Butler 200 k blow torch. I have a blocked jet and the prickers I have are from Optimus and too thick a diameter (see images) Any suggestions as to what else I can try to unblock the jet?
If it's just blocked with dirt you can try heat & quench - you may need to do this two or three times. I suspect the orifice in the blowlamp jet will be larger than the orifice in a 500cp lantern (0.25mm / 0.0099"); do you have a spare cleaning needle for a 500cp (or even 350cp) Optimus / Petromax type lantern which you try ? You could reduce the diameter of the wire in your Optimus pricker with some fine wet & dry paper. If you have vernier calipers you can measure the wire on your pricker thus determining you need less than 0.0?mm / 0.0?? inch but (most probably) more than 0.24mm /0.009" Give Mike at base-camp ring with your requirements, he should be able to help you out. Look for The 'Ideal Stove Pricker' here Stove tools also items 2450, 2452 and 2453 here Optimus Spares Price List There is also item 180 here Petromax Spares Price List but at 0.19mm / 0.007" it's almost too fine for a blowlamp jet, it's certainly not ideal but will do at a push.
First off I would get it red hot and quench in water a few times see if that moves the obstruction could be a old pricker needle rusted in the jet. After dipping in water try banging it on a hard surface and blowing thro wi a airline. Cheers pete You just beat me to the post there Henry !
I suspect that part of the needle valve may have broken off and caused the problem. I have another blow lamp so can try heat & quench, unfortunately dont have an airline.
If there's a broken needle stuck within the jet orifice, repeated heat-quench might loosen it somewhat. What is the diametre of the Optimus pricker you tried earlier? The jet orifices for blowlamps and stoves are usually larger than those of pressure lamps. There are many steel wires or even drill bits around in the 0.3 to 0.5mm range. If these are too large, those needles for the 500cp lanterns might suit. However, if its due to an oversized needle that had been previously forced in or a drill bit that had broken off halfway inside, then you might not be able to free it with heat and quench alone. Even a correctly-sized needle might not work. For this, you can try soaking the jet in hot "potassium-alum" solution. This had been known to dissolve tiny steel drill bits that had broken off inside brass objects...without harming the brass in the process. The process might take a while.
The reason I think maybe a broken needle is from watching a couple of some blowlamps on utube and the needle does appear to be longer in the videos, if the heat/quench doesnt work I will try a nozzle from some of my other lamps/ heaters /stoves and see if I can get one to fit to at least test the blow torch. If all else fails a last resort maybe a watch maker who would be capable of re-drilling the nozzle.
An extra fine beading needle point may fit, or a needle threader wire. Both readily available online.
UPDATE: On further investigation the issue maybe another problem, I used one of those endoscopy things and took some images inside the tank and it contains a wick. My understanding is this model could be run on petrol or paraffin, but paraffin did nor require a wick, also the jet for petrol would be smaller. Possibly the wick could be blocking the flow of fuel? As I have no intention of running it on petrol should I remove the wick? Looks like I am going to have to dismantle all the parts.
Unfortunately, that's not as simple as it sounds. You can bet your life that when the drill gets to the remains of the hard steel needle, it will veer off target and into the softer brass and no doubt break. You will then have two blockages to deal with. Have you tried heat & quench / using a different pricker as suggested ? Actually, it would be larger. Why would it do that ? The manufacturer put it in for a reason, leave it alone. If you think it may be a little clogged with varnish-like residue of old fuel, put some petrol in the tank and let it sit for a couple of days then with the jet removed and the valve open, add pressure to push-out the fuel.
I didn't have petrol in it but paraffin and I removed the jet, pumped it up and no fuel came out which is why I backtracked and looked inside the tank to discover the wick. I haven't tried heat & quench yet as waiting on a dry day as I have to do outdoors. I am looking at prickers on ebay as I only have 2 that came with an Optimus stove from 30+ years ago.
As you had removed the jet before, did you try to inject carb cleaner or blow through it with air? If it is a blocked jet orifice, you'd need to sort this one out first. The wick's contribution to the issue is of a lesser concern in comparison.
Ideally you need something more volatile than kero to soften/dissolve varnishlike fuel residue. Acetone will work and is readily available, certainly on the internet. Or try this from Screwfix, note that it's a concentrate which means it will need to be diluted which in turn means it will last you ages. No Nonsense Heavy Duty Degreaser 5Ltr Are you sure the pump is working ? Have you cleaned out these passages ?
Not ignoring previous advice but slowly working my way back to locate the blockage,yes the pump is working and pressurizing the tank, as for the passages the `green` are clear. and still to check the `blue`.
"Hidden" faults/problems can indeed be a bit of a pain because the only way to find them is by process of elimination. Working methodically is the right way to go about things of course although it can be time consuming. Hopefully it won't be too long before you get it sorted.
If it isn't a broken pricker or other, I had a jet that resisted a pricker, resorted to hot vinegar soak and that did the trick. Heating with a torch did no good. Duane
If you run blowtorch on kero (if it was designed to work on kero, means it should have a preheat tube turn around the nose), then you must remove the wick.
Like in some stoves which have no fuel pickup tube inside the tank the wick maybe meant to catch the fuel and get it to the burner feeding tube. However, to my knowledge that was more common to gasoline/petrol devices, but obviously makes sense for a blowtorch which might be operated under different angles and not always upright. So I'd first try to clean the wick with acetone rather than removing it. If that doesn't work, the wick may be charred at its outer end. Then you must remove it, clean everything and re-fit the wick with help of a thin piece of wire as an aid to push it back in.
That will be a spanner in the works as I wont use with petrol. What led me to believe Paraffin was this on a Butler website. ..."The gasoline / kerosene variation was determined by the type of control valve needle and jet block that were fitted..."
@scudo whilst looking for something else, I found a Butler 200 K which I didn't even know I had let alone where it came from. Does yours have this cowl which helps to hold the heat around the vapourising chamber ? This is as far as I've got so far. I had to use a little heat to help remove the burner from the riser tube, other threaded parts seem very solid so I'll let them soak overnight with a 50/50 mixture of ATF (automatic transmission fluid)/acetone. Free floating (stainless?) steel cable inside burner body. The cotton wick inside the tank looks a lot cleaner than that in your tank, it 7/16" /8mm below the top of the riser. The cleaning needle on my example is intact and I can confirm it is 6mm long and 0.28mm/ 0.011" diameter.
Yes mine has the cowl. I have since manage to get the pricking needle to come through the jet, so thats one problem solved but I will check the dimensions tomorrow and see how it compares to yours. You may find this video clip useful as similar to the Butler.
Thanks for the link to the video. After seeing the bother he had with the fuel riser tube, I think I'll leave the one on my blowlamp alone. It ain't broke, so I ain't going to fix it.
With the blocked jet problem sorted out, you should now be able to get a straight and sharp stream of fuel shooting out of it when the blowlamp's pressurized. That's normal for a regular liquid-fueled blowlamp. However, you might not get this with wicked designs. I don't know if there are much constructional differences between the Butler 200k and their petrol-fueled versions. Kerosene-fueled blowlamps are very sensitive to any temperature drops of the fuel. If the fuel isn't preheated sufficiently prior to its discharge via the jet, you'd get a flamethower instead. Kero blowlamps usually have longer or greater number of loops on their generators for the required preheat.
Fuel still not coming through. About 30 years ago not knowing one had to preheat I ended up with a flamethrower in my garage, I panicked grabbed it and chucked it in the drive, did it not land under my car! Got it out and never lit one again til now. Yes I am more careful these days and more informed thanks to the internet.
The next to sort out would be fuel pickup assembly as well as the rest of the fuel path. If you're still having a wick inside, it needs to be porous, de-gummed and clean enough. If it is saturated with too much dirt or gummed-up, semi-solidified or varnished old fuel, then it wouldn't function accordingly. By partially filling up the tank or fount with fuel or any other solvents, and then pressurizing it just a little higher than atmospheric pressure, you should be able to see at least some liquid dripping out of the jet when you position the blowlamp upside-down. Otherwise, it won't ready for operation yet. You should do this with or without the jet removed. Something's still blocking the fuel path.
@Henry Plews Hiya Henry, I’ve alerted you to thank you for your Butler blowlamp burner dismantling featured earlier in this thread, revealing that cable within an internal chamber. Post-Newark I acquired a Butler 200K blowlamp. It caught me out until I’d done some research (this thread most usefully!) insofar as I thought ‘North American pattern, no obvious vapourising tubing, must be petrol (gasoline)’ as you initially supposed. Consequently, I fuelled up with Aspen and a powerful flame resulted towards the end of priming, but would extinguish immediately on expiry of the methylated spirit primer and could not then be re-lit with my lighter. Too lean a mixture I judged and sure enough, re-fuelling with paraffin resulted in excellent combustion, as you can judge. Regardless of the ‘petrol’ look of the appliance it’s clearly capable of maintaining vapourisation of paraffin. A few factors I’d say … jet is ‘right’ for paraffin, gives too lean a fuel/air mixture for petrol that cable in the cavity you discovered, corresponds in its location to this hump within the flame tube, so the cable creates turbulence and the hump conducts heat to that vapourising cavity I think too that this flange is there to assist in heat transfer to that cavity during priming A 200K model, the ‘K’ designating it as capable of being fuelled by kerosene. The black-painted wooden handle and the forged handle attachment lugs denotes it as an export version to the UK apparently, the UK importer being Wm. A. Meyer Ltd. Of London. As my research in that CCS linked post has established, Meyer had significant ‘clout’ as importers and it seems possible that knowing the ascendancy at that time (late 1940’s) of paraffin over petrol appliances, Butler obliged with a blowlamp capable of burning the cheaper, less volatile fuel. John
