Hi all, I'm now the proud owner of this alcohol burning 1300. While I've been waiting for the correct drills to turn up to open out the jet (thanks Neil)of my Primus 1321, I've been stripping ang cleaning this one with the intention of using it with methanol. There's a few minor things I need to sort out and a few questions I need to ask, so I'll start with soldering. There are a couple of small cracks in the neck like the one in the pic., the other one is around 2cm long but doen't reach any edges. How do I go about soldering. I was thinking along the lines of cleaning around the cracks with a fibre-glass pen which would also give a good key, then using 2mm thick 60/40 tin/lead solder. Would this be ok? Would a Bunsen burner or micro-burner be ok to heat the neck up. I haven't soldered metalwork before, so any advice appreciated. Cheers Trevor
Hi Trevor You have two options with your superb lamp with the cracks , No1 leave them be as the lamp is not going to have heavy use , or No2 they need to be silver soldered up as the lead might melt or fracture with the heat . A small line of silver solder will knit those sides together very well & polish up nicely. A very nice lamp 8) Best regards Stu
Lead solder should be good enough. The collar on these shouldn't get hot enough to melt it. Probably unecessary to mention it, but do it from the inside. A small 'pen' burner with lighter gas works well for me. Anyway, if it fails you can always go for silver, though this could damage the nickel plating. Are you sure this is for alcohol? I can't see the air restrictor in any of the pictures.
I don't have experience doing this with lanterns, but drilling a small hole at the end of a crack can be a sure-fire way of reducing the stress. You might want to do that before soldering it up. I'm just say'n...
Hi If you use lead solder you'll not get the silver solder to adhere , if your carefull the nickel will be ok Stu
Many thanks for the replies. The lantern is for alcohol, in fact it's the one Karli posted pics of in the gallery. Incidentally, I remember being asked if there was a brass mesh filter in the vapouriser of the Primus 1321, there is a roll of it in this Optimus at the foot of the vaporiser (see pic). It gets sandwhiched between the vaporiser and pricker rod and was clogged with thick dirt from the mesh and down the vapouriser. This filter was obviously needed. I had originally thought of trying a more permanent repair and had fished out a couple of silver alloy brazing rods I had at work, but when I realised it involved heating the metalwork past 700C it put me off. Wouldn't this damage or at least discolour the nickel? Wouldn't a good compromise be to use a high melting point solder with a m.p. of around 300C. I've got a butane pen burner. The other thing I wanted to know was the best way to remove the quicklighter unit without damage. I've been making and fitting new lead washers (there wasn't one on the NRV!) and wanted to fit a new one on the lower vapouriser too, but the quicklighter seems to need to come off first and it seems absolutely jammed on. What's the best way to free it up? Cheers Trevor
You could always set the lantern running and then carefully squirt a small amount of water at the area you plan to repair. I don't know for sure, and I could be wrong, but I'd be prepared to wager the water wouldn't even boil...
If I remember correctly, the quicklighter has a tapered thread so does not have a lead washer. Of course this means it's probably jammed in there very tight. Heat and quench is out of the question because of the solder joins, so all that's left is penetrating oil and brute force. The problem with brute force is that you risk damaging things. If there is no leak from under the lower vaporiser section, then leave it be. Btw, most Swedish lamps and stoves never came with a lead washer under the NRV. Radius was an exception and later Optimus. It's not a bad idea to fit one though.
Just curious: why do you assume it is alcohol burning ? I see a rapid pre heater designed for kerosene. Also the preston coil points to a fuel that vaporises like kerosene. Alcohol and gasoline generators don't have a preston coil.
Wim, converted lanterns have the Preston ring if the lantern it's based on uses this kind of vaporiser normally. E.g. Radius 119. But as Nils pointed out above, I would expect to see some sort of air restrictor on the picture with all the details spread out. I don't know how it looks like on an Optimus, but I would assume that it's similar to the one used for Radius 119, i.e. a small tube that goes directly outside the jet since this burner type doesn't have an easily restricted air tube as e.g. Primus 1020.
Here's a pic of the air restrictor alongside that of a Radius 119. Though I don't have a Radius 119 (yet) it came with some Radius spares. Just for reference, the Radius air restrictor has a screw thread inside which screws over the threaded jet. This Optimus one seems to slide over the mixing tube,then being captive in the inner hood and sits just above the jet. Out of curiosity how rare are these alcohol converted 1300's? Hi Karli, lovely lantern, I'm looking forward to getting it burning. Nils, I've taken your advice and left the old vap. washer in place. The lantern is now back together again and I'll see how hot the neck gets before deciding what solder to use as David suggests. Actually, I'd forgotten I have a good gadget which should measure the temperature of the metalwork. I've noticed the NRV is occasionally leaking despite looking excellent when I removed it, and there is a leak coming from the fuel level guage where one of the seals is cracked. The guage bezel won't move, despite spraying it with WD40. How can I release it? Thanks again Trevor
WD 40 is not a penetrating or easing oil. It does have some properties in that direction but a proper penetrating oil will be better. Best you can buy over the counter is AeroKroil but you can make your own which is better still with half and half mix of acetone and Automatic transmission oil. ::Neil::
That's all Karli?! Oh, well... atleast it's something. David, apparently I have already won the smart-arse of the year award. Atleast that's what I've heard several times. And not just this year...
Been a bit slow with this one due to being busy, but here's a pic of it lit. First of all, I soaked the fuel guage in Neil's cocktail and wrapped a piece of rubber tubing tighly around it. Still wouldn't budge though. At least it isn't leaking now, maybe because the acetone/oil has expanded the dried out rubber seals, so I'll have to keep an eye on it. I tried running it on methanol 1st, which was a complete waste of time because even with a 350cp mantle fitted the light was very dim. Using ethanol made a big improvement, giving much more light, though it flickers quite a bit. Not as bright as paraffin though. After running the lantern for a long time the temperature of the collar only measured around 50c using a thermocouple + meter. I thought at first this must be wrong but you can hold your finger on it for while, so soldering should be ok. One last problem....the quickstarter works well but I can't use it to fire the lantern up because the vapouriser spindle cone is still letting fuel past when closed (I've got the singed hair to prove it). It must be dirty like the quickstarter spindle cone was when I removed it. Thing is the spindle is in tight. Because the quickstarter is jammed solid in the fount I can't remove the lower vapouriser and get enough purchase to remove the spindle. Is there anything I can drop down the vapouriser to clean the spindle so it'll seal properly, I've tried carb-cleaner without success. Conclusion, I really like this lantern and ethanol works well enough. The great thing is it doesn't smell like paraffin does,even when shutting it off the smell is pleasant (as you'd imagine). Great for use indoors alongside a fire extinguisher . Cheers Trevor
