Hi all,
For a while I was sometimes plagued with a very slight 'Leidenfrost' effect sometimes. Today I was strolling in an antique market/car boot sale, and saw an alcohol conversion set lying around somewhere, in a dirty zip-lock baggie. I recognised it on the spot, because of the copper mash. Second look, I saw the Petromax 150 jet and the copper block, so it was confirmed. A Petromax CP500 alcohol conversion set. Acted stupid of course, I asked the seller what it was, he said haven't got a clue. I said, well, I only need the copper mash for a fuel filter in my weed whaker fuel nozzle, how much? He said two euro's, which I happilly paid.
Went home, and decided to install the whole works, had a couple of bottles of alcohol/spiritus lying around.
Drained the tank, took the lamp apart (first time, easy as hell for those who are scary, just follow the links here)
Wrapped the copper wire real tight around the rod (the one with the needle on it, needle removed of course, and also took the time to adjust the hight of the needle, that was a bit too high)
Wrapped it too tight, big wrong, explanation follows
Inserted it, and put the lamp back.
Did a test run on alcohol, 1 bar, pre-heat just one cup, found that info on the interwebz.
Big disappointment, Leidenfrost like crazy, worse then a dripping tap.
Lamp pulsating like a strobe light, turned it off after 10 mins and various pressures.
Started thinking... Why's the mash there, to heat up and vaporise the fuel of course, otherwise it would 'drip' into that heating ring... Hmmmm... why doesn't it vaporise now with the mash....
Deduction: mash is not getting hot enough, because it doesn't touch the sides of the pipe!!!
AHA erlebnis, haha. I've seen the light, and it's not pulsating, lol.
Took the lamp apart again, removed the mash, wrinkled the mash a bit, and wound it up so it would juuust shove into the pipe.
Put the stuff together again
Test run: almost perfect 
Lamp is running now on 1 bar, alcohol, almost no noise, about 70% light compared with lamp oil, Peerless mantle.
And, for those who run it inside, no smell whatsoever. On lamp oil it didn't smell much, but after 5 mins outside and coming back inside you could smell the lamp oil, like at grandma's in the old days when she was making soup or cooking beef on an old petroleum stove.
I think I'm gonna leave it like this for a while, to reverse it I only need to remove the copper block on top of the jet, and change the 150 jet to a 500 jet, and I'm runnning lamp oil again.
Bit of tinkering involved, and to summarise it, less light, but less noise, and no smell, and cheaper fuel over here (€1,20 a liter compared to €1,70 for lampoil over here in The Netherlands. Also a nice improvement if you travel a lot with it, and want to run a 'dual-fuel' system. Also, with alcohol, you can look into it without getting blind, a CP500 on petroleum/lamp oil will burn your eyes out, esp. with the Peerless mantles.
Kind regards,
Dutch
PS: I damaged the mantle while taking the stuff apart for the second time, had to install a new one. Little aftereffect: for alcohol you have to install a 150 jet, which is smaller. Also, it pulls less air because of the copper block you have to put in over the jet and the air intake, less air. For that reason, the mantle doesn't balloon to a full 100%, but to about 90%. I'm pretty sure if I convert it to lamp oil it's going to blow to full size, for the moment, it burns oke, you almost don't notice it, and I'm pretty sure it's gonna last me a long time, no carbons in alcohol
