Hoi, I'm Ronald from the Netherlands... During Christmas Hollidays I 'm cleaning a few from my Tilley Guardsman x 246 Lamps. The burners are the worst to get apart (loose!) whithout breaking or bending parts! As you know. So I was asking myself and now you too: Is it a bad idea to assemble the different threaded pipes from the burner with copper paste? The stuff they use for bolds on car exhausts? So that in future: I can get the parts apart without bending or screwing up some of the parts (sorry for the language)! I hope you have some advice for me on this one. Thanks, Ronald
I had to think for some time what you mean but the it came to me: no leave the three tubes on the dome. Also don't remove the dome. You will never get them good in place again, since the threads are burned in or away. In the case you don't mean these, I have no clue which burner pipes you are dismantling.
Hi Wim, I mean these pipes you mentioned, 3 air inlet pipes, 1 bowl and 2 other pipes: 1 up and one down. So your advice is let it mounted as it is! Okay thats a possability! Thanks for you advice! I would like off course to hear a few oppinions, and offcourse an aswer on the copper paste.. but thnx again
Welcome Ronald, WimVe is right, it's best not to dismantle the burner. But to answer your question,yes, it is a good idea to use copper grease on the threads. I have and I use it for most metal threads on a lantern.
Sorry for bad timing on reactions, I forgot to refresh.. Anyway thanks for your advices (willi and Martin), I'm gonna use the paste and I will let you know If this worked out the way I wanted it.. It might take a while..
I often use copper grease when I'm fettling any lamp, not just Tilley. I always wipe off excess grease after I've screwed parts back together but sometimes there are green flames the first time the lamp is lit after fettling but they soon go away.
Thanks for your reactions! If you say beter not take apart the burner if old or Well used... means that I don't have to use the copperpaste because I never take it apart again! That makes the opinions are mixed and I am not sure about what doing now! Maybe Henry you can tell me if you ve had any problems with dismanteling tilley burners after long use when you assembled it with copper paste? Greeting Ronald
Correct me if I am wrong but copper paste is used with the idea to dismantle parts again. With a Tilley burner you don't want parts loosen up again. Maybe exhaust paste is better to seal the parts as well as fasten/lock them. What you may think to win with cleaning, you loose with the (unavoidable) dents you make and/or parts which ain't gas tight any more.
Hi Wim, I get your point: Never ever take the burner apart! Ok but then again should I use the copper paste? Yes or No? : - ) @WimVe
In my opinion, copper grease will not do the burners any harm, but as Henry has already mentioned there may be some green flames when the burner is first fired up, but those flames will soon burn out.
Before I learned that dismantling old / well used burners apart is not recommended, I managed to destroy two or three. Of the others, most of the screw threads were O.K. but a few were not and did not fit well, I thought these loose joints would leak unburnt fumes and make the lamp smell bad. I put copper paste on all the threads of all the burners before reassembling and have never had a problem with any of those old burners. Your burners are already dismantled, there is no harm using copper paste on the threads in fact I recommend it. Although it is very rare, the steel tubes have been known to come loose so use pliers to make sure they are tight and don't forget to wipe off any excess paste before fitting the dome. Edit: Crossed with Jeff.
Hi all, thanks for answering, I think now the answer on my question is a YES! Also thanks for the extra tips! Greetings, Ronald
