Hi fellow stovies, long time no see Few days ago I acquired an interesting Optimus 111. The case is painted green and labeled in scandinavian letters. I don’t think this was an ‘official’ military stove, as I found no corresponding specimen in the reference gallery. Quality of the paint job suggests a civilian Optimus 111 was ‘militarized’. It is a kerosene roarer, with the 'M' jet. The stove seems to be complete (as far as I can tell, I never owned a 111). It seems to have lived a hard live, dings and scratches all over the place. Somebody obviously tried to fettle, most gaskets are reasonably new. I can only guess the former owner sold because the pump did not build pressure, the nrv had two lead gaskets an was very loosely screwed in... Unfortunately the tank is full of green verdigris on the inside and has quite some copper toned spots (read- dezincification) on the outside, so I guess the patina will be ruined by the following bath in citric acid. I already cleaned some of the smaller parts. As I’m no fan of overly polished stoves, the parts will remain in this state, reasonably clean but not polished. I have yet to decide if I leave the case in as is. On one hand the paint job is hideous, on the other hand it is part of the unique history of this stove. regards, kk1992
Norwegian Army stove, Support Company, Platoon no 1, guard and security. Painted Optimus 111 is not unusual to find.
@trebor Thanks for the identification. I decided to retain the original painting. So I just cleaned it up and gave it a light wax coating. The stove is nearly ready. - New NRV Pip - New pump leather - Cleaned burner head and jet Unfortunately the spindle was bent and couldn't be reused. I assumed the 123r/8r spindle would fit, but that didn't work out. A new spindle (complete maintenance kit) is ordered and should arrive next week. Not that I'm bored, the are still some blowtorches on my bench that require some fettling... - kk1992
Sorry for the double post, but here is my final update: Spare parts arrived and I could finally reassemble this olive green ugly duckling. Dunk pressure test and the following test burn successful Quite a nice stove (outside it's box). Reassembled: Preheat: (My first stove with a preheating wick ) Flame shots: - kk1992
Nice, I recently bought a 111, have yet to fire it up but will do very soon, good to see what to expect when I do. Tim
@kk1992 Good work . The case may be «ugly» but it’s what makes the stove unique from all the thousands of this model out there
Looks to be running great. Nice job on the refurbishment! Compared to a lot of Optimus 111 & 8R stoves I’ve seen, that one looks to have had a pretty good life so far, not hard.
