For several years I have had a Primus 503 stove that I never seemed to get time to look over. It is of the model 503/2 or in other words, the one with a nickelplated fueltank and a "dull nickelled frame". The former owner, or at least someone before me, had either kept this stove outside, or maybe at an old damp house, as it had started to rust, and then tried to get rid of the rust by grinding it with some kind of a machine, still not managed to get rid of everything. Well, I can't renickel anything, have been thinking of trying sometimes, but no, that's a too risky job for me, so I cleaned up the frame and bought a height temperature silver spraycolor and sprayed the frame. Now, I know this isn't the way it should be done, but I didn't want an oxidized frame on this stove, and if I find out a simple way of getting it nickled then I simply remove the color. I had tested the burner before, and knew that the nipple had to be changed, so I took one of an old spareburner that I have (man was that one hard to get out) and tested that the cleaning needle was the right size for this nipple. Then I took everything out of the burner, soaked it in vinegar (yepp I did), then rinsed it all well under hot water, dried it up and assembled everything again. The fuel level gauge is an interesting thing on this one I noticed, as the needle that shows how much fuel there is, is working with a magnet, so no pressure gets to the glass on the gauge, clever. The fuel tank is marked AK11 so it should be from 1946 if the Primus chart is right. When all was done, I simply put in some fuel, primed the burner and pumped up some pressure, and the stove was working directly. This will be our stove when making coffee or boiling potatoes at the gazeebo, that is for sure, (unless I find something even nicer someday ) Anders
A beautiful stove and well done fettle. i find it interesting how they have used the fount (tank) for two of the legs. Such a novel way to keep it small and handy. Much like the Desca Murfur Spiritus Alcohol stoves, small and close to as simple as a hammer. You light them and they produce heat for cooking. lance
Thank you for your kind comments! The RM sure is built much in the same way as the Primus, and actually I like the ones with a polished brass fueltank, and a black frame, the colors mix so well together. Another stove that would be interesting, is the Primus 523 that has two burners and the fueltank is between the burners. But after a short discussion with my wife, we came to the conclusion that it isn't that often that we need a twoburner, and we have a spirit twoburner that we can use if we need to. Anders
