Used, abused, abandoned in a damp place for years... And the shooting star burns brightly on! Sadly though any sporty weight reduction on the legs has been put back on around that filler neck. Assume the pressure release fitting has been removed and soldered over...? Not sure there were any fixed leg Radius stoves with the air release in the filler cap which would have had a plain neck. Leave it exactly as is and display it next to your best original perfect polished museum quality specimen. The extreme contrast will show both in their best light!
Hi all A worthy participant in the rusty but running realm. Coleman 2D in production from 1928 to 1931 Aquired in Tasmania Collected by @Rodger Willows on my behalf..thanks again. A new filler cap gasket and a check on all other seals for safety. A little oil on the pump leather. The tank is filled with what I believe to be leaded petrol as the smell instantly took me back in time to walking to the gas station to fill the lawnmower fuel tin for my father as a child. Preheat torch works a treat but the main burner is running rich, The secondary burner adjustment is seized 1/3 open so would only sustain a very low simmer. First sooty kettle boil in many years. But she's running Kind regards Scott B
1933 Primus 25 that I picked up before Christmas. I soaked the pump leather in oil overnight, rinsed out the font with some fresh paraffin, pricked the jet and away it went. -R
@IRM That’s going “great guns”! I really like the cast iron pan ring too… You must be very pleased with the result!
Hi @Rodger Willows - yes I’m very happy with my £5 plus postage :-) Whatever this stove has seen in its 92 years, it survived being posted in nothing more than a sheet of bubblewrap - not even a box. The pan ring unfortunately picked up a crack or two en route. -R
Must count for a moment of glory in this thread before getting its own gallery entry. 1915 Primus 210 with extraordinary wear to the pump tube cap, and a peg-leg, not to mention the general state it's in. But with every seal and washer replaced, except, remarkably, the NRV pip, it fired up on new paraffin as soon as some oil had worked its magic on the pump leather
Still in one piece at least! A great era, cast pan ring and those extra inscriptions on the tank top around the riser.
I wonder if it's done some domestic service to clock up that wear. Otherwise that's a serious number of hiking trips!
If I can add a small contribution here with this Valor 55 that should really be listed as crusty but running. The tank is covered in what looks like thick limescale to the point where you can’t see the engraving… however, some seal changes and with a vibrant burst of green flame it burst into life. Love the little pre heater by the meths cup… However, there does seem to be a small issue with the air release screw in that it doesn’t work. I’ve replaced the cork pip inside and found that the holder for that was badly crushed. But should it be soldered like that on the base? Logic says no…
@Automedon Certainly fits the "crusty but running" description. Air release is obviously achieved by unscrewing the filler cap with that solder over the hole! Must have had an issue with leaking air in the past.... For all of that it appears to be going well though. Good job!
Thank you. It boiled its first kettle this morning! As an amusing aside I had merry hell getting the NRV out - the tool just wouldn’t go on. Much head scratching later I had a play down the pump tube to finally loosen and fish out an old pump leather that was wrapped around the NRV head! Give that the stove came with a fairly decent pump leather attached the mind boggles …
Primus No. 5 - 1914 Part A: When I happened across these images on a well-known selling site I was excited by the cast iron pan ring: I did a little homework in the reference library and as far as I can ascertain they were produced until c. 1913. So I made sure that my trajectory involved collection... Yesterday I started to remove some of the "crud" to expose what was there, but first a few more images: "D" = 1914: The cast iron pan ring has two undisplaced fractures: to be continued...
Part B: After a boil-up and rub-down with Penetrene it became much more presentable: I scrubbed the pan ring with a wire brush and painted it with a phosphoric acid rust converting product which brought it up well. Once upon a time it had an "autolight" spirit cup... I has additional soldering features: The burner jet featured an imbedded pricker wire as an addition... I elected to fire it up without the pan ring in order to best preserve the rust converter. And here are the "running" photos: The "money' shot: Thanks! Perhaps I should create another post in the reference gallery....
Great to see it as found here first! That pan ring looked like something recovered from a shipwreck in a coral reef! Lovely casting, and what an era of stove, the single diagonal knurling is much classier than the later diagonal type. Also interesting that the autolight spirit cup has been deliberately moved, and not as a by-product of riser repair, which is intact...
