Just picked these up for £30 for the boy. both pumps work and the vaporizers are clear. My question is what is the best product to redo the top ? one has seen better days. i make knives so i do have a oven in my man cave ;-)
Good find. People here have re-enameled but as the x246b is quite common I would put up with it until a better cap comes along..
The silver one looks like the chrome version, that tank should clean up well along with the chrome on the frame, if not they can be painted. The enamel tops I'm afraid when they are gone they are gone, people have tried VHT paint but its not awfully successful, other options like re-enameling are usually cost prohibitive.
My dad says its nickel and rare as hens teeth and i should clean it with kitchen foil i think he may be pulling my leg about tin foil tho but will get him to try it as i have a roll in shed i use to mix epoxy glues on
Yes and no. Scrunched-up kitchen foil moistened with water is excellent for cleaning rust spots from chrome, there is information on the internet and videos on YouTube. It may work on the "Speculum" plated steel frame. There is no chrome (or nickel) plate on your lantern, as @David Shouksmith says, it's speculum. I'm sure there's an article which describes it in detail somewhere on the Forum. Basically, the "Speculum" plate used by Tilley is itself an alloy that includes arsenic, it is the arsenic which gives the mirror finish. In general, plated Tilley X246Bs are actually quite common. It's the ones in excellent condition which are rare.
got a couple of tiny dents in the tank am i right in thinking i can heat them and presure may pop them out ?
It's a bad idea to apply heat to those tanks, a few small dents are just part of the history of those lanterns.
To my knowledge, if you're talking about the enamelled hood, there's no paint that will withstand the temperatures they are exposed to. We're talking about temperatures approaching 1000 deg and even the most extreme high temperature paints will begin to degrade after a few use cycles. Vitreous enamel coatings and metal plating were the only surface coverings used and there's a reason for that. Fortunately, good Tilley hoods are often found on eBay and other sites so your options basically boil down to living with the hoods you've got or buying the best replacements you can. It's often assumed there must be some alternative type of paint that will survive but so far no one has demonstrate one that works.
