Hi I need to make a pricker for a Blanchard 100 CP burner. Does anyone know what the size of the jet should be? Also the jet I have is blocked up, possibly with the leftover part of the old pricker - any tips for how I can clear it? James.
Hi James, If it's helpful, The pricker pin in a Blanchard 350cp burner is 0.007 thou of an inch, sorry don't know what that would be in metric. I should not think 100cp burner would be a great deal smaller. Are you sure the burner you have is a 100cp?, is it off a very old lamp, as most are 150cp or 350cp. As for getting the old pin out, you have to tap them back the way they came, from the face of the jet, a very small toffee hammer is very handy for this. You can sometimes then use a very fine needle to help tap the old pin back, but be careful not to make the hole in the jet bigger. Jim
Yes your right James it was made in November 1923. Up to 1925 the burner were rated 100cp and 300cp, After 1925 they upgraded to 150cp and 350cp, but i doubt if in fact there was any change in the burners. Have you just got the burner or you the rest of the lamp as well? and if so what model is it. The basic shell of the burner is the same in both 100/150cp and 300/350cp burners it's only the Pricker pin, Jet, the injecter tube, burner head and mantle holder that are different size. So a 100/150cp burner can be turned in to 350cp burners by just changing those parts. Jim
Thanks for the info. I'll have a go tomorrow at clearing the jet. I do have a complete (ish) lamp, it is an indoor pendant like Neil's one [url=http://0flo.com/index.php?threads/25 I'll post some pictures once I finish fettling and it is in one piece again.
According to the Lahde book, 100cp should have a jet size of 0.12mm (0.0047"). The needle will of course be smaller.
Removing a broken off pin is normally made easier if you heat and quench the jet first. Sometimes doing this will drop the pin out but if it stays in then pushing it out is easier because the grip will be loosened. ::Neil::
I got the jet cleared through a combination of heating/quenching and with the new pricker I made. I re-assembled the burner and it looks like it will run well but I have a new problem which is that it is leaking paraffin quite badly from the pricker control spindle. Is there anything I can do to improve the seal between the spindle and the burner body?
James, Re your leaky spindle, sounds like the spring on the pricker pin spindle may-be to weak. The first thing to try and what in most cases works is to remove the spring on the pricker pin spindle, then with an old knife insert it in between the coils in the spring and open up the spring up a bit that will put more tension on the spindle and should stop the leak. If that fail's to stop the leak then you may have to regrind the spindle in, to re-seat it. If you need any more help with this, send me a PM and i will send you my phone number. Jim
That spindle gland on Blanchards is a clever piece of engineering. The packing is a carbon/graphite which appears quite hard but this stuff is clever because it softens slightly with heat. The spring pulls it back and when it is softer it will compress to seal the gland. So sometimes they may leak when cold but improve in use as the burner heats up. As Jim says opening the spring slightly will increase the tension and improve the seal as the compression force will be greater. ::Neil::
I have had a couple of lamps that leaked in the spindle area opening the spring does help sometimes but regrinding seems a better fix to me. Jims method is to put some valve grinding paste on the spindle, replace in the burner casing and spin by hand not too much just for a short while. Then clean with solvent and blow it out this has worked very well on a few of my lamps good luck with the lamp james cheers pete
