Hi lantern friends! I recently stumbled onto a reasonably priced Tilley AL620 in good shape, but it was missing the little aluminum reflector. Fortunately, I had a spare reflector from a Tilley heater I've been cannibalizing, and whaddayaknow, it fits!!!
It looks a tad ridiculous with that reflector, but it's really growing quickly on me. There's a very tiny bit of rubbing down on the fuel feed tube, so I will fit some heat resistant material between them so as not to scratch the paint. It's turned this inspection lamp into a very useful miniature flood lamp, and I intend to use it on caving trips, like this one posted over in the action gallery at CCS. (Click here for link) It will be a lot easier than hauling in our FL6! I tested it out last night and was able to light up the backyard, so I imagine it will perform well in the caves. It was dripping from the fuel cock, so I'll have to wait until the new seals arrive before testing it further. It was firing outside of the mantle about 1/3 of the time, so I guess it needs a new vaporizer as well. Do y'all think a 7" vaporizer would work better with this configuration, or would the taller burner placement throw the balance off? If I stay with a 5" vaporizer, can I use a burner from a Tilley heater, or do those require the 7" one? Welp, thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed the pictures! Can't wait to get this one operational and start using it!
A similar floodlight can be seen With the taller vaporizer positioning the CH1 a little better, I would imagine that it provides more light to the reflector. I have a spare CH1 to make one of these, but I keep buying Tilley heaters with overpressurized tanks!
That's different!! Heater burners work with either vapouriser. I have an oddball AL620/15A hybrid cobbled together from spare parts that I use in the LR for storm-lighting and heating! Versatile little beasties these.... Alec
Great news! Thanks Alec! And it's good to hear you've found yours so useful. I'll stick with a 5-incher in case I come across a correct reflector or something that can be tinkered into a reasonable facsimile. In the meantime, though incorrect, this one seems like it will work out great after a bit of polishing! Here are a few more pics if anyone's interested. Do they use this short little pump in the Tilley irons too?
Welcome aboard! You mentioned that you have some knackered tanks, a reflector can be made from the base plate of one of those tanks. Once you have removed the base plate and cleaned it, then drill a small hole in the middle of it. If you just polish the brass base plate then the reflected light will have a gold tinge to it which is okay, but if you paint the reflector silver then the light will be clearer, Jeff.
Great idea Jeff! And thanks for the welcome! I may give that a try! Going to scout out the aluminum pot lids at the local thrift store first. The pump wears the same coat of paint and appears original to the lamp, and the date code on the bottom of the tank says it was produced in 1963, so perhaps they used the shorter pumps later in production?
Well, it's just dawned on me to check one of my AL620s which was sitting next to my computer desk (durr...) and it's fitted with the short pump also. A longer lantern pump fits, but only just - you can feel the NRV catching on the tank when it's fully screwed in...
If i recall correctly my AL-620 had a modern Tilley pump in it, so that was probably a replacement. I fitted a brass pump of the type which is fitted to the pork pie Tilleys and it works fine, Jeff.
