I have seen brass vaporizers for bialaddin / Vapalux lamps with removable jets advertised on a popular auction site from a seller in Korea. Does anyone here have any experience with them?
Tilley vaporisers need to be steel. Brass might be OK in post 1945 lanterns but in other uses such as pre 1945 lanterns and all table lamps it is structural. I would worry about the brass getting hot and starting to fail. ::Neil::
I've used a fully brass Tilley "606" vapouriser on an Table Lamp and the brass tubing swelled about halfway up the spigot and jammed in the spigot. I have a Korean steel vapouriser with a replaceable brass jet that Ive yet to test. Tony
After a very great number of years we are all still puzzling what puts vapourisers based on this principle, metal tube brass/steel/other, jet fixed/removable, heated by downblasted flame, "Up the Duff"? It deserves a thread of it's own surely!
@JonD As far as I can recall, and I’m happy to be corrected, the “up the duff” syndrome (swelling inside the spigot) arises in two modes: 1. In Tilley and Bialaddin in steel vapourisers where bad fuel/build up of carbon is speculated as the cause; and 2. In Tilley in all-brass vapourisers where the combination of brass (being softer than steel) and the heat inside the double-tied mantle/spigot is speculated as the cause. I haven’t heard of any issues with the steel-vapouriser-and-removable-brass-nipple combo. Cheers Tony
@Tony Press Maybe. I have no confidence in bad fuel and carbon build up doing this. You mention it was speculation - I reckon it is bunk. Surely carbon generation will kill it's own fuel vapour supply before it swells a vap' tube - brass or steel? Brass is softer than steel and it might swell at rather lower temperature - yes completely agree with that. This subject has run a long time in many places. I have spent a lot of good money on it - and I'm not spending any more. What is it that really puts them "Up the Duff"? Just remembered that member @loco7lamp worked on this and I would really value his opinion. I know he went "down periscope" some while ago for good reasons. I miss him very much.
@Tony Press For sure - he tinkered about with this with good results but then he had to stop. A great pity. For my part I have sawn up a pregnant one with the hope it might be saved - no way. I have spent hours heating and quenching and tapping out carbon. I have done this on old & new sold ones (these with squiffy jet orifices and dodgy cleaning needles - sorted to best of ability- burned OK on start up after fettling) but from who knows where (china maybe?) A NOS Dunmurray one - that went pregnant the same way after not much running - I'm really P155ed about that. I have one more NOS Dunmurray one to try, except that the last one is stuck "up the duff" in the spigot and no way can I get it out. No progress possible until new spigot, and probably the spigot+burner block to blame together anyway. Sorry to add a lot of "spiel" to this thread but I think there is a deep question here which needs to be solved. Your end it is summer, our end is approaching max dark. I want this stupid X246B on my wall for the dark nights. 3 years trying I suppose it is. It is 1964 made and I had planned to join the 50th year light up. It was NBG for that.
Having spent many hours cleaning out old vapourisers with variable results, bought an alleged nos item that looked good but over fuelled.(burning outside mantle and black spots on mantle, and yes I tried it in several lamps with the same result so it was the vapourisers at fault). I have now ordered one of these cleanable vapourisers from Taiwan and will also order a brand new V40 (not from ebay) for comparison, will report back with the results probably in the new year.
Could carbon be cleared from a vaporiser by connecting to a compressed air supply at normal working pressure and heating in a gas flame ? It seems to me that the carbon would gradually burn away to carbon dioxide. Worth a try ?
Hi @broadgage , on stove burners this was the 'official' way of cleaning! But first, the nipples were taken out. If you'd try this on a Tilley or Vapalux vapouriser the jet orifice would immediately block. One could of course try to blow through the jet orifice but that would cause a few technical problems. The amount of air one can get through would be to little anyway I guess. One can always try the "heat & quench" method. Best regards, Wim
As Wim has stated, removing carbon from stove burners using heat and a stream of air has been the recommended method for more than 100 years. The air stream does not have to be at high pressure. Here are details from a 1922 Primus catalogue.
