Hi All I won this Veritas Superb lamp from ebay & was informed by several members here that they are a bit of a sod to get working properly , but with a bit of persistance & luck i managed to get this fickle lamp to burn & stay lit I have used a Coleman 500cp mantle on my first attempt & on this one i used a Bullfinch gas mantle as it was all i had , in the pictures you can see the area of the vapouriser being heated by the mantle quite well The lamp needed a lot of TLC to get it this far as the pricker needle was shot & i had to make a replacement tip i also had to improvise & re-size the jet because this was quite worn & seriously over fueled , next job is to do some cosmetic work now it's running If any of our members from Finland or in that region has any idea for spares please get in touch Best regards ,Stu
Hi Jeff Over 2 hours before i had to shut it off & go to work this morning my wife had to drag me out of the workshop & send me off to earn a crust , but will light it up tomorow again & see how it goes Stu
If you can fettle a Superb to run for better than two hours then there will be a queue forming with guys like me wanting our lamps fettled. ::Neil::
Thanks Neil Praise indeed , but it wasn't easy to get it this far , it took five attempts to make a practical working tip for the pricker assembly due to its miniscule size especialy with sausage fingers Stu
A working pricker is not my problem. I have two of these beasts, both are complete but just don't work for more than ten minutes. I have tried several times and in the end gave up and now I am reluctant to waste any more time on them. ::Neil::
Ah, now, you should have said - somewhere, I have a spare pricker for one of these (but only because I snapped off the neck of the vapouriser where it screwed into the valve body ) I've got a spare unused vapouriser, too, but as Neil says these are notoriously fickle lanterns and merely changing the vapouriser probably wouldn't make a 'user' out of a non-runner. I doubt I'd ever be using a Veritas Superb as a serious lantern anyway. I did actually have a VS that ran well - at least, until the stand it was on fell over at Newark one year...
Well done there Stu on getting the superb to run superb,i have all so read on here by a good few that have the superb and can not get it to work properly. There are many reasons and theorys why these dont work as they should,which i am still confused. It is such a shame they do not, and i am very glad you have managed to solve the problem with yours. The veritas Superb looks such a nice lantern and looks a quality made lantern,anad looks different to most standard British made lanterns. I love the styly of lanterns, with the conveax/barrel shape globes. Even though these lanterns are notorious for not running well they all seem to receive a good amount of bids on the bay
Hi Guys I have found by persevering with this lamp that.. 1. they are very sensitive to a worn jet & over fueling 2. they do like a large mantle i.e. a coleman 1111 500cp or simillar . 3. too much pressure in the fount is not good & they don't like it at all . 4. a double pre-heat seems essential to get the best out of this fickle toerag of a lamp . Sorry Neil i have another 2+ hours on the clock now after sticking to these constrictions Stu .
Hello Stu You wrote that you resized a jet. Since I'm a wicky collector and I don't know all that much bout pressure lamps I would like to know how you resize a jet. My Summit has a jet problem too, well at least thats what I and other on this forum think. regards Henk
Hi Henk It's a bit of a stoneage technique , but i put a correct size pricker wire in the orifice & very carefully squeeze the jet in a vise or three jaw chuck on a lathe until the pricker wire is a snug but not tight fit. If you have a hexagonal jet like a Petromax you must squeeze & turn the jet two facets at a time so as not to distort it otherwise it will not screw back in , check this frequently as you go to save damaging it & your sanity I have done this with primus stove nipples/jets for years , but these need truing on the lathe after wards or they will not fit in a standard jet spanner If you have an old or spare worn one have a play around with this to practice Hope this helps , Regards Stu
Here are some more pic's from this evenings testing , the Superb has been burning for three hours this evening from just after four untill now The Stuman vapouriser is now on test in the X246 pork pie hanging up next to the Superb & a Bialaddin T10 on the bench , i got the base from ebay & it arrived today , but i already had the top part lolling around the workshop for ages . The Superb finally worked for about four hours this evening & not a hiccup Stu
Good stuff, Stu! Indulge me, please, and try running it outside for a couple of hours tomorrow evening. I had one of mine running outside for 40 minutes a few years back. I could be wrong but I suspect it failed because it was evening and ambient temperatures were dropping...
It looks like you need to keep the kero warm for it to work properly , but sitting on a stove might be a risk for the solder joints.
Hi David & Nils I'll give it a go David if it's not raining & Nils That's a 1925 Primus stove & is one of my oldest that the Veritas is sitting on 8) this was so as i could see the lamp while i was having my dinner from my conservatory , just in case of a flame out Stu
Nice one Stu, another candidate for one of your vapouriser conversions, than you will be able to get the Jet of your choosing where you want it with brass to heat up the Paraffin instead of the cold steel (they dont like it up em!!!) It might start a new craze with Superbs that work properly. Asan aside, how many mils of meths does the Superb pre-lighting cup take compared to say a vapalux cup with a wick, just a thought to solve the double prime problem
Hi Iwoo I reckon it's about half the size of a Bialaddin cup , but that isn't sheilded like the Superb lantern's vapouriser inside the glass . I do think that the meths in the superb cup doesn't seem to get going like it does in other cups , so i squirt a little around it too & this gets it going a bit better but nothing like in my Sunflame 8) Stu
Hi All I have tried a bit of an experiment this evening using panel wipe in my Superb instead of Kero , i changed the seals to viton & re-built the burner head again as the mesh flame retarding disc was too small , i now have a bigger cutter The lamp seems to work well on this fuel & the flame front seems to be a bit more stable in the mantle , no sooting up I also put a ring of mesh in the hood top vents to keep some more heat in & this helped too It does seem happier Stu
That's good news Stu! If you have a Coleman hood which fits the VS., perhaps you could try running the lantern with that fitted. There may be an improvement in the lantern's performance, Jeff.
Jolly good Stu, have you tried a 50/50 mix of panel wipe and kero to see how that burns? I've just bought another veritas 350 so when I get it cleaned up ill have to see how she burns. Then decide if its a keeper or not. The bench is filling up a bit, is it time to move some lamps into the house?
Hi Stu, does this suggest that the jet is too large? I get the feeling from looking at ours that the vapouriser has issues vapourising the paraffin properly when running at full operating pressure with a slightly worn jet. I suspect that if they used a vapouriser more like a Coleman (thinner walled and narower diameter) they'd work better and you probably wouldn't need to use panel wipe.
The other thing to remember is that paraffin/kerosene sold these days is less volatile than the stuff that was available in the 1950s. I suspect the design of the Veritas Superb put it at or near the edge of 'the envelope of workability' in the 1950s and now beyond it in the 21st century. Adding 10-20% panel wipe restores the volatility of today's kero to 1950-60 levels...
Isn't paraffin just the same fraction that it's always been? I know the Bartoline I get is sweetened, but it should have the same volatility. Meh, as long as we can get them to work eh! Oh - just for fun I compared a Superb to a Coleman 335 I picked up that needs work - pretty much completely compatible so if anyone has a Kero Coleman with a u/s tank you could make up a reliable Superb...!
