Greetings mates, After venturing into the realms of the Optimus 111 varieties and the 8R, I got my hands on my first Parrafin stove, a SVEA 106. I haven't cleaned the surface, but it proclaims itself as the KING, and I can see the Arabic writing on the surface. I'm excited to have found him and I have been reading up on other forum posts to get up to speed on this species which is new to me. I cleaned the pipes and nipple with carb spray, rubbed remaining grunge off the top of the nipple with one of those plastic abrasive sponges (like the effect of fine steel wool), gave a quick rinse of the tank w/fresh kero, put in fresh kero and she fired up easily. While the flames start off blue, they have tails with a lot of orange. See action shot: If you have the time to load a 2MB movie, you can view the King in action: >> Movie Time Questions for you all: 1. What year might this date from? 2. What might the orange flame be coming from? The necessity of a new nipple? Impurities in the tank that didn't get fully cleaned out? Seeing my photos, would you say this is as good as it gets, or can I get a nice blue flame out of this stove? 3. Would you suggest I put a Lead or a Calmonite washer above and/or below the spirit cup? I noticed a very thin washer there, and I'm not sure if it is lead or calmonite? 4. What the hell is Calmonite, anyway? The only Google clues point to camp stove part lists and these forums! 5. How many grunts does it take to torque down the burner assembly onto the stove tank? I want to have a good seal but don't want to strip threads or destroy the stove. 6. Anybody got a spare windscreen skirt thing I could buy from ya? A&H and Base Camp seem to be out. I "borrowed" the one that you see in the picture from my 111B stove. 7. Is there a way to tighten the nipple other than by trying to sneak a tiny 4mm wrench in between the tubes? There's got to be an easier way... for example, does the top part of the burner come off to allow access from the top? Many thanks! Griz
My bet is indeed on the yet/nipple it is what made my 8R have orange/yellow tips. Changing it cured it for me. But that's just my opinion. The guys in the know will be along shortly.
The orange flame tips are pretty much normal. As long as there's no soot deposited on the pan bottom, no worries. Calmonite is an obsolete brand of asbestos based gasket material. If your riser tube isn't leaking, it's OK. Getting proper washers is problematic, so I use high heat copper bearing rtv silicone sealant made for car engines. I have had really good luck with it. Don't over torque the burner assembly when assembling it to the fount. Snug enough not to leak only. The wind shield is only for use in windy conditions. Setting up behind a dead camel or other wind blocker is just as effective and much more fun. There is an articulated wrench available which makes nipple removal and replacement easier. I got pretty clever at doing it with a 4mm ignition wrench. Gerry
Griz---to get the nipple out you need a tool like this with a knuckle joint.. from what i read here the yellow means a bad air-fuel mix--so you could have a leaky washer somewhere--or it's crud in the tank..for a old stove like that just a rinse of kero may not do it--to clean out a tank i used Coleman fuel and a hand ful of metal nuts--i was going to use buckshot but was told the sharp edges of the nuts would do a better job.. i shook the tank around a few times a day over a week and thats what came out. it was so fine i ran right thru the cloth filter--so i guess it would clog up the jet--
Paper coffee filters work really well for that kind of thing. I put 'em into a really cool heavily tinned funnel a tinker made for me at a mountain man rendezvous a few years ago. A fuel resistant plastic funnel would work too, although not nearly as cool. Gerry
Griz Having looked at the video, that is a lot of yellow in the flame. A good clean out will help, but I would also replace the jet, it is probably well over size. Unnecessary use of the pricker will widen the jet, whereas clean fuel to start with will not. I use a couple of nesting coke bottles and a coffee filter, works well Nice stoves 106's
Griz, Funny you should ask. We just returned to our hotel in San Francisco after visiting Berkeley, specifically Chez Panisse, REI and Wilderness Exchange, where I found a GSI cup to fit my new 123, a la The Priest (fits perfectly!). They had 1 (one!) windscreen skirt thing that will fit my 106 (yay!) and they still have 1 (after I bought 1) burner flare thing. I also got a key/wrench for one of my 8Rs, to replace the big knob, and it came with the correct twisted chain. The guys at Wilderness Exchange seemed into stoves; they had a couple of 123s and a bunch of Coleman 2-burners plus two 3-burner Colemans for $49.00/ea. Lots of used camping and climbing stuff, not much of what I'd consider "classic". Griz, if you look at my old The King post, you'll see the windscreen skirt thing that I made. It's not OEM but it's brass and works, if you'd like it, and can't find the official part, I'll be happy to mail it to you. Gary
Thank you for the offer Gary. I did see your KING in your recent post, and I bow down to it! When I first spotted the KING on a shelf in the antique store, before buying it, my research led me to your posting. Yours inspired me. And yes, I know the Wilderness Exchange very well. Never know what you'll find there from one day to the next. A good reason to pop one's head in there whenever in the vicinity. Ironically, I have just recently moved to Vermont. As for the other posts -- very helpful pointers. Thank you all so far. I am grateful for some things to chew on over the next few days -- new jets to rustle up, tank cleaning to be done, gaskets to tighten down properly .... I'll let you all know when I get the sought-after blue flame. In the meantime, does anyone have any info on the etiology of the SVEA 106 KING with the Arabic writing? How about a guess (intelligent or otherwise!) of the manufacture date or possible range of dates of production? Regards, Griz
Almost all Swedish made kero pressure stoves and a lot of German and other N. European and Asian ones as well that I've seen have the blurb in Arabic as well as several other languages. I always thought it was just easier to put a slew of 'em on all at one time rather than try to keep track of which ones went where. With all the common languages on all the stoves, just grab a pile and ship 'em. No hassle of sorting. When I bought my little 123 it had an instruction sheet abpit 2 feet square with at least 70 different lanbuages on it. I used to take it camping for something to read. Gerry
