the moment…
Well done Rodger! A great location to setup shop. Another stove saved. I'm surprised that resoldering the legs did not change the patina of the surrounding area. Nicely done! I like the removable pump tube also. Did australian military issue stoves have a distinctive marking like the British arrow? Regards Scott B
That 'N' looks similar to that on the WW2 era Shaw's 'Governor' military stoves which also had exactly that type of detachable pump (e.g. here or here). Whatever it is it seems to have had a hard life
@Scott B A wonderful campsite that I recommend. @Tony Press enjoys campsite No 2. Australian military marking is D(up arrow)D as far as I’m aware. @igh371 Thank you for the links. I hadn’t found the example that you’d posted (which most closely matches mine)
