I have another spirit stove that needs a fettle. This time it’s a Turm sport. The steel tank looks okay, but time will tell. Once I have replaced the wick I will fire it up. The case has seen better days and I am wondering how I might go about taking it apart to clean and re-paint it. The blue part appears to be bent over the hinge pin and the ends crimped: Before I get too carried away, is taking this apart a matter of opening out the crimped ends and pushing the pin through, or ‘un-peeling’ the blue part of the hinge to lift off that side of the case? Or is there some other way? -R
Hi, can we see all the stove before saying something? It will be easier for all visual people like me to help you. Thanks
Here you go @JP2 A few passes with a citric acid based gel have cleaned it up better than I expected. I’m thinking a coat of fuel-resistant lacquer might be the way forward. Tangentially related question… how best to treat the steel pot rests? They were originally (enamel?) painted, but most of that had come off long ago. I’m thinking heat resistant paint and lacquer as that’s all I am familiar with. @Pharael mentioned oil quenching in another thread but I have no idea what that involves. -R
@IRM Oil quenching is where the cleaned up and rust-free metal you are wishing to oil quench is heated up until it is cherry-red (I use a paraffin Thermidor blow torch for this) and then dunked (quenched) into clean motor vehicle engine oil. The quenching (cooling) action of the engine oil on the metal coats it and will prevent any further corrosion occurring in the future. One of my stoves having had its wind shield oil quenched…
Thanks @Pharael - so is there anything more to it than heating to cherry red and dropping (carefully) into a something like an old baked bean tin (almost) full of oil? Could I do several pieces at once or do I need to let the oil cool between pieces? Is this a suitable approach for pot rests that are likely to get scuffed and scratched? -R
@IRM Whatever container you use, you just need to make sure that its volume is sufficient to be able to easily and fully submerse whatever object you are wishing to oil quench. If I have several items to do, I will oil quench them one at a time, checking each one and then re-quenching them if need be, until I am satisfied with the result. I have never found the need to wait for the oil to cool - but then the volume of oil I tend to use is about 2 litres - so the oil tends to get only warm throughout the process of oil quenching a wind shield. Personally, I have never oil quenched those types of pot stands or for example, those that are fitted to Optimus 111’s, 43’s etc. I have simply cleaned them up. However, if you go to my June 2024 SotM entry, I have oil quenched the pot support legs and the wind shield on my Enders 9063. @snwcmpr I mentioned oil quenching on this thread discussing restoring the windshield on my Phoebus 625. I assume this is what @IRM is referring to. HERE
Depending on the size of the heted part relative to the volume of oil, the oil may or may not ignite. At best there will be a lot of acrid smoke. One for outdoors, and have a lid ready in case you get flames. It's a standard heat treatment when making blades or springs etc- quenching in oil rather than water reduces the thermal shock and the likelihood of stress cracking occurring. It gives slightly different results to water quenching. The common O-1 tool steels are intended to be oil quenced- the 'O' stands for oil. I must say I haven't come across it as a surface treatment before- beeswax applied hot is an ancient blacksmith's technique and doubtless uses the same mechanism, aplied hot it fills the pores of the metal. It isn't permanent, and steel will rust again fairly soon in a damp environment. Interesting you've found oil quenched steel permanent @Pharael!
I am none the wiser :-| Each pot rest is about 20g, so I’m not too worried about its potential to ignite 300g+ of oil (or should I be?). A bit of youtubing suggests rapeseed oil might be a good (and less smokey) alternative to motor oil. In the longer term, which is likely to protect the pot rests better - oil quenching or paint and lacquer? Or perhaps oil quenching and lacquer? -R
Thanks @Pharael- I wonder if motor oil gives a more durable finish than veg oils...? @IRM Agreed that's unlikely to cause the unattended chip pan effect!
I’m going to go the paint route here - in keeping with how the pot rests were originally treated. I will however have a go at oil quenching the leg I made for my stesco coil stove and see how it ages compared to the other two. Tune in around 2030 or so… -R
As an aside i think that white part with the holes drilled in it is like a "castle nut" you need a spanner to unthread that threaded portion, just a guess.
Based on the last part of Turm Touring meths stove refurb. my understanding is that this is for adjusting the tension in the hinge rather than taking it apart. Am I mistaken? -R
that sounds about right, seeing as even if you unthreaded it fully it has nowhere to go. it would just spread open and allow for more tension and interference so it wouldnt be so floppy. pretty clever maybe even slightly overengineered ideas, the kind of machine time that goes into a little oddballl part like that just isnt affordable anymore and its why youll never see nice high quality stuff nowadays atleast not affordably
Irm- it’s not for tensioning the hinge , it’s for fuel flow. It has graphite inside and you can adjust it with the little rod so it does not leak fuel but still opens and closes with the lid.
I’ve cleaned the case up, given it a coat of fuel resistant lacquer, painted the pot rests in VHT paint, installed a new wick and it’s running well: I do like the simplicity - and silence - of these spirit stoves. -R
Nice, what kind of wick? How was the original one? Burn hot but the flames seem to be funny. No!!! Do you used Methyl Hydrate alcohol ?
