Hi all, this one was a tad expensive at £10 but it had a wonderful wooden box with it, and I couldn't resist. It had obviously had a hard working life for many years, and took a fair bit of work to get going. Just how I liek to find them! Firstly, a new pump washer was needed, which was quickly made. Then it seemed that the NRV was stuck, but a couple of accurately placed drops of 3-in-1 down the pump tube and a bit of vigorous pumping freed things up, and test poking with a long bit of stiff wire proved that the spring was still up for being useful. The tank filler washer was solid so a new one was made, and everythign seemed set for a test run. Then I had a good look at the burner. It was so clogged with carbon that there was barely room for the mixture to travel through it. By that I mean at least 3/4 of the cross sectional area of the tubes was solid carbon. Eurgh. 10 decent heat and quench cycles with a lot of bashing inbetween each achieved nothing, so I found some flexible garden wire and gave as much of the burner tubes as I could reach a good poking, which removed a lot of carbon, although a great deal remained. Right then, something more serious was necessery. Just by chance, one of the threads on the blow gun for the compressor was exactly the right size and pitch. So I screwed the burner on, plugged the other hole with an old spark plug which just happened to fit, and wacked the compressor on. I was going to try the old method of heating the burner then blowing air through to burn away the carbon. Of course, with a burner red hot and nearing the brazing temperatures, plus compressed air, the potential for the whole lot to be blown apart was quite a dangerous one, due to flying red hot bits of brass, liquid solder, and clouds of burning carbon. So out with the fire extinguisher and a bucket of water, and on with the full leather welding gear and face shield. Feeling invincible, I lit up the blowlamp and slowly raised the burner to an even dull red, then gently blew air through. Sparks flew, so I whacked the pressure up and with a pretty firework display the combination of air pressure, and the air burning off the carbon cleared, the burner to an amazing standard. This method is brilliantly effective, I was thinking of turning different adaptors with different threads, but somewhere I have a length of flexible silicon tubing rated at 2300 degrees C (off a jet engine) which will be a tight push fit on most burner threads, if not a jubilee clip would fix it. Say what you like, but it works flipping well! I tried lighting it after all that, but it leaked badly from below the nipple, the thread on which turned out to be damaged but I had a spare of the right size which fitted fine. It worked a treat then. Finally the whole stove was cleaned and polished, and the box was fitted with new hinges as the old ones had rusted to nothing. The box is lovely, the wood has aged beautifully and it compliments the stove very well. The box is obviously not original, and it looks to have been Navy related at one time due to the markings, it has also been adapted to allow the pan ring to fit in. I imagine it was made for the stove early on in its life, oh the stories it could tell! My stoves don't sit around, they get serious use. There's nothing like going out into the hills for a night walk and meal, here's an attepmt at capturing the atmosphere! Ok I admit not bad for a tenner! If anyone can help me with an approximate date it would be much appriciated.
Spanking good post Blackdog! The stove and it's box look lovely. So, how much air pressure do you reckon you applied to the burner to get the "fireworks" to fire off? This is very interesting stuff. Cheers, Gary
Hi Blackdog, Great fettle. We've talked many times about the compressed air whilst heating approach, but not many have achieved it due to lack of equipment. Well done!
Well done BD! I've thought about doing this a couple of times but the nozzle on my blow-gun is tapered rather than threaded and I couldn't achieve a decent join. The method should work well though, because it was the standard refurbishment technique in years gone by - you took your clogged burner to the dealer and he used a standard bit of kit to remove the carbon deposits. We've had a picture of it here, taken from a catalogue and, hopefully, some kind soul will find it and re-post it for us. Now all you need is a proper lantern to go with your stove...
Thanks chaps, this is the first serious fettle I've done and it's quite pleasing! Such as? Yes I looked at the pictures of the old Primus dealership aparatus, being basically a bicycle pump to blow air through while the burner was heated. I gave this a try and it did work but it was very slow, and this particular burner was so clogged it needed a higher pressure, although not a great deal more than a bike pump used vigorously. I was worried by high pressure inside a glowing burner, but with the nipple removed there is little obstruction really and it can be given a good blast. I must work out how to make a system for various burner threads though. Blimey it's a wordy process to describe!
Beautiful work Blackdog! Your post says "Another Radius 17", but that isn't just another one as its quite nice. Hope to see some pics of your next fettle. Take care. dday
