Well, I gave it my best shot. I found 6 stress cracks around the bottom rim of the fount. When I first pumped it up it looked like a shower head and I almost gave up then! But, having left it for a few weeks I decided to attempt a repair. A few days ago I thought I'd succeeded, but one repair didn't seem to have worked so I fixed that and tried again. This time a different crack opened up or maybe my repair wasn't good enough. Anyway, this is how it ended up... I really thought I'd won, so I tried a simple flame test... I let it run like this for a few minutes standing on clean dry newspaper and at first all was well, but then I noticed a mark... and then another... It doesn't really show up in the photo, but there were two places where it was still leaking so I've decided to call it a day. I've already sourced another tank so sadly this one will be pensioned off. It's a shame as I wanted the fount to be original but it was too far gone. In point of fact, the problem seems to be a manufacturing fault. There are quite a few stress mark the run radially along the bottom edge and to my eye they appear to be caused by insufficient annealing that has left the metal too brittle. I've never seen these marks on any other W&B product so maybe it was a classic 'Friday afternoon' job.
BTW not all the cracks were originally leaking but I think they opened up every time you stopped one of the others. Of course, if anyone has any ideas how the fount can still be rescued I'm open to suggestions.
@ColinG You could use POR15... but that will cost you more than a replacement tank. I’d trade it to the scrap metal shop. Cheers Tony
If W&B tanks are going to fail then that is usually were they do fail, but scrap brass has it's uses.
@JEFF JOHNSON I have a whole collection of busted Tilley X246B tanks waiting for me to find something to do with them... Cheers Tony
Hello Tony, yes, there are no shortage of those, but the baseplates can be removed and made into reflectors and the control cock socket can be removed and used to convert hybrid lamps to take Tilley or Vapalux/Bialaddin burner systems and if the holes in the tank bowl are blocked and 3 holes are drilled into the rim, then the bowl can be turned upside down and hung on chains or rope and used as a bird feeder.
You are welcome and as well as using them for bird feeders, they could be used as hanging baskets for small plants.
My original thread about the Tilley BF1 (including images) seems to have got lost but here's one Henry made for his own back garden, developing my idea... https://classicpressurelamps.com/threads/in-the-blue.1974/#post-6036
This link shows how a base plate from a knackered X-246-B tank can be used as a reflector. LT-1 special
Colin, if you are still holding on the rescue work, I'd say give it another attempt. This time you might want to coat the entire rim with solder, leaving no bare brass. Might work but you'll need to be extra careful not to heat up the entire fount too much. Not the entire rim at one go but in stages to allow the fount to cool off so as not to affect the solder at the pump/fill and valve ports. If the leak remains, trade that to someone interested, convert it into a bird feeder as suggested earlier or else....electrify it.
Your bird feeder is inspired, David... my wife would certainly appreciate it and if all else fails it will definitely be sacrificed but thanks to Myn I'm inspired to have one last try and coat the entire rim in solder! If that doesn't work it'll be srapping time!
There was a guy, certainly not an ordinary guy, in Britain sometime during WWII who said: "Never give in". That somehow, echoed around the globe...till this day.
Colin, have you thought of using Hammerite paint,I have swirling around the fount inside of coarse.It's thinner base and flexible and is relatively cheap.This I have done on a coleman 157 or sum such. regards Alex P.S...chose a colour with limited pigment. ie: grey,also it is impervious to the fuels including alcohol once dry.
Yes, so far even leaking Meth/preheat tins/containers with little pin hole leaks from the water methylated/Alcohol spirits is renown for in retaining. Edited,twice PS..from a paint tin not a spray bomb.. Hammerite metal finish,silver gray in this case.With your situation it might pay to coat twice,no point in having an it overly thick layer,and follow instructions of product,something like no over coating within four hours and thereafter six weeks,I did not thin,but remember the solvent used is also a drier. Good luck toad
Colin, my comment on over coating should be ignored. The instructions say overcoat within four and and a repaint after six,what I found is that four hours can be ignored as a fount acts like it storage container so evaporation is massively slowed down, giving you a job of rolling it around until you are satisfied the paint hasn't clumped
So, this bloody lamp! It's taken some effort and a few failed attempts to get it working but finally... finally, it's working. ...one with flash and one without. In the end I replaced the tank and sprayed it the correct colour only to find that the vaporiser was too worn giving a massive yellow halo around the mantle, so I used a blocked old one that needed I cleaned out plus the existing pricker wire. After all that, I fired it up and it can now join the ranks of functional lamps! All's well that ends well!
I set it going and actually forgot about it. Three hours later it was still going strong! Well happy!
haha - you know the good ones. They go until they have nothing more to burn. Then they don't have much choice - pfft
