Hi Everyone First post so here goes... been interested in Tilleys for years now started from scouts and have several but fettling hasn’t got any further than changing a vaporiser unfortunately, starting to want to learn a bit more about my lamps and how to ‘sort’ them. Will try and upload my pork pie to show you, from reading posts there seems to be several things wrong with it should the top be orange ?, the pump doesn’t appear to be one I’ve seen before? Has it come like that or has it been polished to the metal ... if I tried to light it would it go black at the top? Any information much appreciated. Thanks Rob
Welcome Rob! I'm sure others will add their thoughts but the pump knob looks like a home made replacement to me. Also the jamb nut that keeps the rubber seal in place on the control shaft is missing so the lantern would leak if you tried to light it in its current state. The brass hood looks like a modern reproduction but I could be wrong. As Tilley never made models with a polished brass finish, it looks like someone stripped the original paint off and polished the fount (tank). Some people like this effect, some prefer the original paint surface if it's in reasonable condition. I guess it's down to personal preference. If you need any seals or washers to get it working, there is a link on all pages (usually near the bottom) to the Fettlebox which sells a wide variety of parts and service items at very reasonable prices.
Welcome to CPL @RobP Colin covered most of you questions. Yes, the hood will go black if you light the lamp. A member here, Shed-Man ( R.I.P) was having brass replacements made for the hood. It could be one of his. One example here Tilley X246 (1946 -1950)
The top (hat) would have been either yellow or orange vitreous enamel - what you have looks to be an after-market replacement. If you light it (which you shouldn't even think about before you replace the missing gland nut) the top will oxidise and go black. If you want a user lantern, you'll have to put up with a blackened top unless you care to clean it every time it's used. Otherwise, if you want a display lantern, don't light it. I suspect that pump-knob will prove to be uncomfortable during use!
Thanks very much. I will need to give it some thought if to use or leave on shelf. One other question read quite a bit about cleaning the burner and air tubes to ensure effective but ideally not taking apart, how would I do that if wasn’t to try and take apart ?
Taking Tilley or Bialaddin burners apart is hard work and even if you do manage it quite often you can't get them back together again as the threads have been so badly corroded together. I've done it and ended up wondering why I bothered! There's very little you can't do by soaking and a good scrub... and even then it'll go black soon anyway once it's used. Your best option is to leave it as it is. Also, the end of the three burner tubes inside the combustion chamber have a very small amount of fine thread to lock into plus a semi-circular cut out that should line up on the inside. The chances of getting all three back into the correct position given the corrosion is probably close to zero... and in the end it's just not worth doing. Oh, and if that wasn't enough to put you off, I had to make a range of special hardwood jigs to grip on so I didn't chew up the brass tube.
You can take it out of the hood and give it a good clean but resist the temptation to take it apart because it's quite likely it won't screw back together - the screw threads were quite fine to begin with and 75 years of heat will have eroded them to some extent. Try shoving a small bottle brush up the three air intakes and burner spigot which will remove cobwebs, dust and other detritus. Immersion in vinegar or citric acid solution for 30 minutes at a time will be OK. You could try an ultrasonic cleaner. But whatever you do, it'll get blackened again as soon as you use the lantern...
Hi Rob!..Welcome to CPL! I think what is meant is when you have got the burner separated from the hood/cap assembly, if all the parts don't dismantle easily, then it's best to blow out with compressed air (cobwebs are very common and will block small holes) and usually that will suffice? I am sure that someone here would be able to provide you with a gland seal nut? Please search and look at some of the restorations of these lanterns in the gallery, you will see close ups of all the 'innards' You have a very nice old Tilley and it's nice that you want to look after it! Best of luck with whatever you decide to do
Thank you for all your replies, think i will leave the burner in. Even if I decide not to actually use this one the advise can be used on several of my other ones which just don’t shine as well as they perhaps did I suspect some of the problems maybe fairly simple to sort such as changing seals and cleaning the burner as suggested. I will check to see what spares I have as I know somewhere there is a service pack in the back of the garage. Rob
Nice lamp and welcome aboard, I would leave it alone until you learn more about Tilleys get yourself a cheaper X246,A,or B in bad condition and play with that for starters, then you can play around and it won't matter, but that's just my 20 cents worth enjoy, and you can get lots of advice from here, there are plenty of intelligence people on this forum to learn from, good luck.
