My first pressure lamp! Hipolito H-502

The rapid preheater wasn't working normally. You might need to check part 224. It is not a single-piece part. The tube can be unscrewed from the upper part but you need to be extra careful not to damage it if you do attempt to take them apart.
If the tube is not firmly screwed into the upper nozzle body, there'd be too much air leakage, fount pressure would drop too quickly and there would be insufficient fuel to sustain a flame. This isn't the case here, anyway.
The upper nozzle of part 224 has two or more tiny air holes, located and spaced circumferentially around the central fuel orifice. They might be clogged and you might not be getting sufficient air out of those. That would lead to sooty yellow flames.(too rich burning). When working nicely at optimum pressure, the flame should be similar to that of a small blowtorch,..mostly pale blue in colour, sometimes with a tinge of yellow near the tip of the flame.

 

Pumped to 1.5 bar, opened the preheater and lit it. Kept pumping to maintain 1.5 bar.

It was indeed quite blue at the base, turning slightly yellow near the top. The flames below the glass were barely visible.
Although, this was done in the day so colours would've been hard to see. - will repeat another night to see how it looks.
I have done a pressure test with the nozzle closed so I think a vaporiser leak is unlikely. Mantle was not glowing at all until I turned the knob.

 

Like suggested: there should not be fuel leaking from the jet while using the rapid.
Nothing, nada.

 

Obviously the rapid preheaters do work or they would never have fitted them but I never use them personally. They sometimes blow mantles apart and bleed pressure really quickly. If it's still got the preheater cup, fill it with meths/denatured alcohol and use that. It's much gentler and a whole lot quieter imho.

As for the soot on the glass, a gentle soak in soapy water and scrub it with a sponge will probably get it clean

 

the rapid pre heaters ave another "problem" with new mantles: they harden one mantle side up before the actual volume of gas will blow the mantle in shape.
This can result in a not so good mantle shape.

 

If you have citric acid like used for canning or even white vinegar, you can soak the globe in a hot mixture of that. I have broken a few globes trying to scrub the soot off.

I played with fitting one mantle inside the other. Just putting a smaller or same size mantle inside a 500cp mantle. The only benefit was on one lantern it made the mantle last a long time it was not as fragile. I would not use a mantle with holes in it as you risk the globe.

Mantles are getting hard to come by especially thorium ones and like everything more expensive. But you will have to build up a supply and buy bulk when you can.

 

Off topic: I would like to have some real thorium based mantles for my geiger counter.

 

I will check for leaks from the jet. I also cleaned the preheater holes. Will test tomorrow night and let you know how it goes.

Thanks for the comments on cleaning the soot of the glass. Will soak and scrub with a sponge.

Regarding the mantle deformation when using rapid, cheers for the heads-up. I had a feeling this would be the case so for the first lighting I did use the preheat cup

 

As for the leaking of the jet: some small amount can not be avoided since there can be, or is, fuel in the generator which starts to expand. The vaporiser foot valve is shut, the needle does not seal of 100%, so the fuel has to go somewhere. Besides building up pressure.

 

No leak when shut off, so maybe leftover fuel in gen. Maybe next time I will turn off using the control dial rather than releasing pressure and see if that makes any difference.

Anyway, new issue . The needle gets bent. Sometimes it goes through the jet, other times it gets stuck and bends. I have straightened the needle and put it back (also straightened the vaporiser rod), and it works fine now.

However, in case it bends again, as I am on my last needle, is it safe to operate the lantern without a needle? i.e. Can I clean it with the cleaning tool (Part 180) manually every time before light up?

 

The needle is only there for the ceaning purpose. So the lantern will function without it. However using the hand cleaning tool wit aquire the top hat off, so during operation that will be tricky and hot.

 

Fair enough! I will order some replacement needles as backup

 

A mod idea which might help someone else: So I was concerned I was definitely going to lose the cap for the bicycle pump adapter, so glued on a small neodymium magnet to the top. Now I can attach it to the handle whenever I need to pump the lantern, and that way I'm less likely to lose it

 

Just tried out a Sea Anchor mantle. Seems to do the job, maybe the Base Camp one is slightly brighter.


Comparison of bulb shapes between Base Camp own brand mantle (left) and Sea Anchor (right) is below:

The sizes are very similar, although the Base Camp one has a more refined shape (perhaps it is also slightly larger, but hard to tell from the pics due to different angles), and the strands are thicker than the Sea Anchor.

 

The mantles look small and that definitely will affect light output. I had Base Camp double tie mantles years back and they were good quality.

I used to heavily saturate mantles in spirit and then stretch them, just like stretching out a shirt that shrunk in the wash. It would make the pre burn mantle longer and bigger, but I don't know for sure if it helped the burned mantle keep its size.

Just 2-3 years ago there was no mantle shortage, new and vintage were widely available and reasonably priced.