This week I attacked one of the Opt. 45's from my box of stoves. Picture below. Stove had several problems: missing leg, stuck NRV, and had ample amounts of tar dumped on it sometime during its past. George indicated that this stove probably dates from the early 1920's, this provided incentive for me to dive in an spend several evenings in the garage bringing it back to life. Had to solder on a leg, remove the pump tube to get at the NRV, replace gaskets, polish for hours, etc. Lots of cool things about this stove; I especially liked the caps. Here is the stove brought back to life. Note that the flame ring has been borrowed from another stove. Another view (soap film on stove due to leak testing...read on for more on this.) Finally, a picture of the first burn. This baby really cranks. Now for the bad news, and a solicitation of thoughts from the experts. It turns out that the thumb screw (needle) doesn't properly seat so the stove does not maintain pressure. Any ideas of how I could possibly fix this problem? I figure that I could make the stove usable by plugging the needle valve vent and using the cap as the binary on/off flame control. however, I like things to work the way they are intended if at all possible. Steve
Hi Very nice fettle. In fact I do not have a 45 myself, and now I want one. Never seen a 45 for sale in Norway, so maybe I have to try Epray! Regards
Hi Steve, A beautiful stove and a great fettle. I too love the great markings on all the parts. The Op.45 is probably my all time favourite stove, but I do not have an example of this particular model....yet. It may be that the air-screw is a good fit but is not sealing because of wear or damage on the conical section. On many old stoves you can actually see a circular "wear ring" where the needle has seated. Engineers use an ink called Engineers blue to "paint" the cone. Once the ink is dry the screw is inserted and tightened.It is then removed and you should see where the cone is not properly seating. Use a Magic Marker...it should do the same thing You could then try to clean/polish the cone to get a nice even surface and then try again mating it to the seating in the air-release housing. Plan B is merely to replace the air screw, or in extremis, the housing tube too. Shouldn't be a problem for a man with your soldering skills! PM me if you need to follow Plan B and I will help with the parts. Best Regards, Kerophile.
Thanks guys. George, I did work on the air screw a bit as per your suggestion and it appears to have slowed the leak down substantially. I will perform some more testing to see how it all pans out. Steve
