Here's the lamp from last weekend, I'm not going to do much to this, I've got some spare tanks but I feel that the dents give this one a little extra character. Preheater is terrible as think has been said before, but seems to work if it is soaked with meths instead of paraffin. If its still running later, I'll put pint next to it when I crack open the second can. First one disappeared while I was in the shed.
Meths, quelle horreur! - that's cheating and defeats the purpose of having one fuel for both priming and running. What I found works best with these is to fill the preheater with kero from the tank using the auxiliary feed. Then lift up the perforated shroud and light the kero on the wick. Now the important bit - keep the shroud raised until the priming flame has extended right round the wick. Then keep it raised until the kero is good and lit - maybe another minute or so more. Then gently and slowly lower the shroud making sure the blue kero flame persists. If it goes yellow and smoky, you lowered the shroud too soon or too quickly. Simply raise it, wait a little longer and slowly lower it again. My theory of how these work is that air is drawn through the holes in the shroud and that keeps the kero flame blue. If you lower the shroud too soon, the flame isn't burning well enough to set up the chimney i.e. convection effect and insufficient air is drawn in to properly oxidise the priming flame. That's wot I finks anyhow - and being patient before I lower the shroud works for me every time. Not that I light a lantern with paraffin preheater all that often, mind...
Well it does away with a separate lighting torch , but I agree it is cheating. I did manage to get a blue flame with the kero but when I opened the cock the lamp wasn't hot enough so I thought I'd add a bit more kero to the preheater. Well that isn't a good idea as I found out as I had a bit more of a flare up than I'd have liked. I'll give it another go sometime but probably not one I'll be using [strike]regularly[/strike], [strike]frequently[/strike]. Often.
Looks to be burning OK in the photograph though - bright and hot. Must be because it's evaporated the Guinness. I dare not tell you what I'm going to be forced to drink for the rest of the evening. Won't be outside, though - it's distinctly chilly in GL tonight so the Austramax is burning on it's own... The sharp-eyed may notice some progress towards the completion of the summerhouse - work expected to be finished sometime during autumn/winter 2013. At the rate I'm going, I expect to have the log-burner installed for summer 2014...
It's evaporated two pints today, terrible. Temperatures not too bad down south here we did have the doors open but one lamp wasn't enough for me so I lit the M320 as well hung it up in the conservatory and left it to its business. Unfortunately I didn't check the fuel level in the tank before I lit it. Well you can guess what happens next, it produced one hell of a stink and I wasn't popular. Al21's going to get a seeing to tomorrow, I've started stripping it down I just hope the weather holds up for me to do some painting. Nice summerhouse by the way David. It'll be sweeeeet when you get the log burner fitted in it.
Do they come with those strut extensions or are they added afterward? I know some people do add them to take a longer vapouriser, so does that offer any advantage performance wise?
They came from the factory like that - the equivalent A and B models had an extended globe cage. As you say, this was to allow the 169 vapouriser to be fitted - the extra length of which was necessary to accommodate the paraffin pre-heater. With respect to the relative performance of the 606 and 169 vapourisers, some people maintain the 169 provides greater light output. Given these two vapourisers differ only in length - everything else is the same - my view, quite frankly, is that they're deluding themselves. I'll get my coat...
David sums it up perfectly, I think the only advantage might be that it elevates the mantle so when it's sat on a table, the light spreads further.
