Optimus 930 Carburation

It can be rather annoying when the average 200cp Optimus is brighter than the average 300cp Tilley

 

Indeed. I'm a genuine globe short, and sort of poised to buy one of those 80% sanded globes from Korea in the hope I might actually be able to sit and enjoy one on the dining table and not get Arc-eye.

 

I prefer taller lamps with shades on the table. The light shines down rather than sideways.

 

Hello, and yes, downlighting is good. I've stuck a picture of my own cobbled together Vapalux table Frankenlamp, made from a 320 tank, a Halifax hood that was torn open beyond hope, and the stem of a Tilley Corinthian my daughter found in her barn in the highlands. That had snapped off the font, and whilst it took a bit of science to solder it up so it would seal it's made for a satisfying use of otherwise scrap bits. A Tilley pleated shade can just about be perched on the top of it too.

 

Well, I'm pretty sure I'm onto something now. I just hoyked up the J-tube in the hood of my Radius 119, which I'd previously tried all sorts of the usual tricks to get to run sweetly and not soot the mantle, and gave up as I'm too mean to start buying new jets etc.

Having thus managed to get it a fair bit higher up from the jet, I think it now rivals anything else I've got in terms of luminosity. The whole inner plate assembly is pretty loose, scorched, corroded and distorted, and has endured a fair bit of commercial use as the chap I bought it from was a carpenter years ago and used it extensively on first fixes in building sites, and his dad had used it before him too.

Happy to say I put a full tank in this so it's going to be the "Lamp of the day" for the whole evening now.

I'm now pretty sure the distance between the jet and the J-orifice is pretty crucial on these designs. I feel suitably inclined now, set to work on my sooty Hipolito and other Petromax variants, as I've got a feeling those are suffering from "J-tube droop" too.

Before anyone pulls me up about this not being exactly standard, and therefore not an exactly empirically sound test, yes the frame collar is Bialaddin, and the cap was part of a light fitting !

 

As long as your collar is the exact same height as the original collar. It is the collar height that determines the air gap.

 

I measure 45mm collar height on the Radius 119 and 40,5mm on the Bialaddin 300X.

 

I seem to remember doing something differently to the bialaddin frame when I altered it. Can't remember and won't get to check what I did til it cools down. Yup, I did engineer something like the same height into it. At least the jet looks to be where it should sit. A lot stronger than any of the new replacements looked, and when I bought it it didn't have one at all so I had to assume it was the same height as without one in the first instance. As I pointed out the J-tube on this wobbles about, and can be more or less at any angle it chooses, as all the framework gubbins and chambers inside are pretty wrecked, and there's even a hole burnt in the plate next to the jet hole too. The cap is leaning as that's the way I've cranked the J up and away from the jet. Not sure what I'll likely do as a permanent fix on that sorry mess just yet, but I'm enjoying its companionship just now, after spending a long time in confinement on the naughty lamp shelf.

 

I just stuck a vernier under the frame and I have 45mm between the bottom of the inner plate and the top of the font.