Hi all, Well on the plus side I am now warm! (Whilst resting a hand on the extinguisher!!) Bought an R1 for practical reasons as the garage was getting quite cold! (Will smarten her up one day) Have had an interesting introduction to the R1. First discovered an ugly solder around the upper fastening for the handle/reflector that wasn’t visible from the eBay photos. It also turned out to be the point that failed the initial pressure test. Switched to a spare 246 base to get it going and test the burner and vapouriser and ended up with my first ever fireball despite preheating twice, which I figured would be sufficient indoors. Controlled the fireball and used it to make sure the burner was hot enough but still couldn’t get a bunsen flame. So took it apart again, got the brushes into the burner and also closed up the casing around the new bottom burner plate with a few hammer taps as there were a couple of gaps. Put it back together and after only a very small fireball managed to achieve a balanced bunsen flame. It burned reasonably well for a few minutes but then started burning from the bottom of the insulator tube and not from the burner. It does look like the gap at the top of the mantle might be a bit wide but that doesn’t explain it burning out of the insulator tube. I can’t see any blockages in the burner but something is obviously not right. I have an NOS 169 in the post anyway to add 2” to my stunted PL53 that is nearing completion, so I can try that. But my hunch is a burner problem, I just can’t find it.
I started with my usual 10 strokes as I would for the lamps. Too much? I’m off to find the instructions!
To me it just looks like there is too much paraffin involved. In the first photo the base of the vapouriser looks wet. I would say the vapouriser is shot. - not to say that the burner does not need attention either... good photo's tho
Yep, will try again tomorrow. Seems counter intuitive that it would need less pressure than a lamp, but a build up of fuel running out of the bottom of the burner would also account for the burn at the bottom of the insulator as I assume the burner was just overwhelmed. All sounds good in theory. What do you make of the mantle gap at the top of the burner. Probably 1/4” now, should I reshape the mantle to close the gap?
You might have a crack in the vaporizer. The 1/4” gap in the mantle is needed to vent adequately. I found this out while designing my own mantle. Another possibility is that the reflector helps keep the vaporizer hotter.
The mantle gap needs fixing for efficiency (any escaped flame is not incandsescing the mantle) but it is not the cause of the fireball I think. Others on this board have made open topped "mantles" out of sheet metal with holes drilled.
@Scott D If it’s not too much pressure it is likely too much fuel. If you have a vapouriser you know is good, swap it over for the test. If your heater is then still burning heavily outside the mantle, I would go back and carefully check all parts of the burner are fitted properly and are clean from crud. Cheers Tony
Fairly certain the burner is clear, will try again with less pressure and see if that’s all it is, otherwise try with the new vapouriser when it arrives. Thank you all for the pointers! Tomorrow is another day.
You've got a real warm up there, Scott. The 3rd to 6th pictures show symptoms of how my X246B burned a while back. Well, it was a completely different lamp but the principles might still apply. I think it could be a combination of a worn jet and a somewhat compromised burner. When I tested it with petrol instead of kerosene, the flamelets became completely blue instead of yellow or yellowish. And the mantle brightened up as it was intended to be.
With regard to start up, I preheat without any pressure, then open yhe control cock and slowly pump when heated. If it does decide to fire ball, its only small and quck to release the small amount of pressure to extinguish Hope it gives you the warmth you desire soon
