My 1967 Tilley X246B which was my first lamp has now been refurbished. This is how it looked to start with as a £15 ebay win. The tank was sprayed with a few coats red Plastikote then the same again with clear lacquer. Finally finished with some polymer sealant for a nice deep shine. The cage was spayed with chrome paint and finished with polymer sealant. I had tried clear lacquer on top of the chrome paint but the 2 substances seemed to be fairly incompatible. The hood was in quite good condition so was just rubbed down slightly with steel wool and oversprayed with black enamel. Quite happy with the finished product. Will leave it for about 4 - 6 weeks now to ensure the paint has hardened before lighting.
If you sprayed the hood with a gloss enamell paint then it will burn off if you light the lamp. Better to just clean these off and live with the imperfections. ::Neil::
The hood was just over coated with the gloss enamel. The original finish was looking a bit tired. Have used the same paint on the fire boxes of several Mamod toy steam engines and an American Jensen. Usually undercoating first with a few layers of barbeque VHT paint.All have coped well with no blistering of paint despite a meths flame on the other side of the metal. I like to leave it to harden naturally for a few weeks before allowing any serious heat near it.
It will be interesting to hear how it goes when you light it And then, if it works, exactly what brands you use - it is a good thing to be able to do
Lamp hoods generally don't get too hot. I have never measured but since some were made of aluminium we can be sure they don't get near 600c They do get hotter than solder melt which is around 150-250c so they probably make around 300-400c. That is hot enough to burn off most "normal" paints but maybe with an undercoat of VHT the top gloss will survive. Be very interesting to see if it works because enamel hoods have long been a restoration problem. ::Neil::
On the subject of paint and hoods... I've just bought some "ceramic" paint to try on a couple of very rust hoods. I'll first de-rust them by electrolysis, then use the ceramic paint... Give me a few days and I'll report back with the results. Tony
Looking forward to hear about it, Tony Btw., could it be something like this you will be trying? : http://www.vhtpaint.com/products/flameproof/
Just fell over this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adiabatic_flame_temperature - if I read it correctly, the flame could reach more than 2000 degrees celcius. Sounds a bit high to me
Jorgen I have tried that VHT Flame Proof paint, but it did not last very long on my Tilley Hood. The one I am trying now is made by a different company. Tony
