Found a Tilley FL10 in Pretoria, South Africa

So I guess this means you have tried it.
I find my altered pump a lot easier than carrying around a pump and a lot better than what Jacques has, ie... nothing.

 

That’s a great lamp, a very lucky find!

 

Jacques, I was going through FL10 pics and I have to report there is another one here in Australia so yours is the 4th that I know of.

 

@Anthony you didn’t show one like this. Came on an IL47.

 

This one fits an IL47, if it could be repaired would it be of any use to Jacques?

 

@Jean J , I don't have one of those and I don't remember seeing one either.
I like it.

@Jacques Van Der Rijst ↑

 

No, not with a Tilley donut.
I have several donut lamps from different manufacturers, some with a built in pump, some without.

Reasons why I don't find "carrying around a pump" an inconvenience,
1) Ease of use.
2) Efficiency i.e. (normally) fewer pump strokes.
3) I consider it just as much part of "the kit" as are container for fuel, spirit for preheating, a spare mantle, a pricker (for non Tilley donuts) or whatever else you may think necessary.
4) Donuts are not particulary portable so are usually lit where they're going to stay - leave the pump with the lamp. If more than one donut is being used, reasons 1, 2 and 3 negate any imagined inconvenience.

Having said all that, I have to agree that your altered pump is better than no pump at all and in my less experienced days of lamp collecting, is something I would probably have done myself if I'd come across a capless Tilley donut.

To satisfy my curiosity, I calculated the volume of the 'cycle pump I use and a Tilley pump, allowing for the "dead volume"


the Tilley came in at 21.32cc, the bike pump at 424.5cc i.e. just shy of 20 times the volume of the Tilley. With 4 pints (optimum capacity) of kero in the tank of a OL50, it took a mere 25 strokes of the bike pump to get the pin of the pressure indicator level with the top of its surrounding boss. Considerably less than would be needed with a pump only 1/20 capacity.

 

I daresay Presscall (and many others hereabouts) have the skills and equipment necessary to repair that.

In fact, I think even I could have managed to do it when I was in the 6th Form doing Metalwork as a minority time subject...