Hi all, a few weeks ago I bought an old soviet PT-1 stove on a well known auction site. Instead of my usual procedure to clean down to metal and repaint, I choose to try to preserve the status quo. A first burn test revealed that the tank was filled with two-stroke mixture and that the stove produced a weak flame with excessive soothing. So I proceeded to tear down everything. Here's a picture of the old wick alongside the new one: I put the case in a mild cleaning solution and put some rust converter on the spots where the old paint was worn. After I cleaned of the rust converter, I applied two thin layers of clear coat: The old gaskets were all either hardened out or turned into a sponge like texture. So I replaced them with viton/fkm. Interestingly they used a rubber piece to seal the spindle. Graphite foil seemed to be a proper replacement. After putting everything together, using a soap block as threadlock, I test fired the stove. Methylated spirits (Brennspiritus) to preheath, alkylated gasoline (Aspen 4) as fuel. This time I got a nice, clean burning, flame. Stable burning from low simmer to full throttle. All in all one can see that this stove was produced in a very crude manner. Loose tolerances, sharp edges, questionable paint. But from the engineering persepective it is a nice workhorse of a stove. Albeit not as beautiful as a genuine Optimus 8R. Now I just need to decide: Leave the stove 'as is' or strip the paint and apply some modern coating... regards from germany, kk1992
It can only be original once - In that condition - I’d keep it that way. I’ve had two of these - (robust and quite powerful!) sold them in weak moments over time
Yes, leave the paint, it looks OK, and it takes you back to the USSR (you don't know how lucky you are.......)
