I picked up a very nice Coleman Canadian Quick-Lite CQ Table Lamp the other day for a fair price off Gumtree. The lamp is dated September 1926, both the shade and chrome are in excellent condition, and the base has no rust spots on the outside... Upon getting it home, I investigated the source of the mysterious rattles inside the font to find that like all good Colemans (at least the few I have owned), the font is full off rust. I fished the pieces out with a magnet to find rust flakes as thick as 3mm. If only I had a way to get a look inside to see if this lamp will ever be safe to run again. Well it turns out you can buy an effective USB borescope off eBay for AU$10. The one I purchased has a 5.5 mm wide head, 640 x 480 resolution, inbuilt led lighting, and works off an Android app. The lights are rubbish, but I managed to take the following photos by soldering some wires to a small light bulb. The situation does not look good. Getting back to bare metal so I can see how much is left is going to take more than the usual acid shake with nuts or ball bearings. For that much rust, an extended soak will be required and any acid is likely to leach significant zinc from the brass. Has anyone ever tried using molasses inside a font? In theory it should leave the brass alone.
Matt, I believe molasses is acidic, just very mild. There are non-acidic solutions which chelate the rust. One such sold in America is Evap-O-Rust. I'm sure there are equivalent products where you are. With that much rust I agree any acid remedy is likely to damage the brass before it resolves the rust problem.
Matt I would: 1. Get all the loose rust out using the traditional ball bearing and shake. 2. Then I would use a rust converter inside the tank, making sure it was well distributed but not allowed to cake on. 3. Then with old fuel (kero even), give it a very good pressure test and sit for a day to see if there are any leaks. 4. Rinse many times with old fuel. If you've got holes, then it's a different intervention. Cheers Tony
