I think that any material will do for an nrv sealing washer as long as it works. Originality is always nice but something like an nrv just needs to work. There are many other nrv pitfalls to be careful of as i found out today. After removing the nrv from my gunked up ditmar 506 and successfully removing the barrel without marking it and not getting caught by the left hand thread. I was well on track to see some light until I gave the barrel some gentle heat to burn away the gunk ready for a quick wash and reassembly. It turns out it was made from a pewter type white metal with a very low melting point, after a very gentle heat from the end of the flame, the moment it stopped smoking and burning crud away I switched off the blowtorch and looked back at the piece of wire I was holding it on to see that it had disappeared and reappeared as if by magic in the form of a splat on the bench. That is one rare part now even rarer and me even more experienced.
@James K Bugger, there’s a trap for young and old players alike. Thank you for sharing. I hope you find a replacement soon. Cheers Pete
Milk bottles ? Ice cream containers ? No thanks. Some years back our local famous-name hardware store sold garden watering cans made of recycled milk containers. Went brittle, cracked up and fell apart after a few months in the sun. I gathered up all the broken pieces and with a receipt, took it back and traded up for a decent one. So an NRV never sees the sun, true, but I still wouldn't use that material. Perhaps the blue top, the lid, may be o.k. Ice cream containers, after storing stuff in them for years in the garage workshop, they go brittle too. So if the majority of manufacturers used lead to seal the NRV.....I'll stay with lead, and copper, in a pinch. The problem I had with the Handi was that others before me had kept adding new washers on top of the old, so there was quite a stack at the bottom of the pump tube. And yes, as was mentioned, I'm lucky that the thread was not stripped. So the lantern which had me tearing my hair out for years is now a sweet, bright, docile, reliable little favourite. O.K., I admit it will look even better when it gets a new globe. Ain't it sweet how one lantern makes a sacrifice so that another may appear fully dressed in public ? In this case, the Gloria was the beneficiary. Cheers.
