In this thread: Aaaaargh! Why did I join this forum? I reported the acquisition of a Vapalux 300X. Well, it is very nearly sorted so the before and after shots are below. I know someone will point out the (incorrect) replacement hood top, but that is a temporary feature until I work out the best way of saving the original. It is of course stove enameled but rough, so I propose to abrade it to provide a key then spray it with VHT exhaust paint. Has anyone tried this? If so what was the outcome?
Thanks Jeff. This is its first firing in over fifty years. Only one issue after pressurising; a leak from the control cock spindle. Now sorted and all well.
Not seeing things. As said in my post above, the original top is in a bad way cosmetically. I want to restore it by abrading the stove enameling and spraying with VHT exhaust paint. Any idea if this is viable?
I'm not sure if it will work. You can imagine the heat buildup on the factory made top with the enamel coating. They won't last, so it's hard to say if the top would hold up if painted with high heat paint.
@R100 It certainly cleaned up well. You’ve done a lot of work there. Well done. As to VHT paint, and even the paint used on disc brakes may not make the grade. I have tried a VHT paint on a Tilley hood and it deteriorated after only a few uses. In my experience, the only permanent solutions are either restoring the original enough to get by, finding another original or a reproduction hood top perhaps from our Korean friends on the bay of evil. Cheers Pete
R100, congratulations on this very nice - and tight - looking lamp. Given the new finish, the new black top blends in rather well without sticking out, and since enamelled, could be used in anger. Mind, soon this rounded top became a familiar profile, so your lamp has a classical correct look, even if not fully period correct. The advantage of these simple tops is that they are temperature stable unlike the spotwelded two-part tops. There are many 'heat resisting' paints but none are 'heat proof' when it comes to these tops. Best to keep the painted ones for static display. Regards, Mike
@R100 Not an original but an option: https://www.tilleylampsandstoves.com/product-page/vapalux-lamp-300x-brass-hood Regards Jeremy
No paint can survive the temperatures pressure lamp hoods have to endure no matter what they might say on the tin. A new original (if you can find one) or a modern repro are your only real options... or living with the original and enjoying the aged look. Oh, and ignore the lamp restoration videos on YouTube, the ones I've seen are more like horror films, sandblasting tanks and hoods, using rotary sanders on delicate parts and worse.
Thanks for the advice. I am beginning to accept the slightly non-period domed top, but I will certainly keep the original as a pattern. I have a friend who i runs a sheet metal business so I may ask him to make a new original shaped item from brass.
That's handy! If you know anywhere that can apply vitreous enamel you could have a new one made if it was made of steel.
I've read of a couple of people who tried very high temperature paints designed for car engines and they didn't work.
@ColinG I guess I'm not surprised. These lanterns build up very high heat, and when everything is introduced at the top, heat, screaming hot burner, and air, something has to give. Tilley and Bialaddin have high heat build-up and the tops show it. Coleman is another game. The tops usually last longer but then there's the Coleman kerosene lanterns and they generally are "fried", too. Kerosene fueled lanterns just seem to be harder on tops than gasoline.
Kerosene, or paraffin when in a gaseous state, burns hotter than gaseous petrol. But either make short time with sprayed paint, that btw never can show the luster of a vitreous enameled item. Unfortunately this professional process is nowadays practicly all shifted to the Far East, and gone are the days you could have some welding, turning, chroming, polishing and enamelling done for you within acceptable distance. It made me look into the craftsworld, where small-scale enameling is done in too little, too expensive electrical ovens. It helps enormously however, if you accept and appreciate your new acquisition as it is, clean it, respect its past and be done with it! Mike
And so the list of things things we used to do regularly but now can't (or wont) grows longer. In my naivety I assumed as the human race progressed we'd be able to do more and more, not less and less. In the UK most of the Victorian feats of engineering simply wouldn't get built today for a variety of reasons - economic and health and safety being te most common but lost skills also play a part. I watched a video that explained why we couldn't build a copy of the Saturn V rocket today and basically it comes down to the lack of skilled aliminium welders and withoutthem, you wouldn't be able to fabricate the rocket motors. Unfortunately this kind of retrograde de-skilling is not isolated to the space industry, it's rampant in most sectors. These days if something can't be done using computers, it simply can't be done! And just to add to the 'happy' note, the world economy is just one single solar flare away from total collapse as all national and international trade is governed by satellite navigation. Happy Thursday everyone!
I see your point Colin, on satelite navigation (where are the sextants and books) and on disappearing skills. However, computer technology is making a new crown for me while I have a coffee at the dentist, and produces old pattern parts better and often cheaper, like Triumph twin cylinders plus their pistons for instance. And we do have this forum, unimaginable 25 years ago. Also, born out of need if not curiosity, 'we' tend to learn old skills new to us, which can be very rewarding as this very site attests. Any era has its plusses and minusses, but the biggest factor to worry about, irrelevant of what technology is current, is the unbridled masses of Homo Sapiens. This world is getting (too) small even without technology. But I digress. I hope an acceptable top can be found on Ebay soon if the straight early version is the prime item. For me, I'd hapilly settle for a rounded one in all its black splendor from the 'bay, should I have gone the track of renovation. Mike
