As the title says; yes, I know... I'm living very close to China and couldn't resist to try a new hobby for USD30 -- a Sea Anchor with a truckload full of spares such as some 30 mantles, 2 globes and bags full of jets, needles, leathers, and whatnot. I just couldn't justify buying a Petromax from my home country which costs double over here than back home and is manufactured locally anyhow! I read quite a bit between ordering and delivery and am prepared that I will have to learn plenty before I can safely and consistently enjoy light from this toy. Hopefully some of you are patient enough to give me a hint or two on my journey. I looked into buying the "encyclopedia" recommended elsewhere on this forum, but it's not currently available for order. So I have to do it the hard way, I guess. So far: The first time, I was rather surprised that my 500cp lantern lit instantly with the rapid heater. Although to a newbie it looks scary to blow a stream of "atomized" kerosene into a glass container and requiring a few seconds before the lighter ignites the thing. Anyway, it lit and I was able to start the lantern. Some 30 minutes later I started seeing a corona of fire around the mantle which got stronger with time. I, btw, use what I think is clean kerosene from the gas station. People here in Taiwan still heat with the stuff. I tried to close the control valve a bit which made the corona disappear, just to come back a few seconds later. Rookie as I am, I tried to control more and that's where eventually the beginner hit the wall: I decided to "clean the jet" by turning the valve one full turn. There was some resistance which I ignored and then there was inferno in the lamp -- flame all over and some 50cm above the lamp. Scared, I closed the valve and released pressure. Faced with a glass and mantle you could safely use to observe a solar eclipse, I inspected the Chinese assembly and figured that the needle was bent badly. I assume that was the valve resistance I felt earlier. Bending it back naturally broke it. By now I recon' that both my bags of jets and needles have terrible tolerances, some needles (due to burrs?) don't fit into some jets. Some jets seem to have burrs inside that prevent slightly bent needles to slide into the hole. I guess I have to invest into a Petromax set one day... Anyway, I found a pair that matched, the needle protrudes a wee bit from the jet when the valve is closed. I checked the air gap between jet and J-tube (you guys call it carburetor?), it's what seems the correct 14mm. Off to the next burn, this time preheat with alcohol (burn 2 preheat bowls, then start the lamp). On start, instant massive inferno, scaring the *** out of the beginner operator... I guess the mantle from my first inferno was badly damaged, so the lantern at least had an excuse. I also noted that the jet was on fire during the inferno, but who's surprised given that there was a fireball all surrounding the upper part of the lantern... So I replaced the mantle and tried again preheating with 2 of those bowls full of alcohol. While the new mantle burned down during preheat I noticed that it was already slightly glowing -- I had the tank pressured at the very beginning. I also noticed some kerosene smell. So I guess the valve is leaking a bit kerosene and slightly powers the mantle, although it's closed. After preheat I started the lamp and indeed the mantle lit up. Somehow. It only lit at the lower half, the upper half, although burned down during preheat, remained rather dark. There were slight blue flames visible at the top of the mantle and around the J-tube. Not long after the corona came back and my trying to somewhat control it with the valve quickly led to inferno #3. I'm very grateful that I still posses my eyebrows and consider this the very beginning of a steep and long learning curve. I shall tame this thing one day! Until then, I'd really appreciate some helpful comments. Do you think the mix is too rich? Should I move the J-tube a bit further up? Or is the preheating possibly not good enough (I live in a warm, yet very windy and damp place, I have a hard time finding a calm day without rain)? I'll wait for a calm day, preheat with the quick-preheat and a new mantle instead and see what happens in any case; but no, I'm not lighting this Chinese dragon indoors anytime soon! And finally, if anyone wants to sell that lantern book to me (sorry, forgot the name), I'd be a very willing & happy customer! Bear with me please, Hajo
Perhaps the most important thing to understand with these Chinese lamps is they are not made with the sort of quality control we are expecting so everything needs to be checked before use. You seem to have a mixture problem and that can be because the seal between the jet niple and generator is leaking. That will give you a small flame around the jet and will increase the fuel volume into the J tube. Try a little copper slip on the threads which will cure any problems with that seal. You can also increase the air gap a little, 15 or 16mm will be OK. These lamps need a lot of pre heat and if it gives you a yellow flame flare up it was not hot enough. When you are pre heating using alcohol it is best to start with no pressure and only close the filler cap and pump in air after the alcohol is almost burnt out. With a soft start like this you can light the lamp with maybe 15 pump strokes and then wait for the generator to heat up before adding more pressure. ::Neil::
Thx a lot Neil, that really helps! I'll look into the points and revert back once I came across a calm day.
Great story. Sounds just like my first efforts with a bowl fire. Fortunately I am already bald and eyebrows remained intact. Once you do it a couple of times it becomes much easier and great fun too. Please add some pics with a nice Taiwanese background.
Chinese lamps can be a bit hit and miss but most of them can be tamed eventually and if you get stuck, this site has a wealth of information about them and the Petromax lanterns they are largely based on. Like Mackburner says, you can happily increase the air gap on the J-tube to alter the fuel/air mix and I generally start priming with the pressure release valve open, only closing it just before the pre-heater runs out. Then I start with a few gentle pumps and increase the pressure bit by bit. I've tried starting with loads of pressure but if the internal tolerances in the generator aren't good you can end up with a flare up, no hair and a hot stinky mess on your hands! Post us some photo's as it's much easier to see what's happening that way. Regards Colin
Thx for your encouraging words and hints, that really helps me a lot! Here's a pic of the very first burn when things, I thought, would work out real well. If I get it going reliably again I'll get you a Chinese temple as a backdrop. I don't have photos of the flare-ups, I was rather busy attending to other things at the time :-) But it's pretty simple to explain -- the whole globe filled with yellow flame, plus yellow flame and black smoke about 30-50cm above the lantern, shooting out through all the holes. I think to remember from my childhood (dad used a Petromax when we went camping, I was too young to play with it) that the glass will burn clean again once it's going well, we shall see. Since the jet nipple was particularly black all over I do agree that the thread may leak; I have ordered copper slip and will seal threads before trying again. I'll also increase the air gap and see what will happen next, soft-starting the monster. Maybe a last question for now if you don't mind: What's the usual symptom in case the mix is too lean? That might help me in finding the proper air gap...
Yes indeed a lovely picture. I can never remember whether lean means to much or too little, but if there is a halo of flame around the mantle, increase the gap on the J-tube to allow more air into the mix. As a jet/nipple becomes more worn it lets more fuel through and hence you will need more air to compensate, so you will need to gradually open the gap on the J-tube. Obviously if the J-tube gap is fully open you'll need to replace the jet and then close the gap down to 12mm or so and do some tests to see where the best position is. Hope this helps.
Lean = 'thin' i.e. too much air and/or too little fuel. Rich = too much fuel and/or too little air...
There's another very helpful hint in there, yes! Knowing that the Jets/needles I have are poorly made, I could imagine that the combination I've installed just let's too much fuel through. Can't wait for the copper paste to arrive and the weather to clear up!
Hi there ..some good advice given here by aforementioned experts .. ... from your first post it feels to me that possibly the jet has become loose after some minutes and the needle you say become bent ... you straightened it out.. great ,, but you need a new jet and needle matching.. I know you have a Sea Anchor lantern .. . now I can tell you that original German HK500 Petromax lanterns state that only .05 mm should protrude out of the jet and never more than 1.0 mm...when lantern wheel is in closed position try that.. the jet cannot be too tight it takes all of the pressure , so if you have got a special lantern tool great but otherwise its a handy small spanner to tighten that jet. In order to achieve the jet position you may have dissasmble the loop vapouriser and adjust the internal rod. it turms goes up or down ... trial and error .. Also the airgap between the jet and J tube opening .. do not be afraid to run a a bigger setting I know some fellows adjust up to 19 mm.. this increases air,, Whatever work you complete ... go over a second time and ensure all is tight .. I like Chinee lanterns I have several including spares.. Your pic is excellent looks a nice lamp By the way not all parts are interchangeable with modern Petromax lanterns I tried a jet change once the jet thread is different , use a second hand rod maybe good luck and all the best to you
Another trick is to wrap copper wire round the brass pricker rod. You'll find quite a bit of info here on how to do that. The reason that is done is to stop or reduce the pulsing of the light by increasing the contact area of the paraffin with the rest of the generator.
@ColinG This could help with my Sea Anchor problem ie: pulsing. What thickness of copper wire do you use and how much. Regards Jeremy
Well, the stuff I inherited from my Great Uncle is about 1.5mm in dia. I wound it around the pricker rod making sure it doesn't interfere with the needle at the top but There's a proper discussion in this sight somewhere... I'll have a look for it.
Here is one discussion that may help. It's for a Petromax but the advice is the same. A piece of advice needed I can't find a thread with pictures unfortunately.
This is good info even for me! I gave up on my Optimus 200 (dated to the early/mid 1930's). I've had the lantern for probably more than 25 years now and I have always had a pulsing problem. I'm going to dig it out (God knows where I put it) and see what I can come up with and get it working. It was always one of my favorites but I got so disgusted with it, I simply put it away and forgot about it! Now I have a good reason to tear back into it!
THe Taiwanese Sea Anchor owner reporting back: The copper paste arrived today! So after work it was straight up to the rooftop. Copper paste at the jet nipple thread, 18mm air gap and soft start. What should I say — forum, you are gold! I live 500m line-of-sight from the fire department and today was the first time I wasn’t worried they would come over to shower me. The lamp shines beautifully and terribly bright now (I used double sunglasses to inspect the mantle). I let it burn for about an hour without any surprise, no halo, no flare-up, no pulsing. Even the extinguishing was far better than feared; release the pressure and within a few seconds the mantle just goes “plop, off”. I know that I’m not 100% there yet: - it smells a bit of kerosene while it burns - the diffusor(?) screw in the J-tube is locked shut while the tube is hot, I can’t turn it without worrying to strip it - the valve acts a bit funny when the triangle points towards the bottom and the system is hot, there’s some uncomfortable resistance, I don’t dare turning the valve beyond this point But these are things I can have a closer look at later. I’ll enjoy the light for some time first and then probably take the lamp apart and inspect everything in detail. Anyway, thank you so much for your help on this. I learned a lot from you in short time and saved heaps of frustration! PS: More photos next time, it’s been pitch-dark when I lit it and I was too busy being happy to take photos...
Hey george, I hope the trick works for you. It's supposed to increase the surface area for better vaporisation, but thinking about it, it could also be that it reduces the volume of fuel in the generator at any one time, reducing the heat needed to vaporise the fuel that passes through. Anyhow, it seems to work and of course, many Coleman models have just the same thing!
@Hajo Congratulations. Not much beats the elation and sense of achievement whe you finally manage to get a troublesome lamp to work. Looking forward to more photographs of this (and other?) lamps in the future. Regards Jeremy
I'm not sure what you meant by the diffuser, @Hajo , but if it's the flat metal 'paddle' inside the J-tube, it needs to be in a position where is doesn't stop the air flowing as this could also cause problems. I used penetrating oil to free the rusty screw so that I could move it into the correct position. The slight smell of kero when it runs could be caused by this. You say the valve has resistance (in the downward position) when it's hot. Can you rotate it a full 360 when it's cold? You should be able to turn that wheel round and round so the needle unblocks the jet when it's running. This can give you a good indication when the jet gets partly clogged with carbon. Colin
Yes, that one. I loosened it earlier with light oil. But as it turned hot for a while its stuck again. I will take care of it, should be easy... Good one, thx! Yes, it turns freely and smoothly when cold. But when the system heated up then there's a resistance somewhere around 7 o'clock when turning clockwise. No such resistance when coming counterclockwise. I think it's not the needle, that catches somewhere around 10 o'clock. I rather suspect the lower mechanics. But no issue for now, I don't touch the valve anyhow while the lamp is burning and I'm fine to operate it in the 0-6 half of the circle only if I need to. I'll take it apart one day and see what catches at that point. Thx again!
