Homemade replacement cleaning needle for Tilley Guardsman

I have several Guardsman cleaning needles with the points broken and decided to try to make replacements using extra fine beading needles (0.02mm diameter) and springs made from top 'E' guitar wire (0.02mm diameter).

The eye of the beading needle was cut off, and about 3cm of the sharp end was silver brazed onto a length of steel rod of the correct diameter to fit into the vaporiser.



The homemade one is below the broken one





A spring was made by tightly winding the guitar wire around the rod (about 14 turns) to replicate the spring on the old vaporiser. (You could just use the old vaporiser spring). Then a section of thin brass tube was brazed onto the cock end.

Again, the homemade one is the lower one.









The overall length was then trimmed to give the correct cleaning action.




Then fitted into the lamp cock, with the cock open



and closed

 

Well done and a good write up too.
Cheers to

 

Nice job!

Tony

 

A nice job done. Making the prickers by hand is a delicate process. Are those 0.2mm? 0.02mm would hardly be visible.

 

Thanks for all the comments.
My mistake. The needles are 0.2mm, the same width as the spring wire.

 

Good job, well done!

 

Well fettled.

 

Now that I know I can control the heat (I used a chef's butane torch) so that I don't destroy either the needle or the shaft, and I know that the needle is still ductile after the heat treatment - I moved on to repairing existing cleaning needles.

You will need to have at least a 1.5cm length of the needle so that the brazing heat is sufficiently away from the sharp end so that you don't vaporise the point during joining, Consequently, you will need to shorten the shaft by a similar amount.



It is easier (and stronger) to grind a flat near the end of the shortened shaft and braze a lap joint, rather than trying to braze a butt joint.



The joint can be smoothed afterwards, and since the needle remains flexible it can be straightened in line with the main shaft if needed.

 

If you want to try it, this is a mock-up of the brazing rig.
Flux was Easyflo and the braze was Silverflo 55.

 

Interesting process. And one I'll have to investigate further.
Thanks

 

Good show and tell fellas, I’ll be keeping this in mind as some times you have to be resourceful. Not just this but can be applied to other pricker,@Twoberth

 

@Twoberth

What hardness/silver content are you using for the brazing rod?

It gets very hot in the spigot/mantle area of the Tilley burner to the extent that can distort brass tubing, so I expect you’re using very hard silver solder at the joint.


Cheers

Tony

 

@Tony Press
You make a good point.

I used Silver-flo 55 (mp 630-660C) as it is my ‘go to’ filler which I regularly use on stove burners. However in the lamp, if I have any remelting problems in use I will use Silver-flo 20 (mp 780-815C), and/or use a longer needle section to move the braze joint in a cooler area.

Still in the experiment stage, so all suggestions are welcome.

 

Some delicate soldering there well done
I did something similar years back and I found a windproof jet lighter worked for me mind you I never thought of a chefs torch
So easy to melt the thin wire
Pete

 

@Twoberth I know its two years ago but I found this very interesting and would love to know if it was a success. I have a number of broken wire cleaners that I would love to resurrect.

Did the joint hold within the vaporizer heat.

 

Hi Paul,
As far as I remember the repaired needle is still in one of my guardsman lamps. So far I have had no problem, but the lanterns don’t get used very often.
However, if I was doing it again I would use a higher temperature braze such as Silverflo 20 (20% silver rather than 55%).

 

@Twoberth Thanks for the quick reply .... I really liked the jig you set up, and I will be definitely trying this soon.
Cheers