I recently bought this old Tilley of Facebook Marketplace for £15. I plan to restore it and put it to use, but it would be helpful (when buying parts for it) to know exactly what model it is. I think it’s a Mk2 X246B? But I’m hoping someone can set me straight. The base appears to have “8 88” stamped into it, if that helps? I also read about the difference between a 500cp burner and the standard burner. By the looks of it, mine has the 500cp. Does that have any bearing on how I restore it or what mantles to use? Thanks in advance for any and all help. Jonny
Welcome, Jonny. It’s a Tilley X246B made August 1988. It is 300cp (not a 500cp). There are many posts here about fettling a Tilley, so have a good look around. Tilley mantles are available on eBay, but as you are in the UK, go to Base Camp (UK) or Tilley itself. They will have all parts that you need. Best regards Tony
Hi Tony, Thanks for such a quick reply. It is much appreciated. Now I know specifically what I’m looking for I’ll have a mooch around the fettling pages and see what people have done previously to restore their lamps.
Hi @JonnyT and welcome to the forum. These are reasonably simple but they can catch you out. However you can even watch a service happen here : https://www.youtube.com/@broadlander1398/videos by a member here @X246A
Hi @JonnyT and welcome Around this time Tilley did market the lantern as being capable of reaching 500cp.. basically they added a longer spigot to enable the fitting of a bigger mantle.. the idea was that you pumped up the tank more to achieve the extra cp.. The problem being that this type of tank is Not designed to withstand the extra pressure Other members will confirm this and there are threads to show this as well I’ve enclosed some pictures to show the measurements of a standard burner spigot Tony and Chris are quite right with their advice.. this was only ever designed as a 300cp lantern, it’s just that the extra long spigot can cause some confusion
@podbros Thank you for the clarification on the burner spigot. Just for completions sake, I measured the spigot that came with my lamp, it is around the 5cm / 2inch mark. Would that be a 300cp?
I would say that this is a 500CP burner spigeot - AKA "mantle support". You may wish to buy a new standard size one. There are many references to the 500CP here all talking about having to over-pressure the tank to get it to work well. I would also check the tank well !
@Fireexit1 The base of the tank does have a very slight bow to it in the middle, probably from being over-pressurised. But I don't think it's in bad shape, seems solid. No visible cracks or anything. I'll be sure to give it some good testing under regular pressure before trying to use it for real.
So in your shoes I would order a seal kit. There are two different types of seal that go in the non-return valve (NRV) on the end of the pump, and in the control cock. One has a brass "carrier" - like a mushroom with a round disc of rubber on top, the other type has a round or square rubber seal that sits directly onto a spring. Unfortunatley the part numbers are the same. If you buy a genuine service kit it will come with the newer all-rubber seals. If you have the older one I reccomend a seal kit from the fettlebox. Or you can retro-fit the brass mushrooms and use the flat seals. If using the genune seal kit keep the original spring if you can in the NRV. The newer ones are sometimes a bit too strong. You can use the new one in the cock. I would council changing the mantle support for the standard one, and ths means you will need some 300/350 cp mantles. Again you can buy ready tied ones from Tilley or you can get untied ones from different sources. If you keep the existing mantle support you will need the larger 500CP mantles. You will aslo need a pre-heating torch if you do not have one, then some meths for that and of course paraffin for fuel. Most of us use any old small jar but you can get genuine tilley jars. A funnel is helpful. Cleanliness inside the tank is essential - the hole in the vapouriser is very small and any grit in the fuel will block it. I am sure it will be up and running in no time. And then you will want another one ...
@Fireexit1 Thank you for such a detailed reply. I will absolutely look into all of that. One last thing; I did shine a torch inside my tank and it looks to be a bit grubby. Are there any neat tricks you know of for really cleaning them out?
Depends on what it is. Some like putting old screws/nuts in there with a liquid/spirit and shaking it about. If it is "organic" mess I have been known to use casutic soda. But if you go that route be safe and know how to use it. (outside/safety glasses/add powder to water etc) Hot water will soften the paint on the tank ! Caustic soda gets hot. I start gentle and work my way up - so start with some meths/white spirit and see where that leads
I sometimes put a handful of small hexagonal nuts in there with some paraffin, give it a good shake (put on a calypso record) then put a coffee filter into a funnel and tip it out, then repeat the whole thing with the nuts and your newly cleaned paraffin. Do this until you feel its coming back out cleaned enough.
Welcome aboard, sounds like you have all the best advice there mate enjoy your new lamp. Be careful they do multiple.
@JonnyT Here is a post about the long alleged-500cp Tilley spigot: Long Tilley Spigot My advice, like those above, is to replace with an ordinary spigot. Cheers Tony
. . and used a different vapouriser. Whilst Tilley may have said "capable" of reaching 500 cp, the model was referred to as 500 SERIES See this post for images of a 500 cp burner Tilley 500cp., do-nut lamp
@JonnyT there is no need what-so-ever to change the spigot on your lantern, simply fit a 164X-500 mantle (available from base-camp.co.uk). Granted, they're a little more expensive than the standard 164X but because they've a larger surface area, you'll get more light for the same amount of fuel used. Have a read here Tilley lamp id
@rayw My dance moves are legendary, but for all the wrong reasons, so I'm wondering if there's a different way... I saw a video online a while back where a guy filled a glass jar 1/2 to 3/4 full with (new) cat litter, popped his metal pieces to be cleaned into the jar and put the lid on. He had fettled the lid with a bolt protruding out the top in the centre. He then chucked the protruding bolt into an electric drill and put the drill into a bench vise to hold it steady at the correct angle. He then used a cable tie to apply just the right amount of pressure on the trigger of the drill to rotate the jar at a nice slow and even tumbling speed, then left it for what I assume was a long while to do it's thing. The results were pretty sweet. This guy shows how to build one. I'm wondering if I did something similar, attaching the tank to the drill via the hole at the top and some threaded rod, if I left if tumbling some media round inside of it for a while, you think that might work?
@JonnyT Just to be clear about my reference to "alleged-500cp", above, that Henry has quoted: I was talking about the arrangement where a longer spigot is fitted to a normal Tilley X246B vapouriser as it the link I used above). As Henry says, it is correctly referred to as 500 Series. This arrangement uses the normal Tilley 606 vapouriser. The true Tilley 500 CP burner is a big beast that runs with a different vapouriser (a 301 vapouriser), that has a larger jet. [I should post my NOS Tilley 500 cp burner in the Reference Gallery]. I defer to Henry in that running your X246B with the longer spigot and the 164X-500 mantle from the Base Camp will give you more light. I've never done so, because I've not had any of those mantles to hand. I've fitted larger mantles (not Tilley - Butterfly, I think) and been disappointed. I should get some from Base Camp and give it a burl (but I think I'll use an early X246 because of the tank construction and the higher pressure required). This is what Neil McRae has said on the subject of the 500cp Series: Cheers Tony
I'm pretty sure that would work, not sure how your drill would like it. The Tilley is made of brass so take care how long you do it for, I found that two or three goes with the nuts and paraffin seems to get rid of the muck and filtering the paraffin means you don't end up with pints of mucky paraffin to get rid of. I've seen similar devices to tumble stones inside a small drum with liquid containing a fine grit, it polishes them very effectively.
