Here is a picture of my optimus 930 before I started working on it: and here it is almost complete: None of my lamps are shelf queens and I don't normally polish them up to this level, but it is such a lovely little lamp I think it deserved it. I've put it together early as I couldn't resist seeing how it looks assembled. I will need to either spray paint the steel collar or find a gold coloured one (can you get them?). I also need to do something about the handle as it lets the rest of the lamp down. I may put some paracord weave around the top of the handle (stops it clanging against the side of the tank as well) All thats needed is to finish off some of the components, check needle adjustment etc and then we are done. Needless to say that this is one lamp that the Scouts will NOT be getting their hands on!
fogas.se may have the collar in brass, ask conny@fogas.se he will let you know if they have one in stock. One of the korean sellers on ebay also sells a reproduction. As for the bail, I made a new one out of stainless steel rod, but you could use brass, it's 4mm in diameter and 600mm in length and one of the easier bails to form. HD
Hi Just a suggestion I cant help feeling that a going over with wet and dry would bring the bail back to new as they always appear to be sound metal . Michael
Beautifully shiny! Except for the hood you can seal the metal with car wax to prevent tarnish. You could also try rubbing it with fine steel wool. The bail will still be darker but it will be shiny. If you want bright metal, soak it in citric acid, then rub with steel wool and polish with a good metal polish like Autosol and then seal with auto paint wax to protect it from rust.
Yes, the bail can probably be cleaned up, my 930 was very much a project lamp and didn't come with a bail, which is probably why I jumped straight to making a replacement. It's probably best to keep the original even if you do make a new one. If you go for brass, avoid eBay, it's hard to find stock that doesn't have a high lead content for ease of machining. HD
... Did you get this on your European job perk thing you mentioned recently?.... ...Certainly looks very happy! ..you could polish and lacquer the collar?... Or polish then 'blue' it then lacquer?.. pb
Hello, my first post to say that you had a very incredible patina on your lamp... obviously it looks very nice polished too. Anyway, greetings from Italy Nicola
I polish my bails with wet and dry paper (used dry), starting with a grade appropriate to the amount of rusting ( in bad cases, I start with 120 grade), moving to 1200 grade , then SF which I guess is Super Fine(?). once it is looking good, I spray it with clear varnish and leave it hanging up far at least a week before fitting it to the lamp. Jim.
For the collar, I've seen brass ones on e-bay from one of the Korean sellers (lovelantern I think). Got a chromed one and it's good quality.
