So I acquired this Petromax in pretty sad shape. It had been sitting on the previous owners front porch for 10 years. He tried firing it up and ended with a fireball. I cleaned up as best I could. Had to manufacture pressure gauge glass. Soldered the quick burner mount on the fount. I still have to clean that up. I also have to clean the reflector. These are awesome lanterns this is the first firing. I'm using a Petromax 500 cp HK mantle. Which mantles give out the highest brightness?
Well saved, and it looks plenty bright to me! When you get around to cleaning up the solder, unscrew the whole quick start torch from the fount and just replace the lead seal between it and the bung (after re-soldering the bung). A trick that the euro stovies use is to draw a circle around the area to be soldered with a permanent marker. Stops the solder running/wetting where you do not want it to go and gives a neat result. Use a good flux paste with your solder and not too much heat if you use a propane torch. I use an old fashioned copper plumbers soldering iron heated with the torch and just briefly play the flame over the job as needed.
If you're finding the solder a bit rough on the eye, you can always discard the pre-heater and close off the void. Replace with a meths cup that fits under the vaporizer attached by the screw which holds the frame to the font.
Thanks for the tips and compliments . That fount is heavier duty than I thought and needs a heavy duty iron to solder with, hence the untidy job. I had considered doing the permanent marker idea but thought that the solder job was going to be quick and easy. Famous last words. lol The lantern is equipped with the meths preheater as well but I like the booster rocket
The heat output of even a smallish torch is way, way more than you are likely to find even in a large electric iron. An iron and a torch used in combination allows you to flow the solder very exactly on the joints and to pre-heat the area. It takes a little practice but well worth the effort. Of course, growing a third hand to feed the solder takes a little longer.
A fine job! The lamp looks and works great, if you need some more heat for soldering this little set works great. Bernzomatic WK5500 Brazing Torch Kit-361487 - The Home Depot
I tried using a small flame to preheat the fount. I seemed to have forgotten about getting the temps of all the parts equal before adding solder. Now using a flame it all fell uh flowed together. Thanks for the reminder.
