My journey with Veritas lanterns has been a strange one. If it'd been left to me, I wouldn't have bothered with any Falk products, such was their dire reputation, but a mate in the US was buying various Veritas lanterns for me to check over, fettle and ship to the States. This is how I first came by a Superb and realised they were pretty good! Unfortunately when he bought himself a 350 the fount turned out to be toast - it had a split (not a crack) roughly 2 inches long, wide enough to put your fingernail into! It also had a broken frame rod (where the hood catch attaches to) and a missing bail! As it was pointless sending junk halfway round the world, he told me to keep it in case it was useful. Since then I've been sent a replacement fount which I polished up and added to the project. Over the last few days I've added a new jet, made a new frame rod and a pricker rod lock-nut which was tiny and very fiddly. Having finished all that I cleaned it up a bit. The homemade frame rod is made of aluminum, (not ideal but it's all I have right now) which is attached with 3mm machine screws top and bottom. The hood catch was also fastened in place with the same screws. The top screw had to be ground down to allow the hood to rest on the frame properly. The bottom screw was left as it was to allow me to lock it into position. I had to make the missing pricker rod lock-nut from a brass electrical fitting with the right thread. What a palaver! The pricker wire is intact thank goodness! You can see it poking through the jet. The pump assembly needed some TLC as well! That's about as far as I can go for now as the burner needs some brass mesh in the flame spreader and a completely new NRV.
@ColinG Excellent work Colin. Looks like another Veritas will live to light the truth. Looking forward to the money shot. Cheers mate Pete
Watching old movies with the wife, gardening, DIY, cooking and fixing lanterns... it could be a lot worse that's for sure.
Triffic Colin, I like my Veritas, love the brass fount. It started off being superb, but it's started playing up now. I need to rip it apart to track down the problem. There's a leak from the open/close knob, and it dies. Your detail pics are great, ta.
If tightening the gland nut doesn't cure the leak you'll have to replace the gland packing (3-208V). Originally some sort of rubber, discard it and replace with graphite tape. You can also use P.T.F.E. string, if you can't get string make your own by twisting tape, use the thick stuff for gas fittings.
I have in stock some perfect fit O=rings, and one of those does the job. No more leaks. But the lamp runs nice and bright for perhaps 15 -20 minutes, then dulls or dies. If I give the needle control a quick 360 degree flick before it dies it immediately come back full brightness. Looks like the jet is getting blocked with running time? What do you think? Possibly needs a thorough flush out and clean. Any other things that could cause this? (I've hijacked this thread, -apologies Colin... perhaps I should start a new one?)
Sounds like you have some bits running up and down the vapouriser. Mine did the same and a "dilligent cleaning" stopped it.
This could also apply to the tank, just bcause the inside looks clean doesn't mean it is clean. Fresh fuel may be softening old fuel residues which can gum-up the jet.
