I’ve just picked up a pair of used X246B’s and, while they’re in near flawless condition, one of them has a loose weld on one of the upright supports where it connects to the base of the carrying frame. What would be the best way to reattach it? Also, neither lamp’s carrying frame sits flush on top of the tank, but leaves an unsightly gap around most of the perimeter. Is there a way to gently encourage the base of the carrying frame to better conform to the contour if the tank? Thanks for any help.
Cannot help with your second part, but re rings that are disconnected from the uprights with a loose connection I would silver braze or as some call it silver solder. Reason being the rods can be heated easily to cherry red and the braze tends to smooth itself out. if it is a almost flawless condition the silver solder will blend in reasonably well if kept small and done right. Maybe nothing to paint just a clean. Not that hard, clean it well, heat it a bit, flux it well and then heat it well and apply the silver solder. Perhaps a smaller butane torch will provide the heat but keep the area under repair smaller than a bigger flame. Good luck.
Thank you very much for the advice. I believe I can source some silver solder locally, but this will be a new procedure for me. I’ve got a simple propane torch but don’t know if it will manage the job. Maybe a bigger concern is whether the heating will discolor the metal of the work pieces, especially the ring. I’m willing to give this a try but hope someone might be able to comment further on what I’ve said here.
Silver solder works at much higher temperatures and it can be a bit freaky ahen you first try. As already said, keep the two parts very clean and use plenty of flux... where its needed but dont let it go everywhere of the silver will flow there. Good luck BTW.
A useful tip with silver solder is to use lines of permanent marker or tipp-ex to limit where the solder will flow. Alec.
Well, I’ve now cleaned up each of the lamps thoroughly and tested them. One of them seems to work perfectly… While the other does not. I tested the second lamp with no mantle, and the flame kept going from practically nonexistent to the launching of a space shuttle. Does anyone have an idea what could possibly cause something like this? P.S. I’ll get back to the original frame repair topic when I manage to find a bit of silver solder. So far, it’s looking like this repair will be very cost prohibitive.
Great description and photos Have you got a pic of the failed spot weld? Your vapouriser might be shot :/ but you could try taking it off and have a look at the cleaning needle.. if there is a build up of carbon on it then carefully clean it taking care not to damage the needle Heating the vapouriser to burn off the paraffin then tapping on some wood will empty it of some carbon but don’t heat it too hot as scale will form on the inside exacerbating things ! good luck
Hopefully the broken weld shows better in the photos than the fact that I’ve managed to get a couple days behind in my fingernail trimming. On my malfunctioning lamp, I’ve removed the vapouriser and wiped down the needle (it seemed quite clean), reassembled it, pumped the tank with about 50–60 strokes of pressure, and opened the control valve to test for the presence of a fine jet of fuel. It sort of dribbled a bit down the vapouriser tube, coughed and sputtered, and did finally emit a decent jet upwards momentarily when I closed and opened the valve repeatedly. Is there an alternative way to remove possible carbon build-up from the inside of the tube? I’m not entirely clear on the procedure for heating the vapouriser and piledriving it on a block of wood. Is this done with a blowtorch and a pair of welding gloves? I’m very eager to get this lamp going, as I’ve fallen in love with my other (working) Tilley. It’ll be great to have two of them.
Re the rocket. If testing without mantle and that much flame I wouldn’t have the glass globe on as it may break.
Hold the bottom end of the vapouriser with pliers or lay it on a fire brick, use a blow torch to heat the vapouriser cherry red then plunge it into cold water. Warm it enough to get rid of any water, allow to cool then tap the end to shake out carbon loosened by the thermal shock.
I can manage that. Thank you for the extra clarity. I’ll try to take care of this soon and report back on how it went.
Err I didn’t mean like that Hopefully Mr Plews has set you straight .. also perhaps you can use your lantern with the broken spot weld ‘as is?’ Maybe keep an eye out for another cage to replace at a later date? looks good so far regards pb
I’ve executed this procedure today, heating and quenching the vapouriser three times, and the problem persists. I’ve also carefully cleaned the vapouriser needle with 600 grit wet/dry sandpaper (I used it dry) and all parts look to be in good order. I’m at a loss to understand what the problem might be. I’m in the process of trying to procure a Service Pack 1 kit for each of my lamps, but the cost is quite ridiculous. I don’t know whether to expect that fresh seals will improve the situation, but I don’t see how a proper refresh could hurt.
Hi @Jaska It’s a shame that didn’t work but good to try.. it sounds like the vapouriser is worn at the tip/jet. You may try changing the working one over from your other lantern .. if you are careful you can save the mantle.. I take the handle right off.. test it with the burner without the mantle first good luck with it all Regards pb
Alternatively, you can send the frame cage to workshop to be spot-welded. Its steel anyway. You'd need to remove the heat discolouration and repolish after that. That looks like either the vaporizer's jet orifice is enlarged or there's a tiny bit of leak at the crimped-end of the sheet metal piece where the jet is. On mine, it was the latter case. I had to silbraze it. You can guess that was pretty tricky not to block out the orifice in the process.
That is more than reasonable. I just got off the phone with Tilley and ordered all the spare bits and bobs I should need to get my lamps going, including a new vapouriser. I’d made the mistake of looking on eBay at all the various Tilley wares earlier, and the prices people are charging for common spare parts is simply sinful.
That looks like good kit there. I might order a couple to keep spare washers on hand after getting the full Service Pack 1 fitted on each of my lanterns.
I’m back to working on this lamp. If one were to take a gamble, would the problem more likely be with the pricker or the vapouriser body/jet? I do have another fully functional Tilley with a brand new vapouriser but I really hesitate to tempt fate and use that pricker in the other vapouriser for fear that I may end up without a workhorse. Any advice is appreciated.
Hi @Jaska The pricker shouldn’t affect the running or operation.. it is there to keep the tip/jet clear.. with a new vapouriser, clean tank and fresh paraffin you could use the lantern for many hours.. years ago lamps used an external pricker similar to those used with camping stoves? I would first carefully take off the hood/burner from the flame thrower lantern (if the mantle is fitted be careful) and check it on the working lantern.. if all is well then you have eliminated it from any possible faults Then you can swap the vapouriser from the working lantern to the flame thrower and see what happens? This is to try and isolate the problem to the suspected worn vapouriser Hope that helps ps did you manage to sort the spring issue? I remember once getting the spring from the pump mixed up with the one from the control tap and it had a similar result ( the control tap spring was longer)
Maybe we’re on to something with the hood/burner. I have actually tried several times since I bought these lamps to swap the hood/burner assemblies back and forth. For whatever unknown reason the one on the flamethrower lamp causes the good lamp to perform rather poorly (lower overall output, pulsing, etc.) even though it appears to be in better shape than the other one. It doesn’t, however, turn the good lamp into a flamethrower. Both hood/burner assemblies have new mantles installed and burned in. I gave each assembly a visual inspection and swabbed out the air inlet tubes with a cotton bud. There was no noticeable fouling or debris in either of the burners. The condition of the older (2006) hood from the good lamp is about 9/10 and the newer one (2015) from the flamethrower is basically 10/10. It literally looks brand new. I don’t know what else to do except keep swapping parts and running trials, but something definitely seems amiss with the newer hood/burner and I don’t know what it could be.
I’ve just made some progress with the troubleshooting. I’ve switched the vapouriser and hood/burner from the flamethrower lamp over to the good lamp and it lit right up and burned beautifully for a good minute or two until I noticed a leak. I’ll have to install a new washer at the base of the vapouriser and test again, but I think things look promising! The only variable remaining here seems to be the control valve. Could a faulty control valve possibly cause problems like the one I’ve experienced?
.. Interesting… The alu control taps are not as good as the older ones and can wear inside to develop what can be known as a ‘sweet spot’ , where the optimum operating position is different to the normal one.. perhaps this is the case with yours? Other members will have more insight as to how the performance is affected.. there has been a lot of discussion about this already.. I also experienced it with a control tap on an X246a that was worn.. the light output dimmed noticeably in the ‘on’ position.. you had to turn it back a bit and wiggle it then the lamp would glow much brighter its good that you are making progress tho
A bit more testing and, sure enough, the good lamp morphed into a flamethrower with the newer burner from the flamethrower lamp. Then, leaving the vapouriser from the flamethrower lamp installed with a brand new gasket on the good lamp and using the older hood/burner from the good lamp, it’s been running perfectly for a good 10 minutes now. The light output is incredible and there is no pulsing. I noticed a slight bit of the halo effect at first but it doesn’t seem to be a problem now. I’ll keep an eye on it. I would post a short video clip of the lamp burning but the forum doesn’t seem to allow video file uploads . Does this mean the burner from the flamethrower lamp is the problem? Besides clogs, what could possibly go wrong with a relatively new burner?
Thank you for asking about this. Yes and no. The pump is working fine, but only because I’ve left the old spring and washer in it. In the meantime I’ve ordered myself a couple of old style brass pump valve guide and spring sets as well as some Tilley Washer Kits from Fettlebox. I didn’t notice any difference in length between the springs in Service Pack 1 but I will make it a point to check into this when I get around to it.
i have seen loose parts quite a few times.. the air tubes come loose.. sometimes the mixing dome and less frequently the injector tube inside Did you check / blow through to clear any cobwebs? I had a tiny cobweb in one of the flamelet holes that feed into the mantle.. it made the lamp pulse and flicker :/
