I already have a couple of 249s and a spare one for parts, so was good to find a 242B at our local market today. Looks like this was made in 1954. This one has seen better days but has had some diy repairs made to the ventilator and the handle looks too small for it and wont fold down. The air tubes and generator were a bit bent but was able to straighten it for the most part. Am yet to fire up but the fount is full of loose rust, I fear it may have rusted all the way through like my parts lantern and the underside is painted in green. What do most people use to clean out the rust? Fill with a weak citric acid or oxalic acid solution? Pump leather may need replacing, but i have enough spares to get this working and I have a good spare glass although its the more modern type with red logo.
Fill it with citric acid solution (one heaped teaspoon per litre), let it work for an hour or so (shorter if you use hot solution); drop in a dozen or more small steel nuts, shake hard; drain and filter citric acid; repeat until rust disappears. Then test tank for leaks. Tony
Yeah that sounds like a good plan. I hear a bit these days about oxalic acid being a safer option as it is supposed to dissolve the rust while at the same time not attack the steel. Seems to be a weakness with these using steel on the base of the fount. The earlier ones are all brass iirc.
Citric acid will attack the brass and leach zinc if you leave it too long; at the strength I use it (above) it would take a very long time to cause damage to the inside of a Coleman steel tank. Cheers Tony
Yeah it has to be a reasonable concentration before it easliy takes the zinc out of brass. Ive been using it as rust remover quite a bit lately and works well.
Ive got the tank soaking in the acid and its slowly cleaning up. Thankfully the rust doesn't look too bad on the inside when I shone my light inside. Meanwhile, I have got the valve assembly out and i can't get the air pickup tube apart. Do I have to worry about dismantling it to clean? Ive seen someone's teardown photos, and their one had a nut on it so you could use a spanner. This one is round so can't get a good grip on it without doing damage with pliers.
Unless it looks gummed up or heavily corroded, I would: 1. Remove the packing nut and spindle; remove the packing. 2. Don’t remove the pricker lever and eccentric unless you need to. Soak block and pickup tube in naptha or acetone. 3. Blow through all orifices with compressed are to make sure they or clean and work. Reassemble. Cheers Tony
I just finished rebuilding it last night, i ended up leaving all the packing nuts alone and just gave it an ultrasonic clean and polish in my brass tumbler first. Fired it up last night and all works, with no leaks! Im not sure if it burns quite as bright as my 249, but will do a comparison. Only real thing i feel isint normal is that it makes a bit of a rough sound while running, i have a video i can post, its possible that the jet is a bit worn perhaps? I swapped the ventilator from a better one on my parts lantern, it had been painted with some sort of rust treatment and it came off but left the surface very dull looking. I dont know if its surface damage or still residue, its gone a more white colour after running now, but its in pretty good condition for getting recoated. I put all the other parts in my ultrasonic cleaner with a little citric acid and simple green, everything came up like new. Im going to invest in a larger ultrasonic cleaner. These things are literally an automatic fettling machine. I applied oxalic acid to the base after stripping off the paint and coated in zinc primer. Polished the fount Refitted the mantle, turns out it was a silk lite mantle. Final assembly
