in the shed I've got two old Tilleys. one's an x246b that I bought new back in 1974 from Sand in Elizabeth Street Melbourne and other is what I think is a Guardsman given to me in the 1980's the x246b has had an enormous usage being the only cabin light while working at gold mine in a remote area, then on family camping trips ranging from the Northern Territory to Tasmania. later years they were the primary light in my tool shed until I finally powered a few years back. since then they have sat unloved on a shelf. both have hoods that are badly burnt and holed and yesterday I fired them up. the kero in them had gone black, looked like creosote, but I still fired it up with the old kero and it burnt ok for an hour but kept losing pressure. the old guardsman I ran on diesel just to see what would happen. to my amazement it ran, but after 15 minutes began to blacken the mantle. so now I am learning fettling thanks to this forum, I may at least re-kit them both with new seals the two Tilleys. unused for at least 5 years next to a Dietz with a broken glass and a Primus blowtorch that still gets used below are the Tilleys fired up holes in the hood
the x246b kept burning for over an hour with dirty kero. you can see the holes in the hood the kero that was in it looked like creosote, but I still used just to see what would happen
when I first bought the x246b from Sands it kept blowing vaporisers. it annoyed us at the time being a long distance from anywhere, and especially since they were meant to last 500 hours. we ended up sourcing old stock from some local country hard ware stores. and my older brother wrote to Tilley at Belfast to complain. they acknowkedged the problem and sent us some spare vaporisers. eventually they redesigned the ends of the vaporisers and were never an issue again.
my go to pressure lamps are the three below. a Tilley I bought new from Sands just before they moved from Elizabeth Street, and Austramax bought new in the early '90's and is brilliant, and a Vapalux that I use on "special" occasions all are kept in very good condition even though they get a lot of use
not bonkers. just thought I would give it a go to see how it works as I've been using diesel in my wick POD heater now for ages with success and so to hurricane lamps.. just have to routinely trim the wick to cut off the carbon a little after about 48 hours burning time diesel is less flammable than kero and way less than petrol, so is safe to use.. its going the other way that you would be bonkers doing, like using petrol in a kero lamp. I would not use petrol unless it was specifically designed for it. as far as diesel in a pressure lamp; don't bother. based on my little experiment it tends to blacken the mantle after awhile. maybe ok in an emergency
@bonza Stories like yours give each lantern a history, a patina of life that gives them a providence. These lanterns will conjure up memories that take you back in time. Well done in keeping them and enjoy their resurrection. I’m looking forward to your future posts. Cheers Pete
ah yes, the decal. I was wondering if an eagle eye would notice. I bought one during the early years of the internet and stuck it on as I thought it would look good on the lamp. it's since been knocked about and almost worn off
