I have a wish list of specific lamp models that I am looking out for to add to the collection and I’ve not added to it for months until a Tilley Pork Pie found me last week and today’s mail brought me one of my top picks. I found this Ditmar 506 in Germany on eBay and had to ship it to a forwarding company as the seller wouldn’t ship abroad. My last use of a forwarding company in Spain took months to deliver and both items arrived damaged. This 506 took about a week to arrive and is perfect thanks to some top packing by the seller. The 3D printed lamp was a nice bonus too! Inspecting the lamp I can see similarities to the Mewa and BAT lamps I already own. It looks to be in great condition, the fount still holds pressure, the cleaning wire still works and the hood has a couple of spots of deterioration but for a runner it is in pretty good shape and I will leave it original initially at least. It is the filler cap and preheater that have me intrigued on this lamp though. The filler cap has a small vessel attached to the underside of the cap that I can only think would be for extracting a small amount of fuel from the fount. I assume that the only reason that would be done is to supply fuel to the preheater. As this lamp runs on paraffin as far as I am aware, I am intrigued as to the light up procedure as I have only ever preheated with alcohol, always assuming paraffin wasn’t volatile enough. I really like the attached preheater funnel cup! Looking forward to getting to work on this one. My workbench is looking really interesting again!
Nice item, and should restore well enough. Be aware that the pump valve can be removed from the tube as usual with a right hand thread, but when you take the valve apart to service the pip it uses a left hand thread. And take care for the glass as it is a little taller than those of a Petromax, although the same diameter. Needles and jets for those are nearly impossible to come by.
Thanks Martin, that’s really useful. I had another lamp recently that caught me out with a left handed thread. The glass on this actually sits quite low so I presume it probably already has a Petromax repro in.
Btw. forgot to mention: the preheater works well on all kinds of fuel, including paraffin. However, with paraffin it will develop a terrible smell and some amount of soot on the vaporiser, which will disappear after a while of burning the lantern.
I had wondered about that after finding the fuel cup under the filler cap. I think I will stick to the methylated spirits!
Does anyone know if there is any compatibility of the Ditmar to other lamp brands for spares. I don’t think I will need anything just yet but it would be good to know.
Hasag was my best guess too and I still have some jets and cleaning wire tips in my spares leftover from the Mewa restoration. I will give it a go and feedback.
The Swiss Hasag needles are very near to the original, but the jets use a different thread. Mewa is partly compatible, but you have to try, depending on the model/year of manufacture. The best would be to aqcuire all spare parts donors you can get hold of. Ditmar clay burners are also rare as hen's teeth. The glass cylinders are a bit taller than usual as I've already mentioned. Therefore the Hasag/Mewa vaporizer is also too short, although the thread at its lower end might fit. Overall a bit special.
A great find and should fettle up nicely. There is a eBay seller in Korea that makes reproduction jets but they are expensive so I hope you don't need one. The clay burners are impossible to find so take great care of It, but if you have to a 150cp petromax one sort of fits. All other washers were not to difficult t find. Be careful with the NRV, mine was a sort of white metal that dissolved in vinegar and melted with a blowtorch. Enjoy your fettle, they are a pleasure to play with when running. James
Thanks James, I’ve just found the Korean ones. They are expensive compared to the more common equivalents such as the hasag, but not too bad for what they are.
Finally got around to stripping this down and was surprised that rather than a brass fount and cage, it is a steel fount and cage painted gold. I need to rethink the approach as it was just going to be a cleanup of the brass. Now I potentially need to repaint, though the paint doesn’t look to bad depending on how it cleans up. Although the lacquer finish is rather rough. Looking at the reference gallery, if it’s not supposed to be gold then grey seems like the most likely original, but I’m open to advice to get it back to original.
@Scott D The finish on my 506 is hot dip galvanised ie dipped in molten zinc just like a steel dustbin. If the paint job on your lamp is rough I suspect the original finish is still there under the paint. I would guess these were a wartime design with no frills whatsoever but still a really good lamp. If you imagine the ditmar 501 is a Rolls Royce then the 506 is like a trabant with a rolls Royce engine, it's crude, it rattles and shakes your bones but purrs so well you still love it.
I’ll be investigating more tomorrow. Need to test the surface. With as much lacquer on as it does, it’s difficult bro tell what’s underneath!
If it is zinc coated underneath paintsripper won't harm the zinc but might take a lot of work to remove all traces of gold paint only to reveal why it got painted in the first place. I guess it's worth a few phone calls to some galvanisers to get a quote or two. With restoration work it's the time preparing things that costs. Or you could just find some zinc looking paint and a Matt lacquer. If this lamp was mine I think I would change the seals a get it running, then review cosmetics while basking in it's glow.
That’s why it’s sat in pieces on my bench still. No clear path to the finish line. This may be one as you say that doesn’t get the full as new refurb.
I finally got there! This is one of the more difficult restorations I have done. The mechanics were straightforward enough but the finish was really difficult. It took a week on and off to get through the many many coats of runny lacquer, then the paint was so stubborn it was a combination of chemical and abrasive methods to get it back to original. It does appear to be a zinc finish but I’m honestly not certain. Ultimately though I think the final result was worth the effort. The preheat system on this is very cool. Love the little filler reservoir and the filler cap fuel cup. Finally a big thank you to @Reinhard who helped me out with spares after the original NRV crumbled in my hands.
Ah! I just saw your other post about the Coleman and next to it looking all smart was your Ditmar! This is a nice looking lantern and things were made differently then :-) originally I thought you had copper plated the parts but someone must have perhaps used automotive paint and baked it on? good work
I wondered about some kind of plating too but it did seem so react to the paint stripper, just very slowly.
Thanks a lot for the nice pictures. I also have a galvanized version of a Ditmar 506.Mine is a post war model.I recognize it by the plastic handwheel and the slotted hexagon screw for attaching the centring bottom.
@Scott D Exceptionally well done! Congratulations to your successful work. It's looking better than mine.
What a transformation! It's once again a beautiful and useful piece of kit, not to mention fun to play with. Great effort, well done.
