Hi All About 4 months ago I purchased an Akron 103G lantern from a fellow collector in America. Note: The model Akron 103G is for gasoline, and Akron 103K is for kerosene. The lantern came with a spare hood in excellent condition, which was fortunate because the original hood suffered from extensive damage. I suspect that the lantern, at some time in its life, had been dropped on its head. The following is the description of the lantern’s journey through the fettling process. As mentioned, the lantern appeared to have been dropped. The resultant damage to the hood can be seen in the following picture. It’s evident that the original hood has been significantly compacted, and as a result, the hood retaining bolt had been shortened during an earlier repair. I decided to use the good spare hood which required the manufacturing of a longer hood retaining bolt. The new retaining bolt can be seen in the above picture under the better hood. I used the original Akron thread type, 1/4 NF 28, shown in the next picture being cut using my lathe. Further, the burner’s air tube had been significantly bent causing the burners to be crooked. The misalignment may be seen in the following picture. The lantern was stripped and the various parts were cleaned. The bent air tube was straightened by using a drill bit, sized to snuggly fit the internal diameter of the tube, as a mandrill. The mandrill was pushed into the air tube, and with judicious tapping with a wooden mallet around the outside, the air tube was successfully straightened without denting. All the parts were first soaked in a warm to hot diluted citric acid solution for a maximum of 30 minutes, brass hand brushed and then cleaned in the ultrasonic cleaner. During the cleaning and inspection I found that the fuel pick up tube was faulty, there was a large split in the side of the actual brass tube, as seen in the next picture, it’s in the top third of the length of the air tube below the valve fitting. This split appears to have been there from manufacture, in the early 1920s. I can only speculate that this lantern must have suffered in its performance when the fuel level was low. I successfully soldered the split in the tube. The diamond holed collar, that supports the frame, was is a very rusted state. I cleaned all the rust off and replated it in my nickel plating setup, being careful to make it look as if it had aged elegantly. The next item was the globe or chimney frame. There was significant rust evident. Its my practice to clean and expose as much of the original plating on the frame as possible. My intention is to preserve what’s there and not replace, if at all possible. With vigorous but careful brushing with a stainless steel brush, and then fine sand paper, emery paper then metal polish I prepared the frame. The same was done to the bail. I spray painted the frame and bail with a high temperature clear paint subsequently baking them in an oven at 200degC for 1 hour. The original “S” type generator was de-coked, cleaned and reused. The filler cap’s seal was replaced. After all the repairs, cleaning, straightening and restorative preparations we’re accomplished the various parts were collected together for reassembling. When assembling the burner tubes I used a nickel anti-seize paste on the associated threads. The application of an anti-seize compound to the threads will perhaps allow an easier future fettling by helping to prevent the parts seizing together. Finally, with an excellent Fred Kuntz mica chimney, the parts were assembled into the fettled Akron 103G. The air tube is now straight and the burners are correctly positioned. Now ...... the money shot. I enjoyed the fettle of this lantern, it had a few challenges and the resultant reconstruction was very successful and satisfying. She is a keeper and sits well with my Coleman Quick-Lites. Thank you for looking Cheers Pete
Such a delight to see a professional fettle, thanks for sharing Pete.... and the money shot, well, that must have been a very satisfying moment. Stevie
@BigStevie Cheers Stevie, its was a very satisfying moment ......... must admit, I had a quiet beer whilst watching it go. Cheers mate Pete
Pete, Yeah, workshop is great... damn, mine always looks like a sh..house in distress.. Anyway, beautiful layout and a magnificent restoration job!
Thanks @phaedrus42 and @george Don’t you have fairies and gnomes that come out at night to tidy and clean your workshops? Although my lot of gnomic cleaners sometimes get into my Jack Daniels ....... however when they do, I get to see more of them Cheers Pete
Ah yes, good old Nr 7! maybe if I just sip a little "7" I can tidy up the workshop.. Nah, the empties would just cause more clutter...
@george ..... if you had enough sips, would you really care about clutter? Clutter? What clutter ... hick!!
Marvelous work @AussiePete . Did you re-plate the fount? I'm interested in how you do the nickel re-plating..
@MozzoSA Hi No, I didn’t re-plate the fount. I just re-plated the collar and the fuel cap. When I re-plated them, I was very conscious of the age of the lantern and I did not want to make the replanted items look like new parts. In plating, the pre finish determines the outcome, the finer the finish on the item before plating the finer the final plating will be. It’s surprisingly easy to build a nickel plating setup. There’s a lot of information on the Internet. From the Internet and related searches I have learnt how to plate items with copper, zinc and nickel. Cleanliness and of course metal preparation is the key to plating. I’m thinking of posting my plating method soon, I just got to get through a backlog of stuff first. Cheers Pete
Please disregard my request for that vent. I was reminded that I have the first version that has that strange flat top vent, but somebody removed the three pins and I had to put a spacer in there to let it breathe. Don't laugh, but I used to circular piece of copper perforated strapping, ugly, but it works! Another laugh, it had no collar so I used a small tuna can. So, I would like to upgrade, so I do need a collar.
