I've posted about this before, but unless Coleman found an everlasting rubber compound, what are you meant to do when the cap seal gets hard and needs replacing? Surely someone must sell new cap washers or do I have to make my own?
Just ask Fred Kuntz (fredkuntz at adelphia dot net) he makes washers in different sizes for the Coleman lanterns. Or get some nitrile rubber or viton sheets, and make your own - you will need a rather "soft" material with a hardness of about 60-70. Erik
Its fairly easy to make any of these your own if you've got the right materials and some hollow punches. Nitrile/Buna-N, Viton or any fuel-resistant elastomers/rubbers. I'm going to give a try on Expanded PTFE, which I believe, is even more solvent and heat-resistant than Viton. I know these are not very cheap.
Thanks Guys. I plan on ordering myself some viton sheet to make my own as I now have a set of hollow punches.
Colin With the various kinds of lamps and stoves you’re working with, my advice is to get at least 1mm, 2mm, and 3mm Viton. The 2mm will get the most use, but the 1mm is good for Coleman and the 3mm is needed for some NRV and SRV pips. Cheers Tony @ColinG
Thanks Tony. I just ordered a couple of sheets of 2.5 as a compromise but I will get some other gauges as well. One of my Christmas presents (to myself) was a hollow punch set so as soon as the viton arrives I can start making washers in all possible sizes!!!
Sorry, which Coleman lantern are you talking about? The earlier fuel caps are generally in two pieces and a screw. You can still get them without a lot of trouble. However, the newer cap gaskets always give me a pain. I have gotten "O" rings to work in a pinch.
All my Coleman's use the same one piece filler cap but some of the rubber gaskets are getting quite rigid, hence my quest to find washers at a reasonable price. I have Coleman models, 285, 295, 220, 635, 639 and 201. I also have a Coleman Sportster 533 stove which uses the same filler cap.
@ColinG I look forward to your findings as I have only just started collecting Coleman lanterns. To date: 200a, 201, 252A Mil Spec and an AFC Ashflash (can’t remember the model number at the moment) which is Coleman style. The 200a and the 201 are fine presently but the other two which are up for a fettle soon may require new seals. Regards Jeremy
I like the seals that this Guy sells, they are injection molded and work really nice. www.ejbasnett.com He has been know to be slow at shipping. All the above options work well also.
@Dean D I checked out Basnett and they're a good option if you live in the States, but the shipping to the UK is way, way too much. Not their fault, just the way postage goes I guess!
I had dealings with these people some years ago, around Christmas time. The two original orders hadn't turned up so I got in touch with them and the items were re-sent without hassle or delay and they arrived very quickly - great service and the seals were good, too. The original orders arrived eventually, several weeks late, so I guess they'd got lost somewhere over the holiday period and maybe the weather intervened, too. I can't remember what the postage was but I've no recollection it was excessive in any way. I'd recommend them without hesitation...
Hmmmmm, maybe I'll send an email and ask if there's any way they can reduce the postage... when I used their website it quoted me $18 postage for a pack of ten washers which only cost around $5.
@adelcoro in Canada has supplied me in the past with both the large and small 3-piece fuel cap seals. ( large for 237, 220F etc. and small for 241, 242, 249, 500 stove etc). He did not have the modern 1-piece cap seals, though. He sent them by ordinary air mail letter at a very low cost.
I got this set from eBay UK... Hollow Punches I've used them and they seem to work well. With 2.5mm Viton sheet you need to give the punch tool a good wallop but it does the trick for sure.
Having fettled about a gross of Coleman appliances, I don't understand why folks say "An o-ring will do in a pinch." I use o-rings for all my rebuilds/repairs. The thick, round XC of the ring deforms very easily to fill any flaws in the filler stem, and it requires considerably less force to get them to seal. O-rings are available in Viton, which is what you want. 70 durometer is about ideal, and the most common. To fit the 220-and later size caps, an industry # 112 fits like a glove. For the older, smaller 242, 500, etc. caps, the #108 is the thing. Here in the US, I can get these sizes from the bins at the local hardware store. Less than $1 each--sometimes much less. A little plumber's grease really helps the o-ring--or flat gasket--go on nicely. To remove the old gasket from a one-piece cap, it really helps to use a 1/8" drill to gently drill just through the gasket in a couple of places. This gives you a place to get a tiny jeweler's screwdriver or gasket hook under the old gasket. For the three-piece caps, screw the cap down firmly on the fuel bung, remove the screw--it helps to give the screwdriver a sharp snap of the wrist to break the screw loose. Remove the center insert of the cap and use a torch to burn the old gasket to ash (a piece of firebrick is perfect for a base when burning the gasket out), then scrape clean with aforementioned tiny screwdriver. IMHO, the three-piece caps are worth finding and buying if you want gaskets/o-rings to last. Because the center insert is free to rotate relative to the threaded cap, the gasket is spared the shearing forces of being twisted onto the fount bung. Coleman's repair centers would simply replace an old three-piece cap with an unpainted onesie when a lantern/stove/etc came in for service, so lots of older models that had the three-pieces ended up with unpainted brass onesies. If you're making your own gaskets from flat Viton sheet, you'll need a very good set of concentric punches. The gasket is pretty thin, ID vs OD wise. My cheap Chinese "concentric" punches don't do the job.
Frankly speaking, I don't see why Viton o-rings wouldn't on a Coleman 3-piece filler cap. So long as the inner and outer peripheries are being held rigidly by the filler cap's structure of course. O-rings won't do on the Petromax-type filler caps.
Correction: In my post above, I wrote that the o-ring size for the little 242-sive caps is #108. Make that #110.
