I just bought this for the princely sum of £20, a Mk1 or Mk2 porky. Only issue that I have found so far (other than a slightly ratty hood top) is that one of the vertical cage rods has snapped at the top of the thread. The rod screws directly into a boss in the tank therefore this is a problem. Does anyone have either a spare threaded cage rod (probably stored behind the Unicorn horns in your flying pig hangar) or know what the thread is on these? I don't want to inflict JB Weld, superglue or solder if I don't have to. I usually hang my lamps from a beam in my garage but the cage is significantly weakened by having one leg "in the air" and don't trust it. As the early preheaters sell for an eye-watering amount on ebay I view it as buying a preheater with a free lamp thrown in Paul.
@Paraffinhead That’s a fine lantern and I hope you get the threads sorted on that rod. Does the lantern have a long or short bail (handle)? Tony
Long handle - which would make it a MkII I believe? Having spent a little fettling time on the lamp today I discovered the vertical brass rods are peened over fixing them to the top cage ring rather than screwing in. Unless I drill the tops off each of them it looks like I'll have to repair the broken rod with JB Weld or superglue. Not what I was hoping for but rather that than potentially damaging the other three. Paul.
@Paraffinhead Could you take the entire cage off, and braze a new threaded piece to the bottom of the broken rod? Classifying these lanterns is a dark art, but I usually use @Mackburner ’s “Pressure Lamp Catalogue” as the guide. Your lantern is the long-handled variation of the first version of the X246. We assume the short-handled version was short-lived (it gets very toasty on the fingers carrying one!). Cheers Tony
You could carefully file the tops off so you can remove the uprights and then peen them over again after. You’d have to make sure the two holding the handle were secure else the lamp would drop out of your hand.
