Hi Alex, here are the Optimus instructions for installing and setting the cleaning needle on regulated burners: https://classiccampstoves.com/threads/fitting-replacement-parts-on-regulated-burners.8843/ Best Regards, Kerophile.
@kerophile, thank you for the clarification on parts numbers. It's rather confusing trying to navigate a parts list knowing only the burner number and not the stove it likely came from. Interesting that the white gas and kero nipples are the same size for this burner. Looking at this website http://zenstoves.net/How.htm#JetSizing, and from juggling MSR's different K and G jets, I would have expected them to be different. The good news is that I used to maintain a fleet of Op111Bs for my old high school's hiking program (this is what first <ahem> fired my interest in stoves), and when they retired the stoves, I got a couple of them --and the entire parts/overhaul stock! so I should have plenty of nipples and cleaning needles. As for installing new cleaning needles --hoo boy, did I do a lot of that. Ham-fisted teenagers can strip a lot of cleaning needles. Shifting the program to WhisperLites was sad, but it did make a lot of sense in terms of maintenance demands. Alex
Hi Alec, the Op.111b used a jet with an aperture of around 0.38 mm diameter, so a bit big for ideal operation of an Op.111 with kerosene.
Okay, so I spent some time at the fettling bench this afternoon. After attending to the usual messy discovery that the Pr100's test tank NRV needed overhaul, I got to the burner. I pulled the jet out of the 207 and tried some pricker wire that I measured at .30mm (actually, I measured it .012", but I'm trying to learn metric). The wire was a very tight fit, and it only fit at all once I burnished the end to be certain there was no burr, so I think that rules out the possibility of it being an alky. The 111B nipples were an easy fit for that same wire (even un-burnished), of course. I did take one of the 111B nipples I have --I have 41 of them, so I felt okay sacrificing one to the experiment-- and peened it down to where .23 wire just fit, and .30 wire most definitely did not. I would be running it without a cleaning needle, but if the 207 is anything like the 111B that won't affect the flame. After tightening down the burner/riser connection properly, I lit her off (I stink at photography, so I don't have any flame shots). I first plugged in the modified 111B nipple: No difference from my original test. Good flames at the beginning, but with the corona soon turning yellow. I didn't run that nipple very long; just enough to see whether a smaller oriface made any obvious difference. Given the identical corona effects to the very first test, I didn't think that it did. I then replaced the original nipple, with its cleaning needle. Again, for the first few seconds, everything looked lovely. Four perfect rings of blue flame, with no corona to speak of. Then the corona appeared and gradually turned yellow. After a few minutes at full throttle, a few sparks started to appear. The (steel) cap never glowed, at low throttle or high, and it never got that semi-roarer noise of an underburn. When I turned the stove off, the only part of the cap that glowed was the very rim, above the top row of holes, and it darkened almost instantly. Hmm. From reading other threads, the signs and symptoms say it's over-jetted, but if I'm already using a .30 nipple...? I'm not sure where to take this next --or if I need to take it anywhere. My experience with silent burners is virtually nil, so for all I know it's working fine. Maybe the yellow corona and occasional spark is a product of old kerosene and/or a dirty tank? That would be my first guess at this point, but I just don't know. So if anyone has any thoughts, I'd welcome them. Alex P.S. If the Moderators would rather I repost part or all of this thread over in Fettling, I'm happy to do so.
@Pitsligo Let the stove burn for 15 minutes and see whether the flame gets bluer. All things tight; clean fuel; clean tank. Cheers Tony
Just a thought. A peened jet/nipple may not have a round hole. A pricker may not go, but an oblong hole would not help your testing. The shape of the jet suggests that peening may not be equally effective all the way around. I do not see the test as conclusive. Unless you verified the round hole. Maybe drill a new hole in a jet that has been peened closed, or buy a new jet as @kerophile suggested.
Well, taking various advice --including that of Gary/BernieDawg-- I sloshed out the tank with a mixture of kero, carb cleaner, and white gas. Pouring out that mixture into a white yoghurt tub, with the tub 85% full the kero was so yellow and cloudy I could barely see the bottom. And on the bottom were swirls and drifts of particulate. Hmm... Yeah, dumb newbie mistake time. Troubleshooting step 1: clean your tank and check your fuel. So I poured in a pint of new(er) kero --and clean, as I could tell from looking into the white plastic jug-- fortified it with a few seconds burst of carb cleaner, nipped up all the connections, and lit her off. At first I was seeing the same large yellow corona and sparks, but after 30 minutes of letting her run at full throttle, the corona, though still yellow, was 1/3 the size, and there weren't any sparks. Lovely soft, regular sound. On shutdown, there was only the slightest glow of red around the outer cap's gallery. So between the evidence of the .30 pricker wire showing the jet is about the right size, and the nasty p*** that I poured out of the tank (it went into the jug of paintbrush cleaner), I'm thinking much of my worrisome flame is due to fuel problems. Even the new(er) stuff I used for the final burn is pretty old; I may pick up some genuinely new stuff when I'm in town tomorrow and see if that changes anything. Any thoughts, folks? Alex
If I clean a tank, I dump into a white container until nothing else comes out. I use BBs, too. Magnetic BBs.
BBs! Excellent idea! Right. I'll be picking up some of those while I'm in town tomorrow. Or maybe ball bearings, for the magnetism. Thank you! Alex
I just saw the additional pictures. It is an Optimus burner. The parts are matching as far as I can tell. I do have several OPTIMUS - PRIMUS branded caps.
Just a quick thank you to all who helped me with burner ID, fettling, pot-stand height, etc. Optimus 207 burner atop a Julian riser tube (with Fettlebox washers) atop a Primus 100 tank, with newly built potstands. Basically, a whole bunch of spare parts bolted together, but they work quite well together. (My camera stinks at flame shots; sorry.) As spare time permits, I'll be trying my hand at a windscreen, and I still need to work up a priming-worm out of woodstove gasket (saturated with baking soda to make the meths burn yellow for visibility), but "Frank" is pretty much ready to go aboard the boat, once the season starts: Again, thank you all. Alex
For your further entertainment, and to update the story of Frank, my newly-fettled PrOp307 (Pr100 tank + Op207 burner). I had an afternoon in the shop waiting for epoxy to cure, when I would otherwise have been twiddling my thumbs, so I found a piece of .015 sheet brass, bolted the cross-slide vise to the drill press and chucked up a 3/16" end mill, and bashed out a windscreen that's ten times fancier than it needs to be: The edges of the tube are rivetted together using 18ga brass escutcheon pins (should have used 22ga), and my rivetting job stinks --thus the seam is hidden on the back and there's no photo. The white thing filling the spirit cup is a doughnut of braided rockwool(?) wood stove door gasket that I make for my boat stoves to keep the meths from sloshing. With any luck --i.e. if it ever stops raining, so I can lay varnish-- the boat will be in the water in a couple weeks and the stove will be ready for sea trials. The epoxy cured much better for my being distracted by a stove project, too. Alex
