THIS lantern, my 1944 Coleman Milspec/220B hybrid fuelled by kerosene. The existing priming Coleman cup did the job ok but sitting on the generator jamb nut as it does it’s located a bit too high for my liking and if insufficient care is taken igniting the priming alcohol, it’s easy to hole a mantle with the match head. I resolved to fabricate a primer cup more on the European/Scandinavian pattern, surrounding the generator nut (though unlike them not sitting on the frame base pan) and more remote from the mantles. Brass sheet, formed and silbrazed joints. Alongside the Coleman spirit cup, I’ve made its replacement of greater diameter (to accommodate the generator nut) but a bit shallower. Half of the prime here would probably suffice but I wanted a lengthier prime to watch the flame propagation. John
Over on the Coleman Collectors Forum a member, Steve, said having inverted a lantern to check on the date, only to have a pre-heat cup slide down the generator and crumble the mantles. I took his advice and made a clip which stays in position with the tension in the brass strip but can be unclipped when required.
That's a nice fitting cup and clip. Many of the original clips on Coleman lanterns are made of steel and often missing or too far oxidized/rusted over time. Without some suitable clips in place, many mantles had been destroyed as described.
Tube as you say Colin, silbrazed to the sheet brass base then the portion of the base enclosed by it drilled out to match the bore. Brass washer silbrazed to the top. I used a higher melting point (lower silver content) rod to join tube to base so that it wouldn’t budge when I attached the cup side and (washer) lid to the inner tube with the lower melting point stuff. The different melting points of varying percentage silver contents of silbraze, or silbraze plus lead solder where a component doesn’t get hot enough in use to melt the latter, is something I’ve found useful to exploit when constructing assemblies such as that.
Thanks for the detailed explanation as this is something I'll probably end up doing again at some point! I might be tempted to use copper tube of the correct diameter and heat the end to a temperature where I can deform it inwards to create an 'end cap' without the need to silbraze a washer over the end. It may not work but I'll definitely have a go. It is also worth noting that the melting point of brass is lower than copper, a fact that seems counter-intuitive but the MP of brass is 900C - 940C depending on the proportions of Zinc/copper, whereas for copper alone, the MP is 1084C. The retaining clip is a minor work of art! Excellent work! Can I just say, that before joining this forum I had never attempted much engineering - although I'd seen my Dad do loads when I was growing up - but thanks to CPL and CCS I've got my hands dirty and done loads and learned loads too!
