My wife bought for me a 1956 Coleman milspec lantern. It came without tool or pricker. I understand the tiny jet is only 0.0045 inch, or about 0.11 mm. I can’t find any prickers for sale. Any ideas how to make one or find wire that size? Brad
The filter in the valve end of the generator effectively (I’ve found) makes pricking the jet unnecessary. Jets so fine are butane appliance territory and the manufacturers of those advocate using an airline to remove a blockage if needed, or they’ll often have a plug of filter material in the jet cavity - again, to prevent a blockage. Finest Campingaz pricker I have is way too big for the Milspec jet. Hah! I was forgetting, the Coleman tool has the prickers! Old Coleman Parts? John
@BradB Sorry to hear that. On the plus side, if my experience of running a Milspec is anything to go by the jet won’t need pricking - the filter’s effective.
I hope so. I haven’t tried mine yet. It is in pieces and some in the rust bath. I have a spare generator coming from OCP, but it seems some people claim the new ones are plugged. Operator error?
@BradB You can get Acupuncture needles 0.12mm (0.0047") that I have used for prickers. And its not difficult to reduce the diameter to 0.10mm. Japanese Acupuncture Needles 0.12x30 | eBay
@ROBBO55 , thanks for the offer. I am new to the milspecs, but it seems many owners could not get them to run without. We will see. I will soon be reassembling the lantern. Brad
I put the lantern back together and it looks very nice and is in good condition. But, it won’t light. I have fuel delivered to the base of the new generator, but nothing out the other end to the mantle. I removed the generator and I have the jet soaking in acetone. With my air pressure tank I blew out the tipless generator and fuel came out, so it is clearly a clogged jet. I have it back in the acetone, hope for the best. An interesting note, the broken original generator has a jet that will not screw into the new replacement. Appears to be different threads.
I found an outfit that will sell needles to me without my medical credentials. Good grief! Now I have 100 needles coming, 0.10 mm diameter. The things we do for flame!
@BradB you can get pricker wire almost in every size for lamps. There is a seller on eBay that sells then relatively cheap.
Waiting for my acupuncture needles I became impatient. Although my new generator is clear and passes fuel, neither of my jets will pass fuel. As an experiment, I installed a jet from a 220 generator. Supposed to be much larger. With a bucket of water ready, fire extinguisher, safety goggles, and welders gloves, I pumped 3 pumps. It lit immediately, flamed a bit for, then turned bright. It has been running now, seemingly happy, for ten minutes on 15 pumps.
After nearly an hour it seemed the lantern had dimmed just slightly. Ten more pumps brought it back to full roar. I am calling it a win! Brad
@BradB Well done mate, she’s a roaring success. There’s nothing like the roar of a MilSpec whilst having a quiet beer or three. Cheers Pete
@BradB I'm glad you're got it going with the 220 nipple. It proves the only thing that was wrong with the lantern was a blocked jet. 100 Acupuncture needles , I found the same, originally only wanted a couple but had to buy 100. But you'll find many more uses for then down to track.
Good question. I thought I heard these were missing the pricker. I ordered one anyway, so we will see. Thanks, Brad
I received two more generators today. I tried one of them. The stove would light, unlike my previous new generator, but would not pass enough gas to burn brightly. Not even a hiss! There’s a reason the directions on the side of the fount say to disassemble the tip and use the pricker. I just can’t figure out why the Army picked a high maintenance design, compared to a standard Coleman with built in pricker. Still waiting for those acupuncture needles and milspec wrench.
Brad it's common to need to prick those NOS milspec gens. I'm not sure why... But being a tiny orfice it's easily restricted. I agree they were not a great design, but I believe their intent was to make it easy for a soldier (normally a young man) to just swap gens and have a running lantern again.
With a 0.0045" gas tip(jet) orifice, you won't find many common items to prick them. It can hardly be seen without a magnifier. You need to be young enough to use it . Nevertheless, from my experience with a Milspec, I find that its very helpful if you could ensure a particle-free fuel being delivered to the gas tip. They do reduce the need for frequent prickings. The fibrous stuffing(likely asbestos) is quite necessary for that. I have actually replaced the stuffing with a finely braided metal wire screen(made from the grounding shield/screen of a thermocouple lead wire). I think its made of nickel-coated copper. Its sufficiently fine to work as a filter and not as likely to shed or release free particles into the fuel stream as asbestos fibres. It acts as a sink for any carbonized fuel and greatly reduce the chances of blockage in the gas tip orifice.
You are certainly right about finding nothing around my shop to use as a pricker. That why I am soon to be the proud owner of 100 acupuncture needles, 0.10 mm. Hmm, starting to remind me of my adventures with #8 tippet for my fly fishing leaders. How in the world do you tie a knot with something you can’t see or feel?
Anything less than 0.20mm is finer than the bristles of most wire brushes around. I'd need at least a magnifying glass to work on those individual needles that has not been attached to anything yet.
It has been interesting. I received my 0.10 mm acupuncture needles. As above in this thread, I could not get the milspec to work using the standard jet, which is 0.0045 inches. I don’t know the size of a Coleman 220 jet, but the lantern lit and burned well with that jet. My suspicion, untested by me, is that it may burn more fuel with the larger jet. I purchased three new generators and none would work with the standard jet. Using the acupuncture needles to prick the jet, from the inside pushing out, the lantern would light, but would not pass enough gas to burn brightly. Next, using my magnifying glasses, I reamed the jet with the needle, from the outside pushing in. Suspecting my 0.10 mm needles to be a bit too small, I tried to swirl the wimpy needle in the opening. Hitting that tiny opening with the needle is not easy. However, that did the trick and the lantern lit and burned as designed. There seems to be no good substitute for the standard pricker, which I have not been able to locate. I did purchase the milspec wrench from OCP, but, as I suspected, they do not have a pricker.
Brad the 220 gas orfice would be a .008 for reference. Many of the NOS milspec gens need to be pricked before use. Hard to do without the proper tool as you've found here's a useful Coleman orfice chart for future reference. Coleman Generators
The 0.1mm acupuncture needles should be good enough. You don't want to enlarge the orifice any further. The only thing is to attach or crimp it with a piece of suitable sheet metal or something so that you can hold it steadily while pricking. Similar to what they did on a standard Milspec wrench.
