Hi Martin & All Martin sent me his Veritas vapouriser as it was playing up like they usually do due to overfueling & dimming out etc I checked out the jet which was a bit oversized so this was re-sized & after heating & quenching the vapouriser i tried it again , but i could hear rattling inside which meant carbon build up & it wouldn't come out due to the design so it was surgery time Unfortunately the pricker wire broke during the second test so i made a brand new one from scratch & this is working very well I split the tube across just over two thirds of the way down from the tip making sure i measured the overall length before i started Plenty of carbon & some bits of old heat resistant wadding came out but to my suprise so did a soft wire coil which centralises the pricker assembly The tube was cleaned out & a brass jointing plug was turned up on the lathe to fit it all together again & a small slip ring was put in the bottom of the tube to make sure the coil was always centered all the way through I pondered over putting fibre glass wicking in the tube , but an idea hit me to put a coil of fine brass mesh in to transfer heat into the fuel like a Primus lipstick stove vapouriser 8) After silver soldering it all together again i put the vap to test but it was still overfueling slightly so i engaged the pricker to see if the vapouised fuel was leaking past the jet & lifted the burner off the lamp which was just loose fitted for the test. Much to my consternation the gas vapour was leeching out past the crimp that holds the jet seat to the upper part of the tube not the jet , so i stripped it all down again , silbrazed the tip up & re-did the test Back togther for the first time Success the lamp worked "Superbly" ( Pun definately intended ) & settled down very nicely , the lamp was tested for three hours without a blip 8) The finished vap with the new pricker rod & the old for comparison 8) Glad to be the bringer of good tidings & the repaired vap will be on its way home tomorow Best regards , Stu
Good stuff! This lends weight to my suspicion that this type of vapouriser is working right at the 'raggy edge' when running normally. Thus it takes a very small change in any one of a number of factors to push it over into a situation where it isn't able to vaporise kero efficiently. The extra brass coil will slow the passage of fuel through the vapouriser and also increase heat conduction into the inside. No doubt that's why the spring was put there originally but it's probably insufficient on its own to perform its allotted task fully...
I have been following the Veritas thread with great interest. Thanks for all the excellent info. I can now probably get my recently acquired Superb going. It has a lot of corrosion but is at least complete apart from the broken pricker wire and missing preheat cup.
