Hello classic stove experts! I've ordered Svea 123R (made in Sweden) of Ebay and initially it looked like it's in a perfect condition and barely used, if at all. It was too good to be true and I think I know what's wrong with it. Upon further inspection there seems to be some sort of a patchwork with cement(?) done to the base rim. I wonder if the original owner just didn't want to risk it all those years ago when they got it or maybe they even did it themselves. I initially thought that it's just some dirt but it didn't want to come off and it looks like there is dark burnt(?) area around it. There's also something that seems like some solder overflow. Did I just get myself an amazing looking brass paperweight or it might still be ok to use it as a stove?
It could be a manufacturing fault where the silbraze has run. Does it look like that? What I would do is pressurise the tank to see if it leaks from the bottom. To do this, close off the fuel flow to the burner; make sure the filler cap is on tight; and heat the tank with a hair dyer and then place the tank in water to check for leaks. Also, if you can see the wick inside the tank, is it burned? and… Welcome, @justwander Tony
@justwander It looks like a blob of solder has been put on the rim and some has run down into the domed base with the stove upside down. I would turn the control spindle to off and dunk the whole thing in a bucket of water and see if there are any bubbles anywhere indicating a leak. is the place where the solder on the rim is a soldered factory joint? if no bubbles it will be a choice for you whether to fire it up or not but I would definitely do that outside! It maybe fine ? Good luck. Nick
I've seen this before, its a bit of misplaced solder. By all means pressure test it but I'm 99% sure thats what it is Alec.
Thank you, Tony. Yes, I think it's the braze or solder overflow and I'm not worried about the blob itself. It's just on the surface and is only cosmetic. I'm more worried about the hole it came from, that looks like was later patched with some sort of a cement (it's definitely not metal). Mostly because of brass thermal expansion, etc. I guess in may not really get hot enough under normal conditions for that to be an issue. I initially tried scraping that cement off, thinking that's it's just on the surface but the more you scrape the deeper it gets. The wick is in a great condition. I'm not sure I was able to get it to high enough pressure but the pressure test went fine as well, no bubbles. Nick, the hole in the rim was patched with some cement. I wonder why. I guess it it was like that during manufacturing, they'd just put more solder there. I can try scraping it more and then solder myself, if it ends up being a deep hole. Thanks Alec, I don't mind having solder there. However, if there's more solder where it shouldn't be, then there's less solder where it should be.
For safety sake, if it’s some form of filler, and not solder, keep scraping until you hit metal/solder. The test for pressure leak. If you disassembled the stove, if it is a hole, it’s repairable by solder. Tony
