Roughly a month ago we were discussing the Korean versions of Tilley vapourisers. For my 1964 X246B,I was deliberating over whether to buy one of those or another new 606 from Tilley. I decided my previous effort with a genuine Tilley failed due to my own ignorance fitting it(first timer) and also because of my clumsiness in the treatment of it afterwards. Being the cheaper, and I thought quicker, of the two options I ordered at the Tilley web site ~10days before I wanted the lamp for a camping trip. I got an immediate Email saying order received and another would come on shipment once payment confirmed. It was a week before that happened (part time office?) and the vapouriser arrived 2days after I had departed. Ho-hum, we ran the Colemans for camping. The vapouriser was waiting for me when I got back and yesterday was the first chance to inspect and install it. The pricker wire was fitted inside but it had a bend of maybe 20 degrees at about 1/3rd the way up. How? Straightened that easily enough. Reasonable pressure on the brass end would not make the pricker tip appear through the jet... No point fitting that yet. If the spring was removed the pricker alignment with the jet was fine and the length appeared correct. In some orientations with the spring fitted it was just possible it would all work but at other times the spring jammed it in the barrel. The spring was the same length as the others I have so I concluded it must be the ends of the spring catching where they had been cut. I squeezed the ends with pliers so they were inside the spring's major diameter. In hindsight this has a double benefit since the spring tends to catch on the weld between upper and lower parts and that helps withdraw it from the barrel. I have had the spring get stuck in there before. By now I had an assembly that worked nicely - this is how it should have been out of the box. I fitted it to the control cock very carefully because I had trouble with the lengths before. I was prepared to use extra washers as a shim since last time the pricker was too long and punched through the jet. Others have said they needed to add solder at the base when pricker would not protrude far enough to be effective. This one was perfect. No tight spots and the pricker seals the jet when up. No adjustments were required. I fitted it to the lamp which lit and ran perfectly for 4hours last night. It needed only a single prime and I only worked the pricker a few times to prove it's action. I'm happy so we'll see how long it lasts. Here's how it looks after running in. I conclude that these work but don't just slap them on without checking and fettling them to the lamp first. The one thing I find in their favour over the originals is that the jet end is much sturdier than the old style. It makes them much easier to peen smaller should the need arise. I proved that saving the body of the last one twice. Once after the long pricker punched through the jet hole and again after I bent the pricker end but failed to notice so it gored the hole again. A broken off pricker end was the reason for doing this swap along with some curiosity about how these work if fitted properly. Time will tell. I hope this helps someone in future.
....Thanks Jon for the detailed feedback on this... Looks like the end is now tig welded on instead of crimped?... Hope the weather was half decent for your camping??? regards, pb
Thanks PB! Yes you're right about the welding. It seems like it's quite thick gauge material. They have stamped the "pip" and then ground the face of it flat by the look of it. Whether the hole is drilled, or it just appears during the grinding, is hard to tell. I wonder if you can spot in the picture above a small rim around the jet hole? I was suspicious of that when I took the picture. Last nights light up proved I was right - big yellow flames - horror! The pricker has done it again, it's enlarged the hole. I suppose this happened when I shut it off using the control cock. The pricker was raised while the jet was still very hot. Perhaps the inner wire expands more than the outer? Maybe the metal at the jet edge is very thin (result of the grinding) and it is soft when hot? I'll never know but I think if i had just released pressure to extinguish this would not have happened. I peened it and lit it again. I removed ~0.5mm from the pricker wire length too so hopefully this can't repeat. It ran a bit rich. The flame was contained inside the mantle but the light was not as white as I would like. Starving it by raising the pricker was a big improvement. The jet needs to be smaller. More experiments tonight. PS: Camping in Cornwall last 2 weeks was good. 1st week a bit wet and much too windy! Last week was great. Colemans ran like clockwork and no broken mantles in transportation. They rode inside not on the roof rack for once and hairspray was applied.
Yes - do it carefully since the aerosol pressure can blow them off the mounts! Apply a good coating for support. It will burn off again as soon as you light it
That trick came from elsewhere on this forum - I can claim no credit for it! Peening the 606 again until the pricker end is a very close fit to the jet diameter has worked wonders. Bright and white now - I'll let it clock up some running hours. We learn that it is necessary to ensure the pricker only just appears through the jet at the highest point of travel otherwise it can enlarge the jet. That might have sacrificed the patent sealing action at the top of the vapouriser but I'm not bothered by it. Shutdown by release of tank pressure is preferable anyway and the control cock on this one has a good seal.
Today, while testing, it would not stay lit for more than a few minutes so it was losing pressure some where. Pump rod was not extending and no fuel in bottom of pump tube - so can't be NRV. Tank cap rubber in good nick and screwed down very tight. Can't be leaking at the control cock because that would also leak fuel - yet it's dry everywhere. Puzzle....until a tiny bubble was spotted between tank cap main body and the dress ring that covers the pump plunger. How does it leak there? Surely any air would leak out of the hole for the pump rod? I expected the pump tube and main cap to be made all in one piece. It isn't - the tube is threaded into the cap. It has to tighten against the rubber as well as the rubber tightening between cap and tank. I'll be checking that joint on every filling from now on!
Yes - but washer is OK. It was just loose assembly because I didn't understand how it was supposed to be tightened - it's not obvious unless you have had one apart before. Vap is running well. It clocked up 6 or 7 hours yesterday with good light. It dimmed and needed pricking a few times which I was slightly surprised about. It cleared up each time. Is it usual to need to clear the jet every few hours of running? I don't think my paraffin has any crud in it and the vapouriser certainly didn't when I started.
That assumes it was gaining any pressure in the first place to subsequently lose. It's incorrect to think the pump leather and carrier should be a tight fit on the pump-rod. It's designed to be loose and that's where the air gets into the pump-tube on the backstroke i.e. upstroke. If I read you right and you have it tight, there's a possibility that there's insufficient air under the pump leather to force into the tank to develop pressure within. That may well be why the lantern stays alight for a few minutes only. I don't think the tiny bubble you noticed escaping from the pump-cap threads is relevant to your problem. Maybe not - but your tank might have. It may just need a good flush/rinse. If the problem persists, add a few nuts and bolts to the fuel and agitate or swirl them about for a while. Repeat until there is no further crud evident in the fuel when you tip it out... Two further things: - First, I'd have sent that vapouriser straight back to Tilley and demanded a refund. Secondly, you need to see about getting yourself a decent lantern. If you want British, have a look at something by Bialaddin or Vapalux. If American is OK for your purposes, try something made by Coleman. But as they say on the telly, other makes of lantern are available...
I think you did misread me on the pump issue David - anyway that's behind us now. In hindsight I could have expressed that better - it was definitely losing pressure somewhere. Pump/NRV does work perfectly On the jet block issue I know the fuel and tank are clean, so are all the filters. I put a lot of work into that before. I won't be sending the vap back as it has been used for experimentation - which was the object of buying it in the first place. We both know these are not highly regarded - I wanted to see if they can be made to work. Would still appreciate knowing whether it's unusual to need pricker every few hours.
Thanks for that David. I guess you are right and not to forget this one has to be regarded as running in - please pass. With any luck it will improve!
Update on the running in. It did about 20 hours over several sessions but towards the end it was becoming troublesome. The jet kept blocking and no amount of pricking would clear it. When it was clear the light was still good and white - no issues with the jet peen - just blocking up. After removing the vapouriser it was clear that there was carbon up there. Only a small amount around the pricking wire but there were many black flecks in the paraffin that dribbled out. A little surprised this had happened so soon... As the jet is so small there is not much chance to burn out carbon using the heat + air method. A 606 has so many internal restrictions that I didn't fancy my chances with a mechanical method like a frayed brake cable end, so I tried another way. I removed the pricker wire and the rubber sealing washer. Then I heated the whole vapouriser in a stove flame getting the jet end hottest. The idea was not to get it red hot, only to vapourise any residual paraffin inside and completely dry it out. There was some vapour & flames fun as that happened. Once I was sure it was dry I started tapping the threaded base against a hard surface - an engineer's vice in this case. I kept it square to not damage the threads and it's another advantage that the new 606 base is steel not brass =hard. That got lots of the black sootflakes falling out of the end. These were soft and could be smeared out into something resembling candle soot. When no more would come out tapping the sides at the jet end loosened more. More tapping at the base got them out too. It's a bit laborious but eventually I got to the point where, when it was held up horizontally towards bright sky I could see the jet orifice down the tube. Pointed jet end down at a sunny patch on the ground and tapped the jet would obscure again. That means more to come out. Repeat ad nauseum until the jet is not obscured when it is tapped pointed at the ground. Reassembled to the pressurised tank a perfect vertical jet of paraffin shot straight up when the control cock was opened. I let that run for a bit (messy) to be sure it did not block up. OK and good for a test run. It lit and ran perfectly. How long will it run before it needs another decoke? We shall see... Obviously I do know about heat and quench - I just don't hold with the quenching part. It worked without but of course bear in mind this is not 20 years worth of soot to be dealt with here.
Jon I would be checking the quality of the paraffin you're using if it is choking the vapouriser quickly... Cheers Tony Ps. That is a technique I've used as well, but I finish mine off with a squirt of carburettor cleaner through the vapouriser.
Like the carb cleaner idea but don't have any Tony. I was thinking the same about fuel. It's actually being run on BBQ lighter fluid which works really well in everything else - crystal clear and says it is C11-C14. In a wicky it burns clean leaving just a little tar in the wick after a long burn. My only alternative fuel at the moment is the yellow murky goo sold by the 4 litre container at a well known UK DIY chain - now if that had been in the tank I wouldn't have been so surprised at what happened. I can't see that swapping to it will be an improvement. No JetA1 available here...
I'll leave that to the Brits... But what I use, which is Jet-A1 is (almost) pure kerosene, and it should be available in the UK because you have the busiest airport in the world... Cheers Tony
Hard to say if the quick carboning is due to the fuel, but it very well could be... - As Tony, I also use Jet A1 in all my lamps with great results. I am lucky and have a cheap dealer relatively close to my home... but it can be very hard to come by.
There's the national pipeline to tap I suppose. Long drill bit needed though. Some blokes were nicked recently for doing this on the diesel one.
You'd have to find it first - its exact whereabouts is supposed to be a secret (for various reasons!)...
...National Pipeline/Pipelines eh?... Were you nearby when it all kicked off Jon?..... doesn't seem like 11 yrs ago... :-/ pb
It woke me up all right! As it was brief and far enough away that the fire & smoke could not be seen (at first) I rolled over and went back to sleep.The eventual smoke plume made for a dark day or two. It was very close to my route to work so for a few days I could see how it was burning. There was a BBC crew on one of the local high rise blocks sending in reports. I could see them clearly. I owe my charcoal barbecue lighting method to that actually. A big tin of fuel with air only available at the top doesn't explode. It burns just at the top layer and the heat vapourises the rest of the fuel by conduction down the side of the container. A cut off beer can full of etho or metho (thanks to our Oz cousins for those words) burns just the same as those tanks. It starts small but it grows. No more smelly coals. The beer tin of metho at the bottom of the BBQ when first lit is well behaved. As you put on the coals it is growing. Finally it sets them alight but then it is gone. (Trangias?) No pewey vapours to taint the food. The Buncefield BBQ lighting method!
David (Almost?) all the kerosene sold in Australia these days is Jet A1. I buy it from a nearby service station for $1.92 AUD per litre. Kerosene at the hardware store sells at $4 per litre... Cheers Tony
What brand is that so I can avoid it? I've been looking at BBQ lighter fluids to stock up on once they go on sale for my Zibro heater, most are C10-C12, which is perfect. Do you not have any heating oil companies nearby, most sell 20L 'emergency' drums of 28-sec oil. It's by far the cheapest source of Kerosene I've found and despite supposedly having a higher Sulphur content and more Char I've never noticed a difference between it and C1 Paraffin. HD
I'm hatching a plan to scrounge some 28sec as I have never tried it. I think you could unhook the contents gauge sighting tube from a storage tank and use it to fill a container.... It's only flexible tubing. I watched one being replaced during a boiler/tank service. The stuff in question here was fuelexpress. It works brilliantly in my Hipolito 502 and is fine in all my stoves. More hours on the Tilley needed as I'm not convinced fuel was to blame but we shall see.
The Buncefield bang made the earth move here. Quite frightening as it shook the house violently and made half a dozen lamps jump off the shelves in my shed. Broke about four globes and destroyed the vaporiser in a PL53. We didn't lose any windows but I reckon it was a close thing. We could see the flames from the upstairs windows. ::Neil::
... ...Blimey, that sounds too close for comfort! ..mind you when I think there is Capenhurst Nuclear recycling depot and the Stanlow Refinery just up the road....
