Newbie ...

Evening, my name's Steve and I recently bought 2 pressure lamps, much to the wife's chagrin "what do you want one of those for?" etc. Any road I think they're cool, my question to you is ...... err what did I buy now the one on the right is a Tilley but no idea what the one on the left is? would a kind soul be able to identify it for me? ta very much.

 

year 1965-1968. It's a 320 Bialaddin/Vapalux I think... have a look under GB/Bialaddin in the reference gallery.

Are you planning to get them up and running?

 

Thank you.

 

Hi Steve, Welcome to CPL

Lots of spares and kits still widely available for those two Lanterns and help on here if you need it!

 

Cheers.

 

@Steve Broughton
Welcome from Queensland Australia.
There is a lot of friendly knowledge and experience on this forum, all you have to do is ask.
Looking forward to seeing your future posts, and don’t forget to keep posting your pictures.
Enjoy
Cheers
Pete

 

All seals are available from this sites sponsor the fettlebox , link is on this site. We would all like to see the the lamps up and running when finished what we call the money shot. Good luck on your project.
Regards Ian

 

Yes mate sorry want to get them going again

 

Welcome aboard!

 

Great to see another lamp collector, be careful you might get lampitus ha ha, it's catchy

 

Right so I thought I'd strip the Tilley down first, to my untrained eye it looks simpler? OK so the vaporizer rod thingie seems to be welded into the control valve wotsit, how do I get them apart without damaging them? bear in mind my tools consist of an Aldi socket set and a pair of molegrips my grandad gave me in 1985?

 

The vaporiser certainly shouldn't be welded to the control valve although it might be tough to get off. Try soaking the joint with a penetrating oil like WD40 - it might not be the best but for now it'll do - if you have some. Mole grips are probably too rough to use and can chew up delicate parts beyond repair... but do you have any pliers? If you do, try those with something to protect the metal - leather is good but if you don't have any, an old towel might do or that dreadful pair of shoes you never wear, maybe they cold be cut up and the leather used as plier jaw protection.

Essentially, there's little difference between the Bialaddin/Vapalux 320 and the Tilley in terms of disassembly/reassembly apart from the Tilley has a combined filler cap/pump tube arrangement. It could be argued that the Bialaddin is easier to deal with as the two functions are separated.

Be very careful of the needle at the end of the pricker rod. Once it's been broken off, you'll have to find another vaporiser as separate needles are no longer available - at least not that I'm away.

Lastly, a service kit from the Fettlebox is a good investment as it will have most of the parts needed to get your lantern going again.

Regards
Colin

 

Welcome, nice lanterns. Both will run well. I look forwards to seeing how you get on.

 

@Steve Broughton

This might help.

[Image courtesy of The Base Camp]

Tony

 

Thanks gents.

 

Welcome to CPL @Steve Broughton

Unless your 246B is an early one the Fettlebox seals won't fit. However the seal kit from Tilley will fit both Tilley designs. So for your first lantern if the seals need replacing get the seals from Tilley.
Service pack 1

There should be a series of numbers and letters stamped into the base of the font. The numbers are date of manufacturing. ie 0767 is July 1967.

 

Check out base-camp.co.uk for both the Tilley and BiAladdin / Vapalux cleaning wires but
607 Cleaning wire only for 606 vapouriser Temp out of stock. £ 4.95

There's also one of the Korean fellows selling similar items in packs of 5
Cleaning needle for tilley 5inch vaporiser Needle bar( vaporiser Not for sale)

 

That's amazing Henry! I thought/was told that they were pretty much unobtainable and £5 is a whole lot better than £25 - £35 for a complete vaporiser! I'll have to check it out.

 

Hum...Tilley International had better watch out....just had a look at the Korean dealer and they certainly have their heads screwed on...complete table lamps an' all!

Some good stuff on there

 

@ColinG I knew base-camp did Tilley wires because I got a handful of the long (7 inch) ones late last year and resurrected 6 or so 169s, I wasn't sure about the Vapalux / BiAladdin ones but it only took a moment to check. I came across the Korean fellow by accident whilst browsing / price comparing.

Exactly and pennies saved on one project go towards funding the next one.

 

@Steve Broughton Hi Steve and welcome from the Scottish Highlands.
As has been stated above, you’ll be able to get both your lamps up and running hopefully without too much difficulty. There’s loads of help here and look at the videos on YouTube by broadlander (aka Jeremy), they’ll give you a step by step guide.
Good luck with your fettles, be warned that two lamps are a breeding pair.....

Stevie

 

Unless you've finished your collection of course!! (lampies joke)

 

Those Korean vapourisers are for the larger 7 " tubes on the YT video .. not the 5 " X246 ..Part 153 ..
that you want ..forget em .. too big....NOS... are the ones to go for.. I have had stuff from Korea .. unpredictable and to be honest leave alone .. hey thats my opinion.

 

Hi Steve,

Welcome from Ontario, Canada! Nice buys. I see mostly Coleman in my area, so if I saw those two sitting on a table at a boot sale I'd be immediately vectoring over to them, especially that Bialladin. Tasty!

Mike.

 

Quick update I've ordered a service kit for the Tilley one but struggling to find a similar kit for the Vapalux one, would someone point me in the right direction? cheers.

 

The Fettlebox - where you got the Tilley kit, hopefully...

 

Be careful of the seal/washer kits on ebay, I have had a few and after a few days the rubber swells up and disintegrates. The only ones that are reliable and after over a year hold up and are still good as new are from Fettlebox.

Viton is the stuff you want.

@Steve Broughton

 

I take note of what has been said in the last entry ... have a look at Juliands on Ebay

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/VAPALUX-...600138?hash=item1a2d90968a:g:p9wAAOSwZjJU2407

He is not asking a lot just over 6 pounds . There are others though Julian has been on EB for years and it is not going to brake the bank to try a kit off him .. Try the fettlebox of course if you wish they should be able to sort you

 

Go to the fettle box for seals. The other mentioned sellers' washers will crumble after coming in contact with paraffin and need replacement very often. My own experience.
Good luck.

 

I saw those, I looked on the fettlebox page but could only find a set of brass washers and a 30 quid box of rubber seals I couldn't figure out which I wanted, the site is designed by someone who has an understand ing of these lamps but folk like me look at it and it confused me? If there was a simple kit that said "this is everything you need to service one lamp" it would have been simpler for me.