Let’s see if someone has seen or experienced this one before. I was cleaning up my lanterns yesterday and noticed that the hood didn’t want to lift off the cage of one of them. After a long struggle it finally came loose, but I saw that the mantle was on the vapouriser rather than the burner . And no, I didn’t get violent or careless with it, I was gentle yet firm . So, it looks to me like the burner is OK apart from the spigot (where will I find one of those?) but now I’m faced with having to get the spigot off the vapouriser without damaging anything. If you have any advice, please share it.
Well, the spigot is actually OK. Using the burner assembly for leverage doesn’t seem to help, even with WD-40 sprayed liberally from the top and bottom of the spigot. That thing is really stuck on there.
Yes, that often happens, sometimes the spigot contracts a bit and at other times the vapouriser expands and sometimes it's both, I replace both the spigot and the vapouriser, but I retain the cleaning wire/pricker.
Jaska, there is a lot of posts on this, search swollen vapouriser will lead to quite a few. Like this one Tilley and similar designs - Vapouriser failures
Thank you, Jeff and Martin. I already knew these Tilley vapourisers were trouble, but reading through the linked thread(s) filled me with dread and despair . I had just bought that vapouriser not long ago from Tilley, too, so that’s a downer.
Hello Jaska, modern Tilley products are of poor quality, but you may find older products on Ebay etc., or in junk/antique shops or flea markets/car boot sales.
Understand about old Tilley vs. new. At the moment I’m in the midst of refurbishing a wonderful Guardsman I just picked up on the cheap the other day. The fount is basically flawless, I’ve scavenged a new-looking hood for it from a donor X246B and installed a brand new burner from Julian as well as a full seal kit from Fettlebox (which seems to be of remarkably better quality than Tilley’s own kit). I discovered the original burner had a massive hole in the end of the cap, which makes me wonder how things went for the previous owner the last time the lamp was used . When I tried to unscrew the spigot from the burner to clean up the remaining burner parts, it just sheared off, so in the bin it went. Everything is done now except that the cage is still soaking in a citric acid bath awaiting a light coat of paint and I haven’t decided what to do about the vapouriser. The original one looks very good to my eyes, including the tip. I’ve cleaned the pricker wire and it too looks good but it doesn’t pass easily through the upper portion of the vapouriser so I assume it must be badly caked with carbon. I’ll have to try the torch ‘n’ quench routine with it and see if I can get it in better working order before fitting it. I wanted to have the option of using the vapouriser from the donor lamp, but it’s too late for that now since it comes with a parasitic spigot.
@Jaska If it’s a new-ish vapouriser, it should not have expanded to cause that problem. The swelling of the vapouriser is (usually) a result of excessive build up of carbon over many 10s of hours of use. Unless the fuel that’s been used is very poor quality, or the lamp is not running properly for other reasons, carbon build up should not be a problem in a newish vapouriser, unless it’s got a fault. Can you take the pricker out and see how much carbon is on the pricker? Cheers Tony
As you will see in the linked tread I do not think carbon build up is the underlying problem that causes this. It is the vapouriser running too hot. That may cause carbon buld up but i think it is much more likely the walls soften and bulge. Since making sure that the burner and vapouriser are in good contact with one another so that heat can transfer between them I have had no problems at all.
Jon, I read that full thread last night and found it fascinating. One thing I’ll say is that my experiences with X246B’s have been very displeasing. I have a very early Guardsman that I use all the time and it’s in an entirely different league in terms of quality, reliability and performance. I hope the Guardsman I’m currently restoring will be just as good once I’ve sorted out the vapouriser issue and fitted one that doesn’t have problems with it.
Yes, the older Tilleys were built to last and I have heard that many Tilleys were exported to Finland, this link shows a post where I mentioned how I improve the performance of X-246-B lanterns, just scroll down the page. Nighttime tours at Fort Liezele
Looking at the photo I think that the spigeot has failed. It should have more thread showing than is apparent. This may have allowed flame to be directed back between the vapouriser and spigeot. I can see it is one of the modern made ones, where the jet end is tig welded in place. in addition the needle is friction welded to give the hard wire near the jet, and softer wire running to the spring. It also serves to retain the spring. you can see where the friction weld is off-centre. Generally these original things go on for ever - the failure rates are quite low. However the vapouriser was designed to be a consumable.
It’s actually astonishing how many Tilleys there are here in Finland. It seems to be something practically every household had in times past. It’s also rather sad how so few have managed to keep track of their spirit jar and torch. I checked out your other thread and very much like your upgraded X246B’s! I’ve actually been on the lookout for a long time for old Guardsman pumps and control valves to install on my own newer Tilleys. Maybe I’ll take on that little project this hockey season
The X-246-B lanterns are useful for spares especially if they have an intact glass and a sound hood, it's cheaper to buy a rough lantern than to buy parts. Valmet lanterns were made in Finland, have you found any yet? Valmet 300 Finland Jaska
An interesting day here in Central Finland as I work on my lamps… I’m switching topics a bit here, so forgive me for that. I wanted to test the original vapouriser from the old Guardsman I’m restoring (not the “pregnant” vapouriser from one of my X246B’s), so I fitted it to an X246B and did a test burn. It lit up just fine and sounded great, but I was outside in an abundance of caution, so I couldn’t see the blue flame very well. I brought the lamp inside and had a look and noticed that 100% of the flame was coming down the walls of the vapouriser from the end of the spigot! And no, this is not the damaged burner from the other lamp discussed in this thread. The lamp is cooling down as I write this. I’ll be curious to see what the matter might be .
I’m afraid not. Those must be extremely rare nowadays. The lanterns we have in Finland are mostly Tilley, Optimus, Santrax, Hasag, Hipólito and newer 500cp Petromax.
When I blue flame test a burner system I only pump in a small amount of pressure, if to much pressure is pumped in then one result is what happened to yours and another outcome is that the blue flame blows out. Hopefully you will find some Valmet lanterns and they also made a stove which can be viewed via the link below, there are some old images of the Valmet lantern factory, but I have not been able to find those, perhaps another member will find those images. Valmet also made tractors. Jaska Valmet Eräkeitin
If you look at a drawing of the burner What do I call this part?: Tilley the gas is blown up the injector tube, where it mixes with air supplied from the three air tubes in the dome or mixing tube. The gas hen comes down to exit via the rows of holes around the spigeot where it should be burning.. If you are convinced the flame in coming out from between the spigeot and vapouriser then there may be a blockage. Insects can make homes in these.
This link shows those images which I mentioned in my previous post. https://classicpressurelamps.com/threads/valmet-lanterns.19398/#post-161415
Yes, the first thing that came to mind was blockage in the burner, but the last time I serviced the lamp in question I inspected the burner and blew the whole thing out with compressed air. The flame was for a certainty emitting from between the spigot and vapouriser. Does it sound like I should test it again with less pressure or do anything else differently?
Testing it with less pressure is what I would do. The link for the stove works for me, you could try going onto CCS., via the tab at the top of the page and using the site's search engine or do you mean the link for the Valmet images? It also works for me, but the library is only open to subscribers.
I will test with less pressure then. Thanks for the advice. The burner has been having a nice bath in citric acid for a couple hours. I’ll get it as clean as I can and then blow it out from every orifice with compressed air before testing. Is there any reason to torch and quench the vapouriser at this point, or just use it as is if the blue flame test turns out alright?
I would just try the vapouriser as it is, it can be cleaned later if that is required. These links show old photographs which connect Finland and Shetland, perhaps they will be of interest to you. Shetland Museum and Archives::Gravestone; to Karl Sundblom, of Aland, Finland Shetland Museum and Archives::Untitled Item Shetland Museum and Archives::Finnish four-masted topsail schooner
Of course! It’s amazing to think how someone would have been able to do the research necessary, during the time of WWII, to identify a random deceased foreign person washing up on the shore in a raft. Really mind boggling. You have me and the wife intrigued about Shetland. Maybe an eventual sightseeing trip is in the cards .
I recall reading about that Finnish man who was buried on Fair Isle and if I recall correctly there was some paperwork or identification found in his pockets and that was used to get word back to Finland eventually. This link shows my Shetland photos topic. Shetland photos.
I’ve done all I can do with the Guardsman now, I think. The original vapouriser is installed and I’ve done a test burn with my brand new burner from Juliands. I pressurized the fount with 30 strokes of the pump and this is how it burns. Is this mantle-worthy? I recorded a short video clip to give a better view of how it burns, but sharing it seems impractical. There is some pale orange flame that flares down to just below the spigot, but none of the streaky yellow blasts that I’ve seen elsewhere. The hissing is constant and the burn seems overall very consistent.
