I have a really special (to me at least) Optimus Campingo 2. It has some unique history and I have let it languish for far too long. The tank had multiple issues. The NRV was hopelessly stuck. A pump removal was required. But, this seemingly fine tank.... ... also had this for one end: In addition to the solder repair, I suspect you can see the denting on the tank end. Here, I've split the tank, removed the screw mount from the tank interior, removed the pump tube and begun the process of beating the dents out of the tank end. Most of the solder has been heated and wiped off. Working out the dents and sanding. Sanding shows the low spots. 220 and 320 grit wet-dry paper. Best I could do. Using the Dremel and a wire brush to clean the mating surface for the screw mount piece inside the tank. The inside of a Campingo 2 tank looks like this. The big solder drips are original to the stove. I imagine a worker would use a halo burner to heat all sides of the main joint at once. Then, he'd feed solder in from just one location and it would wick clean around the joint. Pretty slick. I made this little brass washer to add to the shoulder of the original screw mount piece. I figured as I am by no means an Optimus line solderer, it might be good to have a wee bit more bearing surface to solder to. But..... more about that in the next post. Stay tuned. Cheers, Gary
So, I soldered that little brass washer to the shoulder of the screw mount piece. Here 'tis after soldering and a little sanding to bring up a good solder surface. Here, I've threaded a 1/4-20 bolt into the screw mount piece. The tank is hanging from the screw mount piece and bolt. The bolt is clamped in the bottom of my bench vise jaws. The weight of the tank will help pull the solder joint tight when the heat is applied. Hey! How come the folks at Optimus threaded these end mount screw fittings on the Campingo tank ends (did the same on the 111's) with 1/4-20 fittings instead of metric or some weirdo screw thread like they did on the burners? (Okay. Just trying to stir up some trouble. ) Finished joint. Finished joint inside tank. You can see my washer/flange. It isn't perfect. There are ripples in the end. But, I think it's better than where it was. Lots more to do, but it's past happy hour here, so enough for now. Cheers, Gary
Excellent work! I believe any Optimus line solderer would be very proud and impressed. Look forward to the remaining work. Cheers, Jeff
I have started a fad. Well done Bernie, it looks great. Why does the threaded part go into the tank rather then outside? i've no experience with campngo's. lance
Fantastic work there! It looks very good. That's not so strange to me. 1/4-20 is one of the most common threads. I think I run into that one almost as often as the M6 or M8. But then I don't know which standard the other threads on the Campingo are of. If they mixed different standards, I can see that it's a bit annoying, but actually not so unusual that either.
Well done Gary, taking out those dents was fantabulous! Look forward to the next episode. Feels good doesnt it! Ron
That's some superb work you are doing there Gary. It already looks great. Looking forward to the rest of the post. Thanks, sam
Great fettle Gary - you're right it isn't perfect with the ripples but IMO they are part of that stoves character just as is your masterful & sympathetic fettle.
Hi Guys Thanks for the nice comments! Lance, I have no idea why Optimus chose to fab the end-mount screw-threading this way. Your guess is as good as mine. Christer, on the 1/4-20 screw thread size, I was mostly just goofing around. It *is* a very common screw thread as you point out, and probably was in the thirties, too, I imagine. I just think it's odd because just about every *other* thread in these old stoves is a weird one that's hard to find today. I think that's the strange part. So, here's the conclusion to the tank repair part of this project. Here I've soldered the bottom of the pump tube back in after extracting the dead NRV head. This is how I set up to solder the pump tube in. I had a lot of indecision about whether I should join the tank halves first or do the pump tube first. I decided I really wanted to make sure that the pump tube solder job was bomber and that I couldn't be sure without a visual inspection from inside the tank. After soldering. The threaded rod is a bolt fit through the pump cap. It gave me something to manipulate the pump tube while it was hot to make any final adjustments. An undrilled midicap lid made a good support for the pump tube. Hey! It was handy! Couple of shots to show how the pump tube solder joint came out. Outside. Inside. Here, I've joined the tank halves and soldered it up. You can see the wet paper toweling that I had in the pump tube so that part wouldn't come unsoldered since it's so close to the tank joint. I also had a wet rag handy so I could throw it on any part of the tank that was getting too hot to knock down the heat before bad things happened. Then followed lots of hand sanding with 400 and 600 grit wet-dry sandpaper. I sanded out any solder slop and also tried to remove some of the pitting on the top of the tank. Then, lots and lots of buffing. I have a buffing wheel. The buffing wheel makes me look more skilled than I really am. Anyway, no pictures of that stuff 'cause I guess it's not very interesting. Here's the finished pump tube joint. And, the tank joint. And, the whole enchilada. Whew! I don't mind saying that this was a very nervous-sweat-inducing job. It came out pretty good and was easier than I thought it would be. The reality of each step was not nearly as bad as the way it seemed before I did the step. Does it leak? Uh, well, I haven't tested that yet. I'm hoping not. As I finish fettling the other components I'll give it a test. Thanks again for the nice comments, and thanks for watching! Cheers, Gary
Quoting for no other reason than to put the after & before pics close together! Are we going to see this thread continued with the rest of the project?
Wow! And I really mean wow indeed! It looks just perfect. I'll keep my fingers crossed that it'll pass the leak test. Regarding the threads I wouldn't be to confused. Over here we never really could decide what to use all over until perhaps the 60:s / 70:s. Before that you could see probably most standards mixed together. The withworth has given me some headache in other areas...
Superb Gary in fact a outstanding restoration job a work of art it puts my tank job(pump removal) to shame that i think it deserves to be in the masters class very well done indeed
BEAUTIFULL Gary. Just a wonderfull job and i agree with the others you move to the master class with the rest of the grand old masters. lance
I have nightmares about doing something like that, wow , Gary too much. See you keep buying these rough looking stoves and this is what you got to do Just funnin' , got's to see's it running now Tom
