Hi all I am a stovie who has a few lamps as well! a Stompie ? I picked up a Tilley 246 pork pie 3rd version (I think) the other day and have been getting it working. I have replaced washers pips etc cleaned up the burner made spiders homeless done a dunk test and generally done my best with it and now have it in working condition, my only complaint is it’s a bit smelly when burning. Having read up various bits on here it seems the burner dome may not seal as well as it could ? It feels ok to me ,is there any mileage in applying some exhaust sealer to it or is that a no no. ( getting it undone in the future etc)? Many thanks Nick I had to modify the gage a bit to get the legs to fit the splayed out studs on the tank when reassembling it !
@Nick Powell Your Tilley X246 “pork pie” has a couple of later parts on it: the control cock and the hood. None-the-less, smelly burning is not caused by those parts. It will either be an enlarged jet in the vapouriser, or your burner assembly. 1. Is the burner in good overall condition? Are the air tubes and all holes free of mud wasp nests or spiders? Are the parts to the burner sitting tight in their threads? 2. It’s best not to undo the burner parts unless you need to. Clean first; tighten second; then if needed, take apart. 3. Is the mantle glowing evenly? No black patches on the glowing mantle? 4. If that’s all good, is their flame outside the mantle when burning? Cheers Tony
@Tony Press New vaporiser out of the box no halo of orange flame. I did remove the air tubes and dome cleaned and refitted whoops! Mantle is a happy mantle and is fairly even it gets better the longer it burns but no black mantle. Tiny bit of brown. I did run it with no mantle and got blue flames with orange tips total about 10mm long. Maybe I am being to fussy Control cock is brass with a replacement knob I think, there were two gland packings indicating to me it’s been serviced since that became a thing? Relatively recent? I put two back in. The hood is a bit loose and wobbly on the vaporiser. thanks Nick
Hi @Nick Powell I don’t think you are being too fussy as we all like to have relatively smell-free lamps and also there is the worry (for me) that something is not right so maybe it could get worse? good advice already from Tony With a lot of use, the main body of the burner does tend to get out of shape and becomes a bit ‘triangular’ where the burner dome screws in.. this can make the dome loose, so we just tighten it up. over time, this can lead to the bottom of the dome touching the air pipes and tightening there rather than on the threads. also the ‘triangular’ shape of the burner body can leave a small gap between the burner dome threads and the burner body. Yes, I would probably put a small amount of exhaust paste or similar into the gaps and around that area, and seeing if that made a difference.. hope that helps regards pb
I had smelly lanterns where a small leak at the eccentric or at the screw connection of the vaporizer had caused fuel vapors to be sucked into the glass cylinder and apparently escape at the top of the hood without being completely burned off. After sealing the leak, the smell also disappeared. All previous attempts to find the cause on the burner or the jet were unsuccessful. The small leaks went unnoticed because there was no dripping liquid and the fuel apparently evaporated immediately.
Exhaust sealant applied in a small quantity to the threads of the burner seems to have sorted things out. I was wondering about the fact that the burner is very loose on the vaporiser would this have any effects? Is this what you were talking about. @Martin K. ?
Nominal diameter of the vapouriser is 9.55mm, inner diameter of the mantle spigot is 10.45mm so a little looseness is normal. When a lamp stinks, it's usually because fuel vapour is escaping from somewhere and not being burned. So, check all seals and tighten threaded joints, a little sealing compound is better than tightening to the point where threads are damaged or even destroyed.
Thanks @Henry Plews I think I have nailed it using a smear of exhaust sealant on the burner threads. Thanks for your experienced input! Nick
It were a few lanterns, Petromax/Geniol and Hasag. Since I have noticed this, I have tended to replace the packing of the eccentric shaft in general.
Not quite, although I know of a similar effect with Petromax lanterns where the paddle in the mixing tube is not completely tight.
Ok next problem! When under pressure the center of the base of the fount lifts the rim of the fount off the flat surface it’s on. I do not do more than about 30 strokes on the pump. The angled bolts on top of the fount indicate the tank is distorted anyway, is this tank useless. There are no leaks and once pressure is released the rim rests on the flat surface again. Thought? Cheers Nick
If the base of the lamp is lifting the rim off the surface under pressure, the tank has been over pressurised at some stage of its life. It may (or may not) create a leak in the future, but it has been compromised. The best, and cheapest fix is to get another pork pie tank. Cheers Tony
@Tony Press thought that was the case having read around the subject here. What a pain! Thanks Tony good advice as usual. Nick
