I have just got my hands on a very poor condition Tilley DN250 Iron and decided to strip it down to see the workings. I then rebuilt it and flashed it up. It works fine! but is past usable as there is too much plating missing. Anyway, the pictures may help sombody someday. The pictures are: The Iron before tear-down The base or sole plate The burner vapour/air mixer The base assembled The vap tube added The preheat bath The The tank The tank attached The pump Preheat Preheat Full burn. I was most surprised when it worked. There is very little control as the cleaning needle is on a screw that closed it or opens it, so the needle is used as a throttle, which is not good for the needle. It is either on scorching hot! or very hot!. Fun to see how it works though. Steve.
i have all of the parts needed to make one of this fine old irons come back to live plus the pump ;every item has been cleaned even the burner; if any one is in need of any parts do let me know plus i have the original box they came with ;i have 3 of these fine old irons and they all work great
These are a clever piece of kit that generally works very well. The plating on the sole is a poor quality but if you find a good one then they work very well for their original purpose. They tend to run too hot for man made fibres but will do a fine job on cotton fabrics. They are supposed to be adjustable but I found that they only adjust from hot to bloody hot. ::Neil::
I've still got my Mother's Tilley Iron and well remember her using it. She thought it was the bees knees when compared to the sad irons which had to be heated on the stove. Best to iron when clothes are a little on the damp side and if they were too dry, she would sprinkle them with water from a bottle which was never more than an arm's length away. Henry.
Those were the days. I remember my Nan using sad irons which she heated on the gas stove. Mind you the gas cooker was a recent improvement installed maybe a year or so before I was born and she would have used the coal burning range before that. We never did do the transition through paraffin 'cos we were in the posh end of Birkenhead and went directly to electrickery. Odd really because the house was built in 1933 and had mains gas and electric from new but they still built in a coal range which I understand Nan used for maybe 5 or 6 years. ::Neil::
Yes, my Nana's house was built in the late '30s with mains gas, electricity and a coal-fired range which I remember her using to bake bread in well into the '50s. I suppose it may have been down to saving money - you were going to light the fire anyway to warm the living room so you would be doing the baking for free. I'd also imagine folk were familiar with using the range to cook with so gas and electrical appliances were too new-fangled for them. The range was eventually superseded by the gas cooker but remained in place, unused, until the council took them out in the early '70s, I think. How times change...
The times were certainly interesting. I remember the range was taken out when I was about four so 1947 ish. My Nan would probably have kept it but circumstances dictated change. Bit of a saga. My parents house was converted to rubble in 1943 by the Luftwaffe and we lived from then in Nan's house. Nan pleaded with my parents for them to stay there after the war was over but Mum insisted that if they were to stay then the house had to be converted to create seperate living areas and in effect they made an upstairs flat for Nan. This meant that the old kitchen was converted into a dining room and the range had to go. A new kitchen was created in what had been a skullery or utility room. ::Neil::
Hi, I just bought one to add to my Tilly collection. Parading in tank, pumping okay. How do I get it to work , where do I pour in water / or dies it require water. John
@john mullane Instructions for the Tilley DN250 are here: https://classicpressurelamps.com/threads/tilley-dn250-how-to-operate.1515/ You need to be a subscriber for access to the Reference Library. PS. No water! It runs on paraffin; it predates the “steam iron”... Cheers Tony
G'day @john mullane , Yes you are a member but not a subscriber. Subscribers have access to all the documentation in the Reference Library. See the lovely lady with the lantern on the top RHS of the screen Subscription Package. Only $9.00 pa for a lot of information.
