Some woodworking required on this project!

John, your ingenuity never fails to amaze me...

 

A tasty piece of restoration

 

Nice job Presscall, although the epoxy repair will fall out. If you could have stabilised the crack around the hole - got someone to Tig weld it for you - that would have stopped the frame from twisting.

Another option open, would have been to find another piece of cast iron, and had that welded in - that said, the cast iron replacement would have had to have been free of impurities - sometimes it is just impossible to weld the bit to the frame.

Look forward to seeing the end product.

 

I'd thought that each of the burner control valve fuel pick-up tubes is just a tube, but when I looked more closely I see that a fuel shut-off valve is incorporated - rather like on a Tilley lamp - that shuts off fuel when the valve spindle is screwed shut in addition to the shut-off action of the the spindle fuel cut-off.

Screwing out the spindle depresses the spring-loaded plunger and allows pressurised fuel into the control valve, the conical operating surface of spindle having lifted off the valve seat and allowing fuel to enter the vapourising tube.

Open ...




... and closed




Cork seals, now replaced.


Good point, Iani, about the flexing of the break in the frame stressing the repair.

Fortunately I'd epoxied this key into a slot cut at the break in the frame with a slitting saw (Dremel), then subsequently trimmed before the resin casting








I still might play about with the colour though. Simple enough to grind a fraction of the front surface of the resin fillet and cast a lighter-coloured layer in place - like cosmetic veneering of teeth.

That fuel-stop valve arrangement on the fuel pick-up makes me think this stove was intended for 'essence' and not 'alcool' - providing an extra factor of safety for the more volatile fuel. I'll probably test-fire on bio-ethanol (I'm using that these days instead of the rubbish meths I've had to contend with) and if that's running too lean, have a go with Aspen 4T.

John

 

Good Morning, John,

I am always amazed at your creativity and skill set, my friend!!! Your attention to detail is wonderful, as is your eye for photography!! WOW, is about all I can say about this thread!! Superb stuff!! Take care, and God Bless!

Every Good Wish,
Mark

 

Thanks Doc. More work to do on this yet ...

John

 

I needed to locate a vital accessory, a suitable pump for the stove.

The Presto-sized valve fitting on the fuel cap/NRV could be matched up with any contemporary bike pump with an adaptor fitting easily enough, but I wanted a pump that ideally was in brass and had a bit of style about it.

I 'lucked out' as the saying goes, with one that cropped up on ebay after a couple of weeks of looking




It came with a rather wizened hose having a male-threaded fitting at both ends, when I needed a female (Presto-type) fitting at one end and the original hose-to-pump male fitting at the other




A few hours later, a bit of silbrazing and crimping and I'd produced this ...




... which links pump to fuel cap/valve perfectly and has the right look about it to complement the stove




Bonus, given the stove manufacturer's American roots, was that the pump was made in the USA ...




... and a Coleman pump cup washer provided the perfect replacement






A word about the ferrules I used for crimping the connectors in the flexi-hose. I was out of stock of suitable brass tubing but spotted these components in a local B&Q store, which provided a convenient alternative. Once slipped over the hose and fittings inserted, I crimped the tubing using that technique I developed of a small 4-jaw chuck from a metalworking lathe:-

Fuel hose crimping

For a fuel line I'd want to silbraze an end stop on each for extra security, but for a (hand) air pump it wasn't necessary




Still more jobs to do.

John

 

Closer still to finishing.

I made a set of lead washers - one to seal the pressure gauge to tank joint and the other two are seals for the control valve/generator(s) to tank joints




Lead seals were original to the stove and make sense since it's the best sealing material when a component has to be orientated in a set position - the lead crushing as the component is torqued down, making it possible to get the component degree-perfect in terms of position without locking up before it reaches that point. A fibre washer wouldn't be so accommodating. The existing seals were already at their 'crush' limit and wouldn't have accommodated another 360-degrees of tightening of valves and pressure gauge to make them seal.

Installing the seals














With both valves turned to 'off' I pressurised the tank to above the normal maximum operating pressure, marked with a red line on the gauge. I took the pressure beyond the red line cautiously, but pretty confident that a substantial margin of safety had been designed in by the manufacturer






With no creaks or other signs of distress (the tank mainly but me too) I kept the tank at that pressure for a couple of hours to confirm the soundness of the replaced seals and the two control valve to tank mounting bosses I'd to re-solder, suspicious of obvious cracks in the solder joints at a couple of points on each one.

The gauge needle didn't move, so I'm happy to progress to reassembly and fuelling up at the first opportunity.

Before that, I'd replaced the control valve spindle seals, taking the precaution of wearing a mask on disassembly since the hessian twine seemed to have a fair proportion of asbestos fibre bound up with it. Terry ('Trojandog') is my source for a much better alternative, a graphite-impregnated sheet material easily cut into half-inch strips with scissors, wound around the spindles, inserted and packing nuts tightened up - job done!



John

 

All jobs done, stove reassembled






I fuelled up on methanol intially - clearly it's not intended for alcohol - then with the methanol decanted back into its container I filled up with Aspen 4T alcylate petrol.

Tank pressurised, I checked both vapourisers were fuelling (visible jet of fuel on opening up the control valves. Confident both were working, I decided to fire up just one burner and leave the other still cleaned up for a subsequent photo shoot.

First, the priming charge of methanol ...




... priming - the flame over on the right is just the priming pan's reflection on the fuel tank




Combustion's good




Another firing when night fell. Residue of the priming burn visible in the pan beneath




A pilot jet on either side of the burner ensures the vapouriser's kept up to heat






A brass heatshield protects the tank from the pilot flame on the tank side of the burner ...




... and another heatshield ensures the jet outlet isn't disrupted by the pilot flame on the jet side of the burner




Quite a sight







I'll get a write-up and photos in the Stove Ref Gallery soon.

John

 

Ack! I'm in love!

Great stuff, John!

 

A beautiful stove. Great job on the restoration. Too bad they weren't more successful, and numerous.

Paul

 

G,,day. that is a lovely looking 2 burner stove, i must find time to get my three cleaned up and burning. different makes to yours.

i am not surprised Gary is in love with the flame shot. if there was a competition for flame shots, I reckon that's a winner!!!!!!!!!!! absolutely beautiful !!!!!!!

cheers
kerry

 

Hi John, Great work. What a unique and beautiful flame pattern this burner design produces.
Best Regards,
Kerophile

 

John

You are the bee's knees, 8) what a fantastic fab fettle

Make sure you wrap it up well when you post it to me

Stu

 

Good Morning, John,

I go believe this, of all the other outstanding refurbishing jobs you've accomplished, is my most favorite fettle of the lot!!! OUTSTANDING!!! And, to top it all off, the excellent photographs, detailing every single step along the way to your wonderful result, were a beautiful and artful offering in themselves!!! Hearty congratulations on a job well done, and well shared, my friend!!! Excellent in every single way!! God Bless!

Every Good Wish,
Mark

 

Sorry chaps I can't agree with you - wow

The handle will fall apart after a few uses, glue does not take to heat transfer from the generator - it will melt - back to square 1.

Nice flame I suppose.

 

I can't agree with that statement at all. Located where the join is, with the brass collar he fashioned, and provided John chose the right glue for the job, it should be no problem at all. And, it's certainly no worse than the original which he is attempting to replicate. (I spent thirty years teaching and working at woodworking. I've built cabinets, guitars, boats and furniture. For money.)

I wonder why Iani chooses to make negative comments on each of Presscall's posts? Does anyone know what's going on with this?

 

Thanks all.

Iani? With news of Steve (Shed-Man)'s death so recent, shame on you for indulging in another pop at me Ian. If that's a measure of your grieving, shame on you. A bloody disgrace.

You're right, BD, Iani's wrong - on both the snipes he's managed to incorporate in this thread.

One, the epoxy repair to the frame hasn't popped right out (and isn't going to) ...




Secondly, the repair to the control knob was remote from any heat from the spindle ...




... and besides, the control spindle doesn't get hot in use, barely warm in fact. There's a lot of metal in the spindle and mountings, which probably accounts for it. The burner's fired up here and had been in use for quarter-of-an hour or so




I didn't leave the other burner unfired for long ...







John

 

Congratulations John, lovely restoration.

Norm

 

John, your Lawson stove is looking wonderful.
All your time, effort and skill has paid off in trumps.

I look forward to seeing it at Newark - in fact I was thinking of taking no stoves at all.
You will be able to keep me going with cups of tea all day.