A friend has sent me this photo of a stove he saw recently in an Antique shop. Perhaps it's home built rather than a factory built unit. The inner steel frame (top square only) is similar to the Companion and other local stoves, and the tank (left handed) has a rather large filler cap.
Well the control wheel is certainly Radius! Possibly the burner too. As for the rest, other members in your part of the world might spot a few parts from other manufacturers in amongst the home made. A good example of creative thinking!
Yes, it is well made, though the soldering is a bit messy. A bit pricey, too. I reckon I'll leave it in the shop, unless I weaken ..... The tank looks like it came from something else, unless it too was home made. Perhaps the builder was a left-handed sheetmetal worker.
The stove now graces my workbench. It came with a spare Radius burner ; both are well used, and the pump cap is worn oval, oversize, so the stove has had a great deal of use. Which prompts me to ask - how to decoke this type of adjustable burner without ruining the seal on the control shaft ? Here's a shot of the pump rod - the nut is soldered onto the rod ! After sweating the nut off, it was clear as to why it had been soldered in place - there is no thread at the end of the rod. It takes a clever person to solder there without damaging the pump cup ! The pump cup had about 5 m/m of linear float on the rod, and curiously, there is no taper on the inside of the hollow rivet. But it has obviously worked o.k. ( It's quite a long rod, too ). The pump rod is marked " AUSTRAL HI BOND ". I've no idea of what that means, but there was a company here named 'Austral Crane Copper Bronze', suppliers, years ago. The sad part is that because this stove passed through various dealers' hands until the shop, no history, provenance can be obtained. I don't think we make brass here in Australia - it's all imported. I may be wrong but I think the last manufacturer closed years ago. Once I was making Robe Hooks (for the bathroom) from 8 m/m brass rod, and the process went: Bend one, break two. Bend two, break two. The long rods were brittle, not annealed, and my employer did not have the facilities to anneal the imported 6 metre rods. Perhaps we could have annealed shorter pieces, but it was probably cheaper to sell the broken bits to the scrap merchant.
It's looking more and more home made. I've seen nuts soldered on when the thread was stripped but I've never seen a pump rod without a thread. I would say the pump washer assembly is "Companion". They were sold as spare parts and were suitable for several stove brands. I remove the spindle when decokeing a burner.
1. You should disassemble the burner to de-coke it. Take the nipple off Turn shaft to off Drop out the pricker Unscrew the packing nut and then the spindle with the packing. 2. Not sure what you mean by “we don’t make brass in Australia”, but there are still brass foundries (although getting fewer). That’s a nicely made pump, and expert soldering. Cheers Tony
@ROBJBO55 Thanks, Martin. If I can't find a suitable pump cup assembly I'll just have to make one up, using the existing washers.
@Tony Press Thanks, Tony. I needed that info. " I don't think we make brass here in Australia - it's all imported. " That's what my boss, the manager who bought it for our factory processing, told me. Sure, there's a good brass foundry over at Newport, Melbourne, but from where do they source their brass ? There's a scrap merchant here in Bayswater, Melbourne, where they have a large skip of brass items. It's usually a quarter or more full, and a good source of material for the workshop. I only wish I had a melting pot in the back yard and some moulding skills.
A few shots of the stove : A right side access door, on a stainless steel hinge. A aluminium channel supports the burner. The fuel tube enters a tee piece, underneath, with one side blanked off. The tank has copper end caps, inset, but the cylinder, I haven't determined whether it's nickel plated brass or what. The four pot supports, tapered, are brazed into the corners. Somehow they look familiar. The steel frame is 177 m/m square, smaller than the similar Companion stove. Side panels are aluminium.
The pump assembly completed. New filler cap seal and NRV pip. Testing. Looks like it's due for a new nipple, a decoke, and a repack of the gland. Anyone know if new nipples are available for the Radius Stove ?
That flame looks ok to me? Why do you think it needs a new nipple? Anyway, a new/second hand good nipple should be available from TW Sands. Tony
That just visible 'halo' of blue that burns above the burner cap is far too big, in my experience. My excellent Svea and Companion stoves fon't burn like that. Other small problems, unrelated, are that 1) as the fuel level drops to near empty, orange flames appear. (but that may have been carbon / impurities in the tank or burner). 2) This burner is noisy, unlike most silent burners. 3) The noise is choofing, like a steam train, choof........choof........choof as the blue flamelets pulse slightly. Maybe a partial blockage somewhere. Thanks.
@Paul Aslanides I agree with @Tony Press that the flame appears to be good.… Have you had it running for an extended time with a pot of water? The base of the pot being “sooted” after some time would indicate that the nipple may need replacing. This will also give “thermal feedback” which may (or may not) improve the burn. Presumably you rinsed the tank out as part of your fettle, so there shouldn’t be “impurities”. Hypothesising: The diameter (lumen) of the tube leading from the blanked-off “T” to the burner appears smaller than that arriving from the tank… It may be that the “choofing” that you are experiencing are related to alternating fuel feed vs starvation? It is quite a unique bespoke stove that you have! Thank you for your progress reporting and hopefully you can resolve some of it’s idiosyncrasies…
@Paul Aslanides If it’s noisy, make sure your silent burner isn’t “under-burning” — that is, burning underneath the burner cap. Or will make a grumbly noise if so. Stop it immediately and relight. Also, if the stove is choofing because of fuel restriction in the fuel pipes, try a role of brass gauze in the fuel line. Cheers Tony
@Rodger Willows @Tony Press Thanks, gentlemen for your advice. Yes, the tank was flushed out. Stove was left running for half an hour twice today; it choofs away merrily. No, I haven't had a pot of water on it as yet. But it does have a prodigious thirst, which strengthens my belief that it is burning excess fuel. Further evidence of long term use and wear was in the oval hole for the pump rod, and it's on its second burner which I have no doubt is also coked up. No, it's not underburning, or backburning, it's just more noisy than the average silent burner. It will have to be dismantled, to check the fuel lines, pack the gland, and a possible decoke. Looks like the fuel pick up tube is inaccessible. I do wonder about the efficacy of rolled up mesh INLINE with the fuel flow, compared to a mesh filter ACROSS the line of fuel flow. But I'll give it a try. There was an alarming moment when on turning the control knob, an awful grating noise was heard, and I thought I had wrecked the mechanism inside the burner. Turned out, the plastic hollow nut in the front panel, which supports the control rod, had fused itself onto the rod, so that the noise occurred when the rod, bush and nut all rotated against the panel (echo chamber of four walls). Fortunately the pricker and simmer control are o.k. This unique stove, as said, has lots of little idiosyncrasies. Now hope to borrow a 5/8 x 18 UNF die to make a new support assembly for the rod. It's a progressive overhaul, one thing fixed, another problem appears. But I'm enjoying the work, new challenges. * Remains of plastic, threaded bush, pump cup and hollow rivet*. The filler cap seal was about 4 m/m thick, and aged, so it was replaced with a 1.8 m/m Viton seal, and the cap tightened down. But the tank won't hold pressure, and eventually the penny dropped - the cap had stopped in its usual place on the thread, and was tight. I had to carefully work the unused portion of thread to get the cap down that extra distance, due to the thinner cap seal. All good fun, keeps you on your toes. The pump rod cap had to be drilled and bushed. The far end of the rod has a very long taper, which made the rod floppy at top of stroke. Fixed that too. Also had to make a hollow bush thingo to hold the pump cup and seal against the tapered rod. Bush and nut quite small, threaded 6 x 0.5 m/m and the nut slotted for air flow, as on other pumps I've seen. End of rod threaded 4x 0.7 m/m with Nyloc nut and Loctite (belt and braces). The knob at the top end of the rod is threaded - wait for it - 11/64 x 24, yes, really, which meant that I could not make a new rod and still use the old knob, unless ....No. No butchery, even it it's hidden. The builder used what he could, what was available, and it has given good, long service. Work proceeding. I need a nightcap. Thanks for your input. Cheers.
Keep at it, Paul… The pot-soot-test is your best bet at checking if it’s burning too rich. Soot that comes off on your finger; not scorch marks. It would be useful to see the burner to work out what model it is. You said: “I do wonder about the efficacy of rolled up mesh INLINE with the fuel flow, compared to a mesh filter ACROSS the line of fuel flow…”. Mesh across the line of fuel acts as a filter, as you say, but a not too tightly roll inline can also act as a dampener of pulsing caused by differential pressures in the fuel feed line. The Optimus 111 has an inline rolled mesh that sits in the fuel line, as do many other stoves. I’ve not run a 111 without it (as far as I know) so I don’t know whether it’s there mainly for filtering or for additional “surge” control. I think it’s worth a try, at least. Cheers Tony
@Tony Press I'll give it a try. There's room for a 3 -4 cm length of mesh in the tube underneath. Will report later. Thanks.
@Paul Aslanides As an alternative you could roll some brass gauze and place it in the base of the burner - might be less involved...
