Stu, I admire your persuasion. But meanwhile it is all in the wrong forum, this isn't fettling any more but more rebuilding.
Hi Wim Hope you are well 8) This is known as "Heavy Fettling" one step away from light engineering or is it the other way round , who knows David shouksmith kindly sent a replacement lamp glass holder/rim to me ( as the original looked like an emmenthal cheese ) & it arrived this morning , so it was cleaned back to bare metal , primed & painted ready to be fitted tomorow after the paint has cured off 8) The inner glass support ring was cleaned up too Tomorow i will complete the build & maybe even fire the lamp up to complete the restoration Stu
Hi stu it looks fantastic,the original glass holder rim was realy shot,and well done david for having a spare to complest this restoration,i am realy looking forward too seeing it fired up
Hi All Well it's all finished The paint has cured off very well due to the really hot weather this week , so last night while sitting at the outside dining table i finished off putting the glass back into the frontispiece of the lamp 8) Next i had to fiddle about with a mantle because the burner seems to be smaller than a Guardsman , so i had to re-tie one to get a good snug fit & thats it done , I can't quite believe it I hope youv'e enjoyed the restoration as much as i have doing it & thank you for the kind comments & encouragement , anything can be saved if you try & there are so many great people here at CPL & on CCS that will help you with good solid advice through their experience & even spares if they have them ( Thanks David ) 8) . I give you 1938-40 Tilley FL-6 From this To this Best regards Stu PS will take some pic's later when it's dark to finish off the post 8)
Yes, it is - physically smaller and only 250cp (IIRC) as opposed to 300cp (both Tilley's claimed figures ). The correct mantle is a No. 191, but if you've got the larger one to fit snugly then it should work OK. You're welcome to the front rim - just let's see the lamp fired up later on...
Wonderful job Stu . Very nice lamp once again. You never fail to amaze me with your fettling skills - Steve.
Well done Stu totaly amazing restoration work,the difference in the before and after pics are unbeleivable,you should be realy proud of your work on this restoration
Awesome job Stu. Thank you for the lessons and for seeing that this one could be saved. Is it dark yet?
Wow Stu, you have done such a good job on your lamp that you can do mine if you want. I'll get around to it one day. When I have finished everything else. Look forward to seeing it going, best regards Matt.
Fantastic! Looking really good. P.S could I trouble you to take a couple of photos of the decal... That's all my FL6 resto needs before its completed! F.A.B
hhmm Stu, That isn't fair: showing us a new one ! Where did that old one go ?? But serious now: how many hours in total ? Very well done job.
Hi All Well it's getting dark outside so i suppose i'd better get off my bum & get this lamp lit Before i bought the FL it had been languishing in a workshop near Boston lincs for over 20 years where the previous owner had been meaning to restore it himself , but never got the chance due to re-building french two seater light aeroplanes He said the previous owner had not had it working either & he'd had it ten years , so would it light up The vapouriser is the original brass bottomed one that was on the lamp when i got it so here goes nothing Paraffin in & pre burning off the mantle , i fitted one of my homemade Bialaddin priming cups to make life easier Good grief it works & really well too 8) , now thats very satisfying Look out "arty shots" The lamp is only 250 CP but the brightness it provides even in this summer half light is impressive 8) 8) Thanks to all who kept me company on this little adventure 8) Stu
Looks like it is working very well Stu. I think you need to post one of you mantle shots in my gallery of errr... mantle shots . It's crying out for a flood lamp and your one is the only one lit. Well done once again, best regards Matt.
Hello Stu, it's fine to see your FL-6 working after all of your hard work to resurrect it. Tilley rated this lamp at 5000 MRCP., (MEAN REFLECTED CANDLE POWER). The link below shows the 1950s Tilley catalogue and details for the FL-6 are shown there, Jeff. http://classicpressurelamps.com/index.php?threads/421
Absolutely awesome looking Floodlight, I am nearly convinced that I could see the beam down here in Australia. What a great project to watch through the rebuild process. Well done. Now you have finished you can start manufacturing my new Tilley R1 guard. lol
Outstanding work, Stu. An extrordinary labor of love for what might have been a lost cause bound for the scrap heap. Bud
Hope I didn't mislead you, Stu - the burner is only 250cp, but as Jeff says, Tilley rated these lamps as 5000 reflected candle power. I don't know how they reached that figure and I'm guessing it's based on some ratio between the surface area of the mantle and the effective surface area of the reflector. Does anybody really know and can offer a proper scientific explanation? I just don't know enough about the different ways of measuring light output and I never really understood the various units in which it's expressed - cp, lumens, lux, candelas, foot candles etc., etc...
I wouldn't agree completely with that Matthew... One of my flood lamps is actually lit in the reference gallery. Not good enough angle for a proper mantle shot, though, so you are pretty much correct anyway. Well done with your restoration Stu! I'm impressed of all the time you've managed to put in to this. I also hope that you will post some images of your FL6 in the reference gallery.
Stu, Well done ! Next test: short stand and high stand.... and then a nice woorden box to keep it all safe when going to a lamp meet.
OK… holding the dubious title “scientist”, I’ll have a go at explaining cp, lumens, lux, candelas, foot candles etc… Hold onto your breeches… this is epic! CANDLEPOWER – Essentially, this is how much light is produced by a mantle (or any other light source) compared with that produced by one candle – nowadays this has been replaced with the CANDELA. Remember (you’ll be tested later!) that a normal candle has no form of reflector associated with it, and therefore, the light of that candle (or its candle-power) is emitted in all directions equally. To make it complicated, the brightness of a lamp, is in many ways, subjective… and that’s not comfortable to scientists, who NEED(!) precise objectivity. The candela is just a comparison – it doesn’t tell you how much useful power the light has. That’s where the LUMEN steps in… it is a measurement of how much power the light has, specifically in the wavelengths visible to the human eye. This is measured in LUX and is expressed in terms of how much light from a light source is actually illuminating a surface. Of course, to remain scientific about this, we need to define that surface – so, one lux is one lumen falling on a surface of one square metre. So, in essence, this measures how much light actually gets to where you want it. FOOTCANDLE (I had to look this one up, it's not one I use!) is an old term that is no longer used by scientists but is still used in film and photography. It represents the light falling on one square foot of a surface which is lit by a lamp of one candlepower. Now back to Tilley… Let’s take another lamp as an example (one without a reflector) such as the good old PL53. It has a 300cp burner, and if you go back to our definition of candlepower (where we said that a candle emits its light uniformly in all directions), it doesn’t matter which angle you’re looking at the PL53 from; to you, it will always be emitting 300cp (i.e. have an equivalent brightness to 300 candles). With lamps that DO have reflectors, like the FL6; we should now understand that if we are stood directly in front of the lamp, we have the 250cp light emitted from the burner itself, which is shining directly into our eyes. However, we also need to factor-in the effect of the reflector and this is where things start to get a little more complicated. Above, I oversimplified the definition of candlepower (candela). When calculating the candlepower, you must also take into account the angle over which the lamp casts its beam, so with the FL6, we have the light that is being emitted directly from the mantle and out of the front of the lamp, and IN ADDITION TO THIS, we also have all of the light that is focussed and reflected into our eyes from behind the burner. So… that’s why Tilley state that the FL6 has a 250cp burner with a 5,000MRCP (mean reflected candle power) output. I guess it’s an average, because the actual output of the lamps will vary due to simple things like cleanliness of the glass cover and manufacturing tolerances of the vapourisers, burners, reflectors and variations in tank pressure. I guess there are also more complex things like paraffin volatility (don’t even get me started on this) and a number of various mantle parameters... we’re potentially opening a real can o’worms here, so I’ll stop! Oh... and remember, the 250cp and 5000 MRCP are both hypothetical anyway... read other posts about actual measured luminances! To bring it full circle; if you've ever asked yourself "I wonder... what is the equivalent modern lighbulb to this beautiful FL6?" - you'll be surprised to note, it ROUGHLY equates to a 100W modern floodlamp.
Hello Stu, Tilley also offered a turntable stand for the FL-6, but I have not seen an actual example, if anyone has a turntable stand, then perhaps some photos of it could be posted. The link below shows an advert which mentions the turntable stand, it's near the bottom of the advert, Jeff. http://classicpressurelamps.com/index.php?threads/1272
Thanks, Jim T - I'm as wise as ever! But as I thought, this 'illuminance' business is all bo&&ocks - almost totally subjective and 500cp isn't necessarily twice as good as 250cp (a Maserati isn't better than a Mini if all you want to do is go round the shops). It's useful light that counts... Anyway, great restoration, Stu, and I'm pleased to have been able to play a small part in it. I saw it advertised and I thought it was a POS, but I'm over the moon you've proved me wrong - well done.
Hi David You don't know how right your appraisal was , when i picked it up i thought oh what have i just paid out good money for , but you know me always up for a challenge worth it in the end though Stu
Stu, what a fantastic job you have made of that lamp! I could almost fall in love with floodlights after all.
