This is the same length as other 5 inch 606 vapourisers. It has a very fine weld about half an inch above the steel nut. Does not have the crimping at the top to hold in the jet part of the vapouriser. The pricker wire is not removable. The spring is on the inside and the hole in the bottom is very shallow. Anyone seen this before ??
The threaded and knurled fitting is steel, so I would think it’s late, rather than early. Cheers Tony
Interesting one indeed. I’m thinking on the same lines as Tony, maybe it’s a later manufacture because of the steel content. I’m wondering by whom? Cheers Pete
I’ve rated through about 30 used 606 vapourisers. My observations are: 1. I’ve not found one where the tube completion is like that. 2. I have a few all steel vapourisers where the base is cut as shown in the last photograph. Cheers Tony
Perhaps it was for these heaters, the vapouriser appears to screw into a brass riser, so a 5 inch vapouriser would have been long enough, it's just a guess though. Unimet Heater
@JEFF JOHNSON , it looks like the Unimet heater vapouriser is the same as the lantern so not this one.
Just a random thought (and probably wrong) but as the weld is exceptionally neat/even could it be a production thing? By that I mean tubing that has been joined at the factory while being drawn to the correct size.
@peterthevet , I found another 2 with the welds and all have the welds at exactly the distance from the nut. This does not rule out you thought of course. I like your lateral thinking.
I think if you have an additional 2 with the same welds then my random left field thought is definitely ruled out. Are there any other differences eg diameter/weight? Is the weld there to hold a bushing/sleeve? I am more of a Coleman person than Tilley but I find things like this interesting. There have been some great discussions/musings/questions raised on this site lately - so much that we don't know about the lanterns we collect. Cheers Peter
I was thinking exactly the same thing. I don't know much about welding but surely that was done by machine rather than by hand, thus factory-produced rather than in someone's shed. On the other hand, what's with the hole? - at least it looks like a hole, or some sort of defect, anyway...
I was thinking as Peter de vet looks like a production run could they be replacements from Holmes /Sands
Peter, I wouldn't be so quick to rule out your thought. Using fence palings as an example. They come out of the saw mill under an operating system and when packed, they are put back the same way as the log was before it was cut. The fencer buys the palings and he also works under an operating system so the when the fence is built, you can see that one paling after the other was cut next to that paling. I can see that the tube was made in exact lengths and packed to a method. The vapouriser manufacturer also has a method and cuts his lengths from the same ends of the tube each time and ends up with the same off cuts. All guess work but I believe your idea has merit. David, the hole is just the steel has not come through the brass part. Graham, the Holmes vapourisers we know of were all brass.
Looking at from the engineering side, they have been made that way to accommodate the specifications needed for a 'Tilley' vapouriser, .. i.e ..the centralising spacers for the cleaning needle...the jet nozzle..and so on. The fact that they have been made so differently from the 'in-house' vapourisers by Tilley does point to a production run that has been sourced out to an engineering firm who have their own way of making the same product, just a different way of doing it...machining parts then welding them together, rather than stamping, extruding and crimping. These seem to have only been found in Australia? (so far?)... All very interesting...
To me this vapouriser has more of the look of the newer (21st century) Tilley vapourisers than earlier Tilley vapourisers. I’ve not seen that kind of construction/working, but I’ve seen some recently made Tilley vapourisers that are “blind” (ie no jet, just the dome at the top), and a couple that needed the weld ground at the top so they could fit properly into the spigot. Cheers Tony
Something to keep in mind: on the "newer" 169 vaps you can't get one of those "preheaters" to work because there is a band around the end where you screw it into the lantern control cock that blocks the preheater from coming down far enough to allow you to screw in the fitting. I know that's probably clear as turds in a punch bowel, sorry. On the "older" 169 you don't have a rim/ridge to contend with and that heater will go right on without a problem.
@george “Clear as turds in a punch bowl” now there’s a mental picture. George, maaate, you do have a way with words .... Cheers Pete
@george Yep, that’s a new one on me too. I think I must have had a sheltered upbringing. As Pete mentioned, the mental picture.....
@Alex Smith Ha, ha, ha! Maybe I need to clean up my act! lol I'm such a wild and crazy guy! (Emphasis on crazy)
