Interchangability of Tilley control cocks?

Jeff, yes, asbestos is to be avoided, but the mantle is a tiny item. I'd have to inhale a lot of it. Surprised I found one last Fall, I'll leave it for now until I make a better cowl or find a stock one.
Duane

 

Er, heat..?

 

David, Ron over on CCS said the asbestos would throw out more light, since the bowlfire is pretty new to me, straighten me out if needed.
Duane

 

OK, Duane - the Tilley R1 and R1A models are heater/radiators so were designed primarily to produce heat rather than light. That's what the asbestos and wire mesh mantles are for.

Having said that, it's easy to remove the heater/radiator burner and replace it with one from a lamp or lantern to produce light. Tilley knew that of course, and produced what's known as a conversion head (CH1) - effectively a 'spare' lamp or lantern burner to allow customers to do that.

So what is it you have? If it's the heater/radiator burner, you'll need either an asbestos or wire mesh mantle and you'll produce heat and a nice red glow. Otherwise, you have a lamp or lantern burner fitted and you'll need a 164X or 164H woven 'cloth' mantle and you'll produce mainly light (and a bit of heat).

Could we see an image of your Tilley and then we'll know where we are...

 

Hi Duane

Good to see you here too 8)

Try here ....

http://0flo.com/index.php?posts/10050

You never know whats out there

Stu

 

David, Stu,
I have the R1A, set up as a heater. I want to take it out this coming weekend for a car camping trip. I'll get some pics then, it burns nice and red. Did not know I could convert it to a lamp.
Duane

 

Went camping this weekend. My bowlfire ran the first time for about 10 minutes, slowly lost heat. I shut it off, reprimed, ran about 35-40 minutes, then slowly lost heat. Pressure was still good so I pumped it a few times for good measure, no good. The gauge was still out there, indicating good pressure. I guess I'll have to tear it all apart and see what is going on. In the past when I have dumped the fuel out, it has been clean.

 

When the heat output fell, did you try pricking the jet? - a quick clockwise twist of the knob and back again. The heater will relight itself if you're not too slow. Sorry if that's 'teaching my grandmother to suck eggs' as we say here.

No matter how clean you keep the heater and fuel, occasional small bits of crud block the jet and produce exactly the symptoms you describe - particularly just after things have been disturbed.

Hope that helps and may just save you dismantling it again...

 

Is ther any pressure inside the fount when the heater starts to fail (does it hiss when you unscrew the filler?) or are you relying only on the pressure indicator pip?

 

David, yes. Even the first go round, I did as you described, continued what it was doing, even to the point of shutting it off and having to relight with a match.
Pressure was good, had no reason to doubt the pressure gauge, it did hiss quite a bit when I shut it completely down. I'll at least take the vaporizer off and inspect it this coming weekend.
Duane

 

Hello Duane, that problem is often caused by the vapouriser reaching the end of it's working life, but the fuel feed tube may be partly blocked.

To clear it, remove the burner and vapouriser and control cock.

Then shove a wire down the fuel feed tube, which is at the bottom of the hole which the control cock screws into, shove it until you here the wire hitting the bottom of the tank and do that a few times, then give the tank a rinse out.

I use tying wire for clearing the fuel feed tube, Jeff.

 

Hi Jeff,
Maybe I didn't do a thorough job. As I stated, the vaporizer had only an hour on it up to last weekend. But I'll check the whole system, did not think about the part in the tank beyond the rebuilt control cock. These are newer to me than the kero stoves, I have only been exposed to them the last two years.
Duane

 

Hello Duane, I assume that you are using good quality paraffin/kerosene?

Tilley heaters are designed for indoor use, so try firing it up indoors and see how long it runs for.

If it works okay indoors, then the problem was that it was not staying hot enough outside.

Do let us know how you get on, Jeff.