hello all here is my X359 as i got it. But as you can see it doesn't have a pre burner, so i will be on the look out for one. If i'm lucky i will find one. Also i thought she needed a clean and the bail sprayed. A nice polish for the burner Head and air nuts and she is a ripper. and yes i know she is bent but i will one day try the ice test to fix her up.
Are you sure it’s bent? Mine has a tilt away from the preheater as well, it makes room for the preheater tube to fit inside the glass.
Surely an X359 without the blowlamp preheater is just a very expensive X246A... Apparently so many X359s were returned to Tilley under warranty that they simple removed the preheater and replaced it with a blanking bolt. Whether there was any refund of the price premium paid, I don't know...
Tried to show it as best I can. You can see from the horizontal lines the camera is level. But the top of the lamp is closer to the right than the left. Then a close up of the middle, you can see how the control cock mounting is off center. With the preheater tube up inside the glass.
Wouldn't the tilt in that direction bring the glass nearer the blowlamp? I hadn't realised the control cocks were placed off-centre - well-spotted! When I find my X359, I'll have to check that...
I think it somehow kicks the bottom of the glass over to allow more space. Or that might be due to the off center cock.
If you move the centre line of the vapouriser, then the burner won't fit on either? Perhaps they altered the position of the spigots slightly? Or the cage???
Thanks for the photos, I'm glad now I know it's not bent, and to answer the question of price I got this one in a lot I bought, and from the photos I didn't know it was a X359, so it was a bonus as I thought it was a X246A and it worked out to be AUD$30, so I think I got a cheap X359
@Buggerlugs Does your X359 have a date stamped on the bottom? Usually 3 or 4 numbers followed by XA. As in “1159XA” for November 1959. Cheers Tony
@Buggerlugs I am looking for early dates on this lantern. They begin in early 1959 (?March) as far as I know. Cheers Tony
I'd also be interested in latest dates so we could know how long Tilley persisted with this model before giving up on it...
@David Shouksmith As far as I know it wasn't very long. I don't quite know how long they persisted with this model for as they quickly figured out that the preburner wasn't a very good idea because it makes your glass go black pretty quick and on top of that the preburner thread was actually plastic And in my opinion it wasn't the smartest material to be using as most of them melt. They quickly started to replace the preburner with a brass plug and hence y the pre burners are hard to come by. @Anthony might know a little more than I about the dates