Fettled the Guardsman and got it to breath fire again. The springs were in good shape, but all of the seals were replaced with Viton from Ross The vap was a bit coked up. I did two heat/quench cycles and knocked out a bit of carbon. I also cleaned the jet from the top using a pricker for P'max pre-heater. (Worked very well, I might add.) I'm hesitant to fire a mantle on it. I want to sell this one, and firing a mantle on is a waste of money since they don't survive shipping. (I'll certainly put an un-fired one on though). Any thoughts on that? This was just for fun, so I only expect to get back what I paid for the lantern, the washers, and the new mantle...
Looks good. I'd hope you get more back than you paid for it. You have, after all, brought this lamp back to life and that has cost money and time. I know what you mean about the cost of a mantle but, although the flame looks clean and blue, it's not easy to judge exactly how the lamp would behave with a mantle fitted. I'd be inclined to run it with a mantle to be sure and I'd expect to recoup my costs as well.
A corona around the mantle is the tell-tail of a worn jet so how would you pick this up without one? Given I have never fired a lantern without a mantle I would be interested to know.
A very fair question, and a situation that I had not considered. Honestly, I was content at the time just to have it running without bleeding paraffin all over the place. I have an order of less expensive mantles on the way from the U.K., so I think I'll give in and fire it up with on one. I'll chalk it up to "training" if nothing better comes from it
Firing a lamp without a mantle is a pretty good way of finding out if it will live. You need a reduced pressure of the flame will drop too far and blow out but the flame colour tells all. In this case with a nice blue flame and hardly any yellow it is going to work well and will give a good white light. Incidentally you can mail lamps with burnt in mantles. Get some cheap and nasty hair lacquer. Not the fancy soft hold stuff but the cheap hard stuff. Spray the mantle to give it a good coating and it will then very probably survive the mail. The lacquer flashes off in a fast burn when you next light the lamp so does no harm. ::Neil::
