Hi everyone I am about to buy a tilley X359 lamp. I need a tillite pre heat blow torch for it. Does anyone have one or know someone who might have one? Thanks tom
Hi Tom welcome to the forum. If you use the search feature of this forum you will find discussion on these, including grafting an anchor rapid heater to one. As for finding a spare I think you would be very lucky! Chris
Hi Tom , I've been looking for a tillite for about a year now and quite honestly I thinck I'll have more luck finding hens teeth, but if you do find one ask her if she has a sister
Hi Tom If you have been looking at threads about this lantern you may already know that after problems with their version of a quick-lite preheater, Tilley actually blanked off the hole with a factory fitted bolt and sold them as such. As already said, @Henry Plews ingeniously recreated a working preheater and installed it into an X359 with great results.. There are working ‘Tillite’ heaters about.. I think young @Matthew92 posted a video of his successfully lighting but also more than a few frustrations and attempts with seemingly good tillites only to end with flames and melted parts.. a bit of a minefield really ?
Yes I have read they seem to be very temperamental, however it would be nice to have one, even if it's not used.
Hi Tom I understand what you mean Ok, well i would contact Terry.. the tilleyman .. he is on ebay or you can also find him here.. if he can help or find a way then he will.. nice folk www.muchaslamparas.com Good luck with things
Ah, ok… hmm, perhaps something could be rigged up to look the part.. difficult one.. Yes, well worth a visit
Hey guys, don't forget me. I need one to ! But does someone ha a spare swedish, turn around rapid pre heater for me? I am not sure if it is primus or radius who had those rapids. being copies of the petromax style the thread may be the same. That would be the closet replacement to original.
That's right, and for two reasons I can see. Firstly, the pivot pin is prone to falling out of the hole in which it sits. Secondly, and probably more importantly, the gasket material needs to have exactly the right combination of rigidity (to withstand the pivotting movement) and flexibility (to seal the jet in the atomiser section). Perhaps there's some modern material that can fulfil both requirements but there didn't appear to be in the late '50s / early '60s...
Yes i have read they fall apart easily, i think if i do find a working one, i would only use it to show it off, nine times out of 10 it would be more beneficial to its life to preheat it with a meths torch, its actually having it to show off that is more important
The X359 is a curious beastie, with the Tillite preheater. Here is a link to one that I fettled some time ago, it may be useful. Tilley X359 – Fettle Hope you find what you need. Happy fettling. Pete
I would only ever keep one on a lantern to show the original design. I now have an X359 with a Tillite pre-heater. I also think that I have two spare Tillite 8781 preheaters. I’ll check later today. Tony
I have opened a can of worms, haven’t I. My inbox is rather full. I’m working out how to deal with this. Tony
A WORD OF WARNING: I appreciate this site, CPL, as a place for collectors and people interested in the history of pressure lamps and related topics. So… don’t spam my inbox because I happen to have said I have a couple of the Tillite pre-heaters: these things are absolutely incapable of being valued or to be guaranteed to work - a reason that the blocking bolt is more valuable in real terms than the piece of rubbish the pre-heater is. I will take some time to think what I’ll do with the two used Tillite pre-heaters I have: noting the reason I have them is because they are used and were taken off lanterns by a service company because they didn’t work…. Tony
