I had a bit of a marathon fettle session this past weekend, getting seven lamps, some with quite tricky faults up and running... I also had my first ever post fettle Non Return Valve failure and my first ever totally non sevicable burner The first was my AL620 with the crushed airbutton cap issue. Then two Bialaddins a 300 and a 310, both just washer replacements throughout and a broken cleaning needle on one. Then and early Vapalux but with one of the horrid modern caps fitted. This lamp had a NRV failure after I had fitted new washers throughout. Straightening the spring out a bit stopped it catching... At this stage only a lamp collector will appreciate just how quickly the novelty of digging 70 year old washers out of lamps wears off!! The next was a PL53, and this is the first time I have come across a burner that was so erroded as to be unservicable. I've had a few break in the past where they have just gone soft with the heat, but nothing like this. I also very quickly discovered that you can't pick these lamps up by the handle if the curved top vent is missing! I now have one hand devoid of hair... Next was an Anchor 350 that I picked up a week of so back. It ran from the start but pulsed like a Belisha beacon. The issue seems to have been that the thread was gone in the cleaning rod so the cleaning needle was loose and couldn't be tightened. Finally there was a 500cp Solar and this one really had me scratching my head for a while. It turned out that the whole cleaning rod assembly had been assembled incorrectly. Basically the short joining peice in the middle had been fitted upside down, meaning that the foot valve was never properly opened... Rebuilding this correctly has got it up and running. Unfortunately the rather stretched mantle that had been on the lamp sarted to fall apart, so I never got it up to full pressure and I didn't have a spare to try again. All the same it was obvious that it was running OK albeit at a lower pressure. I may just have to tweak the air gap a touch.
I still have to bring them up to display standard which is an awful lot of work, but at least they are running... I also have two FL6s, the PQ lamp and pile of rust that is apparently a Hasag polar to sort out among others
