Seller said she'd found this in the shed in the yard of the house she'd just moved home to. As found, but following a bit of dismantling to check on the condition of parts. Obviously missing a primer cup and the pot rest legs. Oh, and the tin's missing its lid! Worth rescuing for all that 'G' (1917) date stamp No dents in the tank is looking on the bright side Those distictive stubby feet for the year Worst mishap is whatever happened to the original fuel tank filler riser and cap, but sorting out something more authentic isn't beyond possibility ... The lipstick burner's been roughly handled in the past - beats me why anyone would take pliers to it when there are perfectly usable hexagon flats. Retrievable, with a bit of judicious hammering out on a bar core Gauze hasn't seen the light of day for many a year And neither has the non-return valve Pump's in good shape, destined for a new pump leather washer of course, and a bonus that the pump tube cap hasn't suffered from the worn-oversized hole problem common after years of use The burner flame plate's not embossed 'Primus' but it's a good fit on the burner bell Resoldering of the airscrew's a job to do Plus point, the jet orifice is spot on specification at 0.23mm Work to do. I'll update when I can. John
Hi John congratulations on a great score, and very well worth rescuing, a 96 year old 96. I am looking forward to seeing pics of the update, I would replace the gauze strainer with some new brass mesh. The air screw and mount and filler cap neck will look so much better re soldered neatly. I al so can not believe that come one had taken a pair of pliers, and tried to remove the burner by such a delicate part of it, you could fill the scar where the pliers have been with silver solder if you want to make it look undamaged. I know you are going to do a first class yet sympathetic restoration on this great classic, which I am looking forward to
Cheers fellas It didn't take too much to tap out the indentations in the lipstick burner Brian. Your proposition of silbraze as a filler would have worked, but the base hexagon is soldered to the tube and it would have been an extra job to reconstruct it. The dents were in the parallel sided part of the vapouriser before the taper, so I clamped a bar of slightly less diameter than the inside of the tube in a vice and tapped and rotated the vapouriser, gradually removing the dents. Result's satisfactory The only other job on the Primus I got around to tonight was to dismantle the non-return valve. The spring's fine, barrel and screw mount components are good, but the 'pip' cup is a sorry mess. It's made of steel instead of the brass I'm used to seeing those cups made of. It can't surely have been an economy measure for Primus to have gone for steel since it's such a tiny part, but some production benefit maybe? Certainly, as something expected to have been steeped in paraffin for most of its life it wouldn't have been expected to rust. It's only having been exposed to damp shed air and not in use for goodness knows how long that's done for it. The cork pip is more of an oak-like hardness, also a result of damp storage I suppose, since I've seen at least one older cork pip (my pre-1911 Primus 100) that still had the consistency of cork John
Restoration in progress HERE but this is it so far with a fuel cap borrowed from an early Primus 100 and a set of pot rest legs borrowed from a later '96'
John looks great! What is your method for removing the excess solder and cleanup? Do you use a wire brush ten fine sandpaper? Can't wait to see the end results of your engraving.
Hi John I first get rid of large dollops of solder left from bad repairs by zapping the solder heap with a hot, pencil flame from a MAPP gas brazing blowtorch, keeping the heat away from other solder joints by draping twisted, water-soaked paper towels over them. It's a quick 'zap' mind you and that's all that's necessary. Usually the component I want to resolder will be dislodged, which is what I want. A broader, less-hot flame from a propane torch makes the desoldering slower and less effective, in my experience. While the solder's melted, I quickly wipe the excess away with a cotton cloth - not man-made fibres which would melt and leave a messy deposit. I use a Dremel impregnated polishing wheel to cut through the thin film of solder remaining on the components to be resoldered and remove any residual tool-marks (they'll be very fine tool-marks) by polishing the components on a bench-mounted buffing wheel coated with polishing compound. For areas I can't reach with the polishing wheel I use a felt 'point' in the Dremel, daubing it with polishing compound and running it at a low enough speed not to throw off the compound. Slow and easy does it! Hope that's helpful. John
Glad you brought this one back from certain death or parts bin. The steel NRV looks unbelievably gunky dirty! I've never seen one that bad! Makes you wonder why they made it out of steel. Maybe it was a Friday afternoon manufacture as the metal worker picked up a steel rod versus brass rod and threw it in, oops, but interesting, no less! Nice 96 that's 96! sam
@presscall I would LOVE to see a small video of the solder clean up. Always inspire me to try things out when I see your work.
