Hi, here are some photos of my British No.12 stove. It has been fitted with a 0.32mm dimeter aperture jet from a kerosene Op.No. 111. This Army No.12 is a powerful and controllable stove and I have taken many photos to illustrate the power range and flame patterns: Best Regards, Kerophile.
George, I thought I was over the Mil 12 and seeing the one you posted here...makes me want one Lovely indeed.
Great pictures Kero!!! They are great stoves! They seem to have some problems with building them. Gary's feed tube and Bill's burner. The good ones are great. How can you not love stainless steel and brass. Tig welded tank and great windscreen. Jeff
Hi Jeff. They are great stoves. Dont let two minor errors put you off. I own three No12s and have never had a problem with the two that i use. I live local to t.o.c who make them and have spoken to them on two occasions about the stoves. The only thing that i dont understand is why folk insist on burning kero in them! Designed and built to burn diesel, they do so perfectly. The british army are happy with them. Ok not a backpacking stove, or silent burner,but a quality english built product. Im not trying to start a major row about what fuel to burn. But one thing for sure, you cant beat a bacon butty cooked with a diesel stove.
Hello Kl80, Oh I haven't been put off. I own one and love it. My favourite big stove. I love diesel too. I wanted one for my diesel pickup, truck, and car. When I first got it I put kero in it just thinking it would be better. But once I saw that the stove ran great with kerosene I tried diesel. Priming with diesel is something I don't want to think about but meths do a great job. Canadian diesel isn't the greatest but the ultra low sulfur diesel seems to run better for the stove. Still testing it out. Cheers, Jeff
I'm among many here in the States, love to have one, but the shipping kills the deal, everytime! Sounds like the ideal stove to carry in my diesel pickup... Ah, well, have to make do with my 111C
Mayhaps a group buy from a good source in "jolly olde" is a possibility. I can't afford to pay attention at the moment but would like to have one at some point. Re group buy, say 40 or 50 stoves (or more...or less) shipped in some sort of container to a U.S. port and repackaged and reshipped from there. One of the gun forums does that on occasion and it seems to be a long-term project and with lots of niggley details for some person to handle. But still, a possibility. So, how many would be interested? Perhaps a separate topic for a group buy is in order. Best, Bob
Three, counting the appalling engineering and build quality of the pump on mine - there's an account of the whole, sad saga on here somewhere. Briefly, mine had a hugely incontinent NRV (apparently) and it took Ross, Trevor and me well over an hour to even unscrew the pump due to mismatched machining tolerances. In the end we had to use a massive Stillson wrench to get it out. When we did, the end of the pump tube fell off in Ross's hand - I've usually more fluff in my belly-button than solder used to make that joint. The stove could never have worked from new, and couldn't even have held pressure, so where the quality assurance and inspection department were at TOC when that particular stove was produced, I don't know. I got a new pump (we'd knackered the old one getting it out) which I got to screw in slightly easier than the old one came out. The stove now works OK, I suppose. I've only ever used paraffin in it because I don't have any reason to access diesel...
Hi, I have taken some additional, detailed photos of the burner of this stove, and of a spare burner I have for it: First the burner from 1996 No.12 stove shown in the Post above: Next the Spare burner I have for a No.12 Military stove. I don't know the date of this burner:
Hi George, The 'doughnut' in the centre of the burner (don't know the proper term - vapourising chamber?) seems to come in two forms. Flat topped like yours and one of mine, or round topped like my other one (currently with B-in-Law for brazing): I assume that the flat topped ones were an improvement on the round topped version which seems prone to failure. The trouble with No12s is that the cases were dated, not the stoves, and the Army would have serviced the stoves in batches. I doubt if the stoves ever went back into their original cases. Regards, Terry
Hi Terry it was your earlier thread that prompted me to take the photos a couple of weeks ago. It was only today that I managed to get around to editing and posting them. I thought that there were minor variations in the internals of Military No.12s over time, but it was only on studying the photos that I saw that both of mine appear to be the same "flat-top" vaporisation chamber design. Your burner certainly seems to have a doughnut-shape vaporisation chamber. Best Regards, Kerophile.
Hi, here are some additional photos of this British Military No.12 stove (manufactured in 1996). Best Regards, Kerophile.
Here are some photos illustrating the pump piston arrangements on this 1996 manufactured No.12 cooker: The leather pump bucket is securely fixed on a screwed brass assembly. The complete pump assembly is then free to "float" on a reduced section at the end of the pump shaft, between the radius to the reduced section and the nut on the end of the shaft. Best Regards, Kerophile.
Is it me and only me, or this diesel stove IS the perfect stove?! Been studying searching for a liquid fuel stove that can burn an easily to find/buy liquid fuel, is easy to start burning(even using alcoohol), is reliable and doesn't weighs much. Price or availability not considered
Hi @kongrit ratanakanahutanon In my opinion kerosene is the best fuel for the British Army No.12 stove. Automotive diesel should only be used in an emergency…and the stove should be thoroughly flushed out and cleaned after such use. Best Regards, Kerophile.
more "convenient" will be diesel fuel. you can find it at any gas station. just yesterday filled up my truck with diesel and filled up a 5 liter plastic canister with gasoline(for Shmel 2) . I haven't yet seen a kerosene pump anywhere.let alone be available to use/fill an 800 liter tank at any hour of day and especially night... kerosene is only available at 800 ml bottles and it costs more than double what diesel or gasoline costs... I wouldn't buy a kerosene only stove at any price or even donated to me. too much hassle. that's why I went for an old CCCP gasoline stove. But for sure next stove will be a diesel burning one! less flamability compared to gasoline, wich is a fire waiting to happen! But it burns well in very cold (minus 10-15 Celcius) weather. I never used a diesel stove in very cold weather,yet! They should build again new British Army No.12 stoves, or at least leave it to the chinese to manufacture it NEW! would be a good thing for everyone!
