I wanted some custom glass made for my Primus 1001 / 1050 lamps so I went through Alibaba and managed to get 4 for $28 each with $52 delivery to the UK, so $41 each. One for each lamp and a couple of spares as I don't want to be doing this again. Took just over a month to arrive but worth it. I specified 1% tolerance on diameter and length and glad to say they are within that. The minimum thickness of the glass they could do was 2.5 to 3mm thick so quite a bit thicker and heavier than original which is barely more than 1mm thick. But hopefully a lot more robust too. I compensated for the thickness by increasing the diameter by 3mm as the cage has room for this increase. The widest and longest chimney I used in the 1001 and it fits well enough that the lid grips it securely when lifting it up to allow easy filling of the central reservoir with white spirit. There is a small gap at the bottom so the length could have been increased by an extra 3mm. Just thought this might be of interest to others looking to replace hard to find chimneys. Also do get at least 2 quotes - one was significantly cheaper than the other. And only choose a seller with trade assurance.
@Wai They look good. Are they plane glass rather than borosilicate? What country were they made in? Also, you said above you filled the “central reservoir with white spirit”. Do you mean “spirits” as in alcohol (meths)? Cheers Tony
Thanks! They're made in China, sorry. They're listed as quartz glass and confirmed not borosilicate. I had a little accident and started pumping prematurely before the vaporising tube had warmed up, resulting in lots of leaking paraffin and yellow flame inside the lamp. The inside glass was covered in black soot but withstood the naked flame fine. Cleaned off, no cracks. And yes I mean alcohol / meths to pre-heat the vaporising tube.
As an alternative, I used www.suffolkglass.co.uk to create a replacement borosilicate globe for a Tilley SDR. The price in 2018 was £22 + delivery (£10) + VAT Two globes (again I bought a spare) came to £64.80 delivered.
If its really pure quartz glass, I'd say that'd be even better than the usual Pyrex or borosilicate in terms of low thermal coefficient of expansion. Pure quartz glass wares ain't cheap and rather more difficult to produce.
