Hello fellow lampers, This is my first post. I have recently acquired a 300X that needs some fettling to bring it back to life. Pic attached. I have some (lightweight) experience with pressure lanterns and have long camped with pressure-stoves. I would be grateful for some advice. The (known) issues are: (1) Seized NRV. The pump and leather create good pressure in the tube, but no air passed into tank. I have the bottom of the tube soaking in WD40 right now and have ordered a complete 300X seal set from Fettlebox. I am somewhat confident that this will fix this issue. (2) Corroded Hood-cap. The steel enameled cap is badly corroded. I would like to replace with brass, if possible (favour a rolled edge for strength against knocks). I have seen "Juliands" brass cap on eBay. Is this a good choice (no rolled edge, unfortunately) - is there a better solution? (3) Seized stop-cock (pricker knob and shaft). I have undone the packer nut, taken off the vaporizer and soaked the mechanism in WD40 (24 hrs). Unfortunately - no movement at all. I am thinking about next-steps and am quietly considering: (i) soaking in acetone (might dissolve any residue from years of evaporating old paraffin - see note below) (ii) heat - as a last resort. Try and create some differential expansion and break the seize-up. You may have guessed, no.(3) is my main worry and the reason for this post. NOTE - this lantern was left half-full of old paraffin with fuel-cap and vent tightly screwed shut. The stop-cock is seized in the open position, so years of evaporating paraffin might be the reason for the seize-up. I am unsure about this - guessing. Also, please ignore that I have the spirit cup upside-down - photo taken early - half asleep. Any advice would be much welcomed. Thanks Cube
Hi Cube and Welcome! if you have used stoves you will be aware of the similar nrv in the pump tube on the bialaddin? The difference being the willis/bates has a screwdriver slot instead of the rectangle block shape commonly found on many stoves lots of folks make their own removal tool out of appropriately sized m/steel round bar or bolt or a good fitting large screwdriver. Have you stripped everything down yet? That tank will need a good flush Regards pb @Cube here are some images of what you might find.. no washer on this..
Hi pb Thank you for your response and photos. I have tangled with NRVs in my stoves. So am not so intimidated by that. (Fingers crossed) I am more concerned about this seized-up stop-cock - a cunning next move, if you like. No, I haven't yet stripped it down. I will when the new seals show up. I have noticed something else though, since posting the above. (4) Slight 'tilt' to the cage. I guesstimate about 0.5-1cm off center at the top. I guess it was dropped at some point. Can I just bend that back using an adjustable wrench? How is the vaporizer still in alignment with the hood? Unless something related to the stop-cock bent also - possible problems. The tanks seems un-dented though. Does this make it a 'write-off'?
You can usually bend the cage gently to suit.. some are riveted, some have screwed uprights.. if they loosen you can gently retighten or carefully re-hammer the ends (can be a 2 person job holding cage and punch and hammer) sadly the tanks have been known to have stress cracks but fingers crossed yours will be fine for me it would be far easier to take the cage off to access the control tap, remove it from the tank then you can have a look at it properly, maybe see why it’s seized ? I usually use a vice .. pinch the exposed brass stem of the shaft (with lead or aluminium jaws in the vice) that way you can gently start to put some leverage on it before resorting to heat.. something may have worn or given way and has jammed the cam inside? Not the end of the world by any means as parts are still widely available I’m sure other members can help regarding the experience of the hood
Okay, an update: (1) Seized NRV: The NRY body unscrewed pretty easily - luckily I had a butch ex-MOD flat-head which sorted it out with ease. However the pip-carrier was completely seized in place and the spring behind it. I had thought that this would be the easy part - wrong. After much soaking and scratching it with needles, toothpicks etc etc - I gave in and drilled a small hole through the brass end - Surprisingly easy. Then I inserted a thin rod and pushed the spring + pip-carrier out. Now it all works as it should. pic attached. (2) Corroded Hood-cap: This is still an issue. Neither of the brass ones that I have found are the correct shape for the 300X. Still thinking about this one. (3) Seized stop-cock (pricker knob and shaft): I followed pb's advice (thanks pb!) and with some leather around the red knob and a plumbers wrench, it slowly began to move. Now all good (I presume). (4) Slight 'tilt' to the cage: again followed pb's guidance and used a large adjustable wrench and 'corrected' the tilt - all seems surprisingly good. I now need to fit the suite of new seals and leather and give it a go. I will report back. The pic includes a quick scribble drawing as backdrop. I did this trying to persuade my son to hold the Mole-Grips whilst I wielded the drill Can anyone give me some pointers on a good brass 300X hood-cap? Thanks (especially to pb)
Forgot to mention: (2) Hood-cap screws are seized on - not a surprise really. Have ordered a couple of new ones (Base-Camp) and am planning on getting the junior hacksaw out
Try heating the nuts with a small torch then dropping water on them to crack them loose: even if you end up replacing the bolts it's worth trying to save the original nuts as they're not a standard size.
@steerpike451 Thank you for that suggestion. I had sawed off the bolt heads with the hacksaw. However, I have retained the nuts, still on their threaded rod, and will try this clever technique to try and get them off. So, thank you.
Okay, I replaced all the seals and fired her up, and this is what I got: pic attached. Initially I thought that I had misfitted the mantle, so I removed the newly fitted one and replaced it, only to get the same result. The attached pic is from the second mantle. The vapourizer is new and the pricker-knob-cam works well. So, all good there. I do have an idea of where the problem is. When I took off the hood-cap - sawing off the brass heads, I noticed that the brass hood had taken a bash and needed some straightening / knocking out of dents. I was struggling to get my pieces of wood into the hood in the right place (the hood being SO soft), so I decided to try and remove the three nuts on the side of the hood and remove the - I'm not sure what it's called - the three arms going into a central bulb, all part of the internal hood assembly. Anyway, half way through this operation I changed my mind and tried to toghten-up those 3 external bolts (returning to original position), but they seemed to be spinning in the central bulb end, so I just left it, thinking that I hadn't undone any of the three nuts more than a couple of turns and that it would make little / no difference. I could have been wrong on that! Any more experienced minds have an explanation / solution?
Hi @Cube good progress here is an image of a similar Bialaddin 4714 is the Burner 5674 is the Burner end cap.. it threads onto the Air tube.. this is off a later model but will still fit and work do you mean that something is now loose or won’t tighten up?
If the burner dome is loose in the burner main body (top arrow) Or the air tube is loose (second arrow) then that will probably cause symptoms like you are having? It’s common for the air tube to undo when you try to take off the end cap hope this helps rather than confuses more? happy to answer any questions you may have there mate cheers pb
@podbros Wow, and thank you. That is a lovely line drawing of the guts of a similar Bialaddin. All the main components are functionally the same as the 300X. Yes, so I loosened the 3 nuts (5674 on the diag.) and then, when I tried to tighten them up, they span: maybe there is a spinning nut on the inside of the burner (4714 on the diag.)? For the avoidance of doubt, this isn't a situation where the vapourizer isn't hot enough). I have another, original cond. 300X (bought by my g/father in 1948) - so am reasonably familiar with operating a 300X. In my ignorance, I assume that the 'burner' (4714) might be about pre-mixing fuel/air before burning in/on the mantle ???
@podbros Cross posted with your second post immediately above. Yes, entirely clear (thanks for the beautiful images - and your effort in putting them up). I think that you are right, and I have to pull-up my big-boy-breeches and re-visit those exterior nuts. Blast - was hoping for an 'easy tweak'.
Hiya yes, the burner mixes the vapourised paraffin and air which then enters the mantle to ignite, incandesce and produce more heat which then preheats the fuel and so it goes on :-)
No theres no internal nut :/ if the air tube is spinning where it meets the burner body (see second arrow pic above) I’m afraid it may not be good news but these burners are still available at reasonable prices so all not lost or you could silver solder at a pinch? yes the end caps seem to be very tight sometimes gently heat to free off glad you have knowledge/experience of already.. they are good lanterns p
