What do you think would be the best method to repair the pinholes in this tank from Wiktorin gravity lamp? My plan was to tape over the holes and then give the inside the POR15 treatment to seal it up. Would I be better off cutting away some of the metal and soft-soldering a patch panel in place? As its a gravity lamp the tank is not pressurized, so it just has to be watertight.
Hi James, could you make a plate that fits the corner make the hole in the middle and then braze or solder it to the tank all the way around the outside to make a good seal. Just a thought. Best regards Matt.
Looks to be suffering a bit with rust james could you blab it up with solder using a big copper soldering iron outside looks like its had a few repairs like that already. Or solder a new piece of tin over the damaged part? pete
I would remove the damaged area, explore the interior to rule out more rust damage, and rebuild it with new material.....on the other hand, you could duplicate the whole fount and use the old bung on the new one, it will save you head aches, and a possible fire hazard.
I have similar problem - hole in a tank and I don't know what to do - hard soldering or welding or.. I just don't know how to handle this. But my tank is a pressure tank :/ any advice will be appreciate.. Sorry James for using your topic, but case is quite similar cheers, Michal
Looking at your tank its steel and welded so you could just hard solder it quite easily trouble is the rust can make another hole somewhere else later but that could be years down the line. I had a FL6 blew a rust hole in the base so i welded it up that was maybe 9 years ago but sometime i expect another hole in it then i will deal with that then or never. cheers pete
Hi James, I’m in with Pete on this; some sort of soldering would do. I also have an example of this lamp stored for years. The problem I have is that the pre-heating reservoir is damaged by rust and needs to be replaced or fixed. Perhaps we can share restoring experiences on this one. Btw …my avatar is a Wiktorin table lamp, with more or less the same burner construction as yours. /Conny
James Think I'd be tempted to make a square patch with a hole in the middle to solder over the top ! And deal with any further holes as and when they appear as Pete has suggested. Got some off cuts of brass sheet if you want a piece to make the square Good luck
Thanks for the replies. I soldered up the area around the pipe and then I found a few more pinholes elsewhere. I think I am going to go the POR 15 route as even if I patch up all the visible pinholes another one could open up when the lamp is lit. Lining the tank should provide some additional safety.
Is it worth de-rusting the interior with acid before or does using the Por-15 cover and seal rust? Steve.
Steve, I recommend that you use the correct POR products, "Marine Clean", followed by "Metal Prep" then the POR15 gunge. It is expensive, but it does work well. The "Marine Clean" can be saved and used again, so can the "Metal Prep", but the POR15 gunge does not usually keep after the can is opened. Good luck - Steve.
Here is the tank getting the POR-15 treatment. I bought the "super starter kit" from Frost's and I was a little worried that it would be too viscous to coat all the surfaces or that the little 1/4 pint tin wouldn't be enough but I able to give it two coats. I have enough left over to do the outside which I might do once the inside has cured. This is the burner assembly. At A there is the valve that the fuel control rod screws into. At B there is a brass filter gauze which is held in place by a rod, which can be removed via the bolt at C. At D is the evaporation chamber where any liquid alcohol that has not evaporated in the "up" pipe can vapourize. Unfortunately I am missing the ceramic nozzle and mantle holder. Here is the fuel control rod assembly. The rod itself is made of steel. It was so rusty it broke in half as I was trying to get it out. I will replace it with some brass rod.
The lower part of the burner had a huge rust hole in it so a steel patch panel was brazed in place. The rust was removed with electrolysis and it was painted with high-temp silver paint. Not a perfect job but it will do.
Nice work James You are a good inspiration and it looks like it will last for a long time. Presented to that task you got there, I would have wrapped it all up. Well done Claus C
Well it's getting there. I had it lit for the first time and it seems to run well. I am missing the ceramic burner and mantle holder so I bodged something out of some copper pipe and a bit of wire. I will make something better eventually The mantle is for a Blanchard and is probably a bit too large for this lamp. I still have a few issues to resolve. The fuel control rod doesn't completely block off the flow of meths so the only way to shut it off is to tilt it to one side so the fuel stop flowing into the burner The pump to prime the preheating tray with fuel doesn't work as it should as the fuel is supposed to run into a dish and from there into the tray but the dish has got rust holes in it. Until I get this sorted I can squirt fuel directly into the tray through the lighting hole. The "cap" of the burner was completely rusted through so I had to make another one. I was able to patch up the vent with slits but it was very rusty and I am not too pleased with how it turned out so I make another one from scratch. Cutting all those slits is going to take a while. Of course I need a globe from somewhere. The original is a two-part affair but I think I can get by with just a single globe. The fitter ring is an odd size - 78mm I think.
