Muzzle flash, you must have seen some of the lanterns for sale on eBay? One that comes up time and again is 4 Bialaddin on offer at a hugely inflated price (to my mind) each has been painted a different colour of metallic flake paint, each one has the brass parts polished to a mirror surface and honestly, they look ridiculous! OK, this is only my opinion but you couldn't use them without ruining the dubious aesthetics. I think they represent the ultimate in over restored lanterns. I'll try to post a notice of them.
These are the ones... Even the inside of the brass hoods and the burner assemblies have been polished.... and the colours... yuk. I just had a thought.... I hope one of the members didn't do this or I'll get flamed for sure!
Yes Colin - all YUK! and yes, I've certainly seen them! To my mind they are little different to the 'upcycled' 240 volt Tilleys on there for a similar extortionate sum. I find the term 'upcycling' extremely offensive in that context tbh....
Hmm, I dunno - swop the black for yellow and that image is pretty reminiscent of my fireplace until quite recently! Oh, and they were VL1s not Bialaddins...
Upcycling! That term sends shivers of dread up my spine, particularly when it's a lantern that has been artfully ruined! I've also seen one too many blow torches with lightbulbs sticking out of various orifices in an attempt to make them 'ironic' or 'steampunk'.
Yeah, I know where it is - in the same junk store room as the Hunter lantern I mentioned a few days ago! I'm going to have to get in there in the next couple of days to turf out some stuff for Newark so a picture may ensue. For 'over-restored' (in my opinion, anyway) see just about any US car programme such as 'American Hot-Rod', 'Chasing Classic Cars' etc. Google 'Boyd Coddington', 'Chip Foose' or 'Wayne Carini' for example. As you say, what applies to cars etc. can apply to lanterns in the same way. Like you, I'd rather see my lamps and lanterns in a condition commensurate with their age and use. If I do restore anything, I try to get it in a factory-fresh condition but no more. I don't like to see things turned in something they never were, especially when someone then tells me it's been "restored" - bah!
I've never - thankfully - heard the term 'steampunk' before!?! Is that what that silly cow does on the trashy daytime TV program, 'Cash for Trash' or some such similar?
I thought it was when you went to B&Q, bought an assortment of plumbing fittings, soldered them all together and then put a light bulb on it. Adding a pressure gauge is always a good idea.
Very probably, I don't watch daytime TV or indeed, any TV. The thing is, when it's done well it can look amazing, but so often, talentless idiots find something old, stuff a repro 'old-fashioned' light bulb on it and try to pass it off as steam punk. At best it looks pathetic, at its worst, it ruins a piece of history.
So, here are the half time Bialaddin rebuild scores.... I've been washing, wiping, stripping the paint, getting rid of the corrosion, painting (badly and with the wrong paint!), stripping the paint off again, assembling, disassembling, washing again, checking everything..... and here is the result so far.... (the photos are from my phone, hence the rubbish quality) The fount will not be staying as you see in the photo but I need to buy the the correct paint before I can go any further. My first attempt ended in an orange peel nightmare and it took me a whole day and some ribbing from my wife to realise that I'd been using Hammerite, hence the surface finish! I think I might be losing my marbles!!! So far iI've used all original Bialaddin components apart from the bail which was badly rusted so I used the Vapalux one. Also.... on stripping the Vapalux/Tilley hybrid down I found out why it never worked properly... Anyone spot the deliberate butchery inflicted by the previous owner? Needless to say I used the Bialadding control cock with the fuel pickup tube intact!
And the winner is... Mathhew92! Yup, to make the Vapalux control cock fit into the Tilley tank, they chopped off the fuel pickup! Insane!
Is it? Tilley fuel cock had no pick up tube AFIK. It was internal to the tank. Just a filter and valve needed.
This was the Vapalux control cock and fuel pickup... and you are absolutely correct, the Tilley control cock had no fuel pickup, that was in/part of the tank, so to get the Vapalux parts to fit, they hacked of the fuel pickup tube and hoped it would just work... which it didn't!
I am not sure why it didn't. It was in a Tilley tank with internal pickup Y/N? Except for being without a filter, so it could become blocked, provided it sealed well to the tank outlet it should work. I don't know but...?
Yup, the Tilley tank still had it's internal pickup, but my guess is there was a miss-alignment somewhere or maybe the fuel didn't like the extended path it was forced to take. Maybe the end of the cut Bialaddin pickup made a partial seal as it protruded down into the Tilley tank.
Looking good up there! You've now of course got a spare Vapalux hood, frame and burner, plus a Tilley tank and pump that you won't be able to resist building into complete lanterns once your Bialaddin - and a myriad others - are sorted...
Ha ha, you're right and I've already started! The original Vapa-Tilly had a chrome tank so that got used on another X246b. The shiny brass Tilley tank was a bit of an experiment... it had a blown base plate which I knocked out with a hammer so it was never a long term user. But now I'm back on the hunt for another Vapalux tank! Oh, and I found a 7inch Tilley vaporiser I can use with the steel PL53 to create another one. So as you say, I won't get bored any time soon!
I tried to light the 320 yesterday but the vaporiser was shot so I replaced the one from the Vapalux hybrid. I tried a bunsen test without a mantle and that went OK-ish although it was a bit yellow so tonight I risked a Peerless mantle and gave the old girl a go... It's hard to see from this photograph but when I first lit it, there was a significant yellow halo around the mantle but this slowly disappeared and now she's burning smooth and bright. Tomorrow I'll get some smooth silver paint and spray the fount again - hopefully it'll look better this time. I still need to clean and polish the alloy frame but this seems easy enough. I used Mother's Mag and a Scotch-bright(?) to remove the worst of the pitting and corrosion products, followed by a soft cloth to give it a shine - not that Bialaddin/Vapalux frames ever seem to gleam exactly. When that's all done I'll be a very happy bunny! And to think, I only bought this lamp for parts!
When it's finished I'll post a 'before and after' photo, but here's a 'before and during' in the meantime.
That's what I like to see. A filthy old thing brought back to life after years of neglect. Well done!
That's some transformation and I must admit I do like the odd lamp (or two) left with a brass fount. I've got corresponding Tilley and Vapalux lanterns with such, because when push came to shove I found I liked the finish, was something to long term fettle and I just couldn't be bothered with the hassle of painting.. 
We'll, today I've sprayed the tank and the pump cap silver, stripped a Tilley X246 frame and sprayed it gold again and lastly, stripped a very old X246 tank back to brass with the intention of buffing it to a nice shine but it was too badly corroded so it proved to be impossible, so... I lacquered it ready to assemble into another working Guardsman. Everything is now drying in the garage and when it's ready I'll bake them in a very low oven, when Mrs Geer isn't looking!
