Hi! I am new here, so wan't to say hello to everybody! I just recived my first pressure lamp - Petromax Rapid 829 - quite old and dirty. I spent many hours to get it clean and I almost finish. Unforunatly I found two small holes in tank: I really want to fix it - is it possible and how can this be done? Any help will be appreciate. Or maybe those holes should be there? I don't know what to do - as I wrote, this is my first classic lamp. Here is how it looked when I recived it:
Hello and welcome aboard! Those holes should not be there, it may be possible to seal them with a tank sealant, por 15 for example, or it may be possible to solder them. Jeff.
Am I right in thinking that those Petromax lamps with the matt finish on the tank have some sort of military connection? Just a thought but those holes look as if they have been very neatly made and seem to be in a similar position on the tank. Perhaps it was for some reason made inoperative or taken out of service.
Hmmm, its curious, perhaps it was made inoperative to be taken out of service if you know what I mean.... Soldered or filled and then pressure tested would be the order of the day I think. Alec.
Thanks, I looked a little closer and found two more simillar but smaller holes It looks I have strainer not a tank. Do you have any idea where those holes come from? Is it any chance, that soldering will fix this tank or should I prepare for next holes in near future? Maybe I should just repleace tank for new one? What solder should I use? Silver or some special? Do I have to remove nickel coat before soldering? Sorry for newbie questions, but I solder only electronic components before
Perhaps this is a dumb question: is there fuel leaking through the holes? These look very close to the bottom lip and may not present a problem. Have you put fuel in it and pumped it to see if it leaks? If it leaks, these holes do look like they can be fixed without too much trouble.
Never seen these kind of defects. How does the inside of the tank look ? Anything that has eaten itself a way out ? Holes made by rust from inside may often look small at the outside but have more damage inside. I guess the best solution is to look for a spare tank. Don't have one at the moment. I have stopped buying these ex military lanterns.
It looks that those holes comes from inside. When I started to clean this tank, there was lot of black stuff in it - similar to rust but little sticky. When this stuff was inside, tank was tight. I used denaturated alcohol and citric acid with wooden screws inside - it took me three days to remove this black substance from it. I can stick needle in those holes and make it little bigger. I can see needle inside - there is dark rusty line around the bottom of the tank I was able to make photo of inside - you can see needle in hole. I don't know what fuel previous owner used, but I can see lot of corrosion of this part too:
you could try low temp silver solder and flux which is a lot stronger than 60/40 solder and seems to stay bright maybe with POR after. Graham
POR15 is more expensive for me then new tank from pelam. I still think about soldering, but I afraid of next new holes in short time so I will have to buy new tank anyway
I ordered used tank for this lamp in very good condition, so I hope to have it nice and working soon I will also try to fix this tank with soldering and paint it with some nice color After all, I think that I made those holes myself when I put many wooden screws inside for cleaning. They have very sharp ends and they probably breaked tank hull when I shaked it I will remember to use nuts next time. Thanks for your help!
I can't imagine that your screws punture the tank. After all you move the tank around. I guess that the previous owner may have used something like epoxy or so to seal the holes. When cleaning you removed this. Still a strange type of corrosion.
So, I repleaced tank, clean everything, put kerosene in it and started! My first lamp is working and I am very happy with it - unfortunatly manometer is broken (not moving) and I am missing one metal plate with lamp name. Do you know is it possible to fix manometer or should I change to new one? Here is before and after: Now I will be search for next one - maybe some older which needs more work Thank you for all your help!
It it's already broken, you have nothing to lose by trying to repair it I'd remove the cover glass and put some penetrating oil into the mechanism for a while, that might loosen it up a tad. Here's an description of what's inside: http://www.pelam.de/articles.php?tPath=22_39&language=en
Thanks, I did some cleaning with WD40 and also repositioned pressure pipe a little. Now manometer started to move, but I don't know is it calibrated correct - it tooks 60 pumps to show 1 bar and next 40 to get to red line - almost 2 bars. Am I close to get it working right? Marry Christmas!
The number of pumps does depend on how full the tank is. If the tank is fairly low on fuel, your number of pumps would be about right. Would not be too difficult to get it checked though. I would think that most motor repair outfits could do that for you. Well done A very nice lamp Steve
Try the lantern with half a litre of paraffin / kerosene in it and as Steve has already stated, you will not need to pump so much, Jeff.
Ok, I'll try to find another reference manometer and will calibrate this one for pressure from butane tank for lighters. What I can say for know, that pressure in tank after few hours didn't drop, so lattern is tight After all I learned a lot with this project and I know I'm in love with pressure lamps Time to search for next one - I have an eye on Petromax 2827 Thank you! Michal
Hello Michal, judgeing by your description, I reckon that the pressure gauge is working as it should. The lamping bug bites deeply!
