I had to put some stuff up in my loft, so I took a look in the box of old bits up there. I found this 246 looking sad and neglected, I already restored and painted my old camping 246 so I decided just to clean and re seal this one to get it working and a bit cleaner but leaving its knocks and scrapes.
Started to strip and clean it, the paint but the transfer on the bottom was loose and flakey, may replace it later. The control cock seems reluctant to come apart so I'm soaking it in parafin, and there wasn't a spring in the bottom section to push the stop valve seal up. Don't like the aluminium pump though, I'll have to get rid of that. Wish there was a reasonable price source for the brown hats.
The vapouriser looks like it has not seen too much action. I know what you mean about the brown hats. I have three guardsmen that could do with "upgrades"...
Yes I tested it in a 246b I have and it works very well, which is a big relief, vaporisers are becoming a big drawback, and I had a few bad ones, luckily @Henry Plews very kindlly helped me with my last 246, donating some of his vaporisers, I saw a real fancy vaporiser made in Taiwan but with shipping it came out pretty expensive. The hat will stay as it is for now, but let's hope the market gets big enough for someone to make new brown ones.
Yes I saw that when it was posted, I don't have exact numbers but I understand that its quite expensive, and would be best suited to a rare or valuable lamp being fully refurbished.
@Buggerlugs You’re right about the brown hoods. I found one here in Australia that had been brought out by gentleman when he emigrated in the 1970s. Am I right in thinking it was only the black hoods that left Tilley and imported into Australia? Cheers Pete
Gave the cage a bit of a wire brush, and wondered if I should get some gold brake caliper paint and treat it to a coat. I decided I would like to see it running first so I looked through my tilley box and found some seals then put a washer on the pump and pumped it up, left it overnight and still had pressure. I chucked some stainless steel nuts in the tank and some paraffin, gave it a good shake up, then emptied it out. Cleaned and blew out the burner, then fitted a mantle. So I fired it up, it was lovely and bright , but after about 3 minutes it was much dimmer, and I noticed the dome on top of the burner was glowing red. So fitted another burner I had in my box. Now it seems quite happy, I will be replacing that pump when I source one, may paint the cage, and treat it to a new transfer on the bottom, but I kind of like it as it is, rusty hat and all.
@rayw, vaporisers are areal problem. It’s pot luck when buying new ones from Tilley. Here’s my x246b running on my third of three vaporisers I bought recently. The other two just didn’t work. I guess the other two Tilleys i have will just sit there until I can find a different source. I have the Taiwan version on order but I’ve resigned myself to admitting Tilleys and me don’t match. Good to see you got it working. Cheers, JohnL
Yes vaporisers are becoming less and less. Like you I have bought some which turned out to be not so good. I tried the heating and quenching thing and quite a bit of carbon came out, but then it wouldn't burn correctly, with orange flames and soot in the mantle. Just recently I dug one out and tried tapping it on the back of my vice as I saw suggested by @Henry Plews , and it seemed to work, so now I have a couple of spares. I saw the Tiawan one advertised in Canada and sent them a mail to see if they could ship to the UK, but I didn't get a reply. Luckily this lamp seems pretty good and with a thorium mantle I am delighted to say its pretty bright.
@rayw, the way I see it, there’s a law of diminishing returns at work on the poor old x246b. It doesn’t warrant the time and expense past the usual fettling items to get going. I’d rather devote the time to Bialaddins or Petromax’s. My beat up 310 blasts my x246b’s into oblivion
We seem to be in a catch 22 situation, we have a demand for the vaporisers, but probably not enough to warrant setting up production. Its interesting to see the prices of "new old stock " items on e Bay and I presume they must get sold. Also there are people who make a business out of selling parts for pressure lamps, I can only imagine they have investigated the possibility of importing the Tiawan items, possibly the cost would be so high it might restrict sales. Maybe one day. 2020 Phil Captain 5'' Vapouriser Generator for Tilley lamp lantern
I have a heap of vapourisers, 606s and 169s which are bunged up with and without cleaning wires but wouldn’t know how to go about trying to clean them.
What I did was to heat them up with a blowtorch until they were cherry red, then plunge them into water, (need to be carefull they can spit out of the threaded end). Do it 4 or 5 times then I tap the threaded end sharply down onto a block of wood to shake out the loose carbon. I also shoot water into them using a hyperdermic syringe with a blunt needle which seems to flush out the muck. I've had varying success with this, sometimes it seems to make them over fuel and burn orange and sooty, but I recently tried carefully tapping the jet end on the back of my vice to try and peen over the enlarged jet, I managed to get two of them working reasonably well again, so I was well pleased. My thinking was that if they are not usable then what's to loose? I have wondered if it would be possible to modify one to accept a screw in jet like the petromax style lamps, which may need to be modified to fit into the burner.
@Fireexit1, there’s got to be something about the design of the W&B vaporisers that just keeps them working. The one on my 310 is original I reckon and still going strong.
That's fascinating stuff, I have not had any opportunity to try this and after reading the story I can see some of the snags encountered. It certainly gives food for thought.
Back to the subject, thanks to the kindness of @Jean J the old lamp now has a brass pump, which looks much better, and I decided to treat it to a new sticker. It's nice to see it looking its age but working well, im happy with the result let's hope it's preserved for another generation.
