Hello all is there somebody able to tell me how to dismantle this Maxim generator. The needle is stucked by old solid carbone. It has been dipped in soda for one night without result. A picture of the whole dismantled generator would be a good help
Hi Michel, Heating and quenching may help: heat it above a stove and toss in a bucket with water to cool. This will burn off old (carbon and fuel) residues and the metal will shrink quickly when tossed in the cool water, breaking the residues off the metal. Repeat the process a few times, until no junk comes out anymore or the needle comes out. Be careful though: 1) Don't heat to a too high temperature, because then the silver-soldered joints of the generator come off. Just heat up to a dull red color. Do a site search here on CPL or Spiritburner for heat and quench if you need more information. 2) The metal becomes very pliable when warm, be careful not to bend it. Hope this helps. Peter
Hello Michel. Peter is right, heat and quench is your friend. I cleaned a Ditmar 506 generator few weeks ago, and it contains a thin copper mesh in the lower side.Be careful with this mesh, i can't remove that from the generator. Can you rotate the rod? Roy
Hi Michel, maybe a treatment in an ultrasonic bath with thinned citric acid can also help go get loose the rod & mesh. But the hard-baked carbon comes only out with heating & quenching, like the other fellow collectors alrady said. Good luck, and be careful. As a last chance: You may use a Swiss HASAG generator as a replacement as it fits tolerably in length and with the the thread/seat. They are still available NOS, PM me if you'd need a contact where to get one. BR, Martin
thank you for the advices, guys here is a picture of the lower side of the generator yes, one can see the copper or brass mesh I can't rotate at all the rod all is sticked There also is a tube inserted between the rod and the generator do you know the lenght and the shape of this tube ? i'll try the ultrasonic bath and the heat i'll write you later
Here you are: The length of the inner tube is 128mm (measured with the bent flaps at the lower end) so that it ends just below the Preston Loop of the vaporizer. It has an inner diameter of 3mm. The mesh is about 10cm (not shown in the picture because also stuck in my example. The pricker rod is about 135mm with an M2 outer thread on each end. At the top there is screwed on a nipple of 6.5mm length and 3mm dia with a through hole (M2 inner thread). The needle then gets simply screwed in from the top side of the nipple. Because the nipple fits quite exactly the inner tube it oftenly gets stuck with the carbon residues. To get the rod loose you can also try to knock it gently on the lower end (with a nut screwed on in order to protect the thread). It might come out easier at the top side because the residues usually build up more in the area below the nipple. Hopefully that helps, Martin P.S. Sorry, but I found out that my last post contains an error: The HASAG vaporizer has the same length of the Maxim 531 vaporizers, but unfortunately the Maxim 501 vaporizer is a bit longer...
Thanks to all the picture says more then all the explainations heat don't work, I have heated several time without success I finished by knocking gently with a screw by the upper side of the generator, and I have succeeded to extract the whole mecanism now I understand the problem, there is many solid carbon I think the previous owner have used the lamp until the last possibility but the rod is still stuck in the tube as used to say my grand father "one problem for one day is enough" the tube is in the soda, we will see
I have a ditmar 506 , and the problem is same. I'll try knock out the mesh.. Mine generator don't work well, maybe the mesh looks like yours? Why need generator, mesh inside?
The mesh is in the generator to distribute heat better and thus prevent the lantern from pulsing (especially at low pressure). It is very common to all Ditmar and Hasag lanterns and from my experience they run very stable with it. Unfortunately the mesh gets clogged/stuck when not maintained properly and using the wrong or deteriorated fuel. BR, Martin
Hi Michel You need to keep trying & get that tube really hot so as it's glowing almost cherry red in the middle & towards the ends but not the exposed rod ends then quench in cold water ( do this several times until it starts to move , this will burn the carbon away alowing you to remove the stuck rod Soda may not do any good as it will not penetrate the solid carbon blockage , the heat & quench is the only way to get this out Stu
I have succeded in getting out this bl...... rod !!!! effectively, the soda failed to penetrate the mass of carbon
hello all and thank you for the advices let's go on another problem ! The top of the fount is a little pressed to the down on one side How should you do to straighten this tank? On the bottom of the fount are stamped 2 numbers 10 and 7 what could be the production year ?
Hi Michel, production date of your lantern should be October 1937. For this reason I guess that it is marked "Made in Austria". From 1938 on they began to mark them "Made in Germany". You can try to pull out the dent by screwing in the vaporizer and gently pulling it towards the opposite side of the dent. But be very careful, some of these Ditmar tanks are known to develop stress cracks easily. You can also try to fix the seating by simply mounting the collar and frame and then push the whole thing to get it straight. I would not recommend to put on pressure until it comes out, as this will destroy the bottom nearly for sure. Or just leave it as it is, it's just a minor blemish... Good luck, Martin
Thanks Martin Yes, it is stamped "made in Austria" So it is october 1937 before the "anschluss" by the Hitler's troops in 1938. For the fount, I will try as you said.
Hello Michel, I shall look forward to seeing the photographs of the fully restored lantern and Stu is the man to ask about dent removal, Jeff.
