My first Petromax HK 500 CP

Greeting for all readers !

I like to introduce myself. I am from Finland.

Just got my first lamp ever for this weekend and it works fine ! I choosed to buy hk 500 to test light intensity and it is quit astonishing ! So bright that i couldn't believe at from first start.

Lamp oil i managed to buy from local cheapshop is giving quite much petrol smell to room, and i try to look more pleasent "fuming" fuel for future. Any good ideas ?

I purchaced lamp from Varuste.net, price was 124,90 €, delivery 3,90 € and also i bought 2 mantles 1,90€ each if there happens some "experimenting" but so far first mantle seems to be quite reliable, well, i guess that mantles last for some time in their own plastic packedges if not opened.

So far i have spent many evenings by reading your english forum, and being quite pleased about "fellowship" how openly you share information, good for you !

I must say that instructions that came with lamp, mostly finnish translation, was not too good...almost useless. Without experience how to put mantle to burner, it wasn't too clearly in manual. Much better in old manual. and desciption text also translated poorly, Little better in english. Best instructions are found from 1940 year manual "Petromax Rapid_01_09_1940.pdf", which i managed to find from internet. There's even finnish !. And setup picture is what is needed.

I can say as beginner that do carefully mantle tightening, as tying string is quite easily tighten too much and brokes. Luckily i managed to get double knot, when mine snapped, no need for too much force .

I made mantle burning with Sinol (denat.alchohol) and when it was burned, i even used "rapid preheater" little while. With 1,5 bar, lamp went on nicely at first start. And i got blind...

All finnish members, please respond also, i'd like know how many are from finland.

'till next contact,
Finlamp

Hello Carsten !

I added my place of living to account info, so it's available there.

One note (typo edited) about registration to board:
English language form doesn't work, at least for me, and i tried with ff and ie. Last two calculation systems, captchas, aren't working as suppose to. I managed to create account via Germanish language page (nice, i really can't understand your language, but somehow figured out what ment what..) and then it worked. It doesn't show captcha-question in english at all, just their description from internal variables, i think. Maby board is not set up properly for that language ??

Best regards, or auf wiedershen (?), und danke schön ! BItte !
Finlamp

I also had to dismantle pump yesterday evening, because it wasn't performing well, air leakage past piston. I bent/shaped that washer inside leather piston to enlarge piston, and seems to help. It doesn't feel too riggid at all. Is there available little better "washer" for replacement ?

Auf wiedershen,
Finlamp

Experiencies with lamp:

I just opened lamp and noticed that mantle had worn/broken, so i replaced it. I suspect that it might got broke during disassembling lamp..

At same time i noticed that burner #3 and it's upper pipe #34 was very loose from #33 round pipe. Maby have to make some locking to those, to prevent fire hazard.

And also i got some straight mineral oil, so i can soak pump piston, and then add some vaseline to it also, hope that this then fixes pump empthy action.

Best regs,
Finlamp

Some recent experiencies, any help would be good:

I used Biltema's "exhaust pipe paste" to lock burner #3 and it's upper part #34 to mixture tube #33 and also "safetywire" from #3 to #33, standard galvanized steel wire. But not with so good results:

And also i used 50% lamp oil and 50% paraffine oil mixture, as i could
read from forum that paraffine oil is also usable. Only to find out that
most likely that "strange" behavieur was from that. When i shut down
lamp, it was DRIPPING oil all over, from every place !

After some use, i noticed strange behavieur and shut down lamp. Exhaust pipepaste was giving little fumes (or so thought, could be also paraffine oil) , and thought that will be fine, but then i noticed that burner #3 WAS CRACKED BROKEN. ARGH !!!

Iäm not sure yet, but seems that paraffine oil is so stiff that it won't vaporize well, or walve in tank is not working anymore after that test. It gave some "gurling" sound while it was in use. And it spew unevenly "gushes" out of vaporizer tube, like "vomiting".

After a quite nerve wracking tests, lamp dripped oil almost one week, when left alone, it was everywhere...

After week, i managed to coold bit down, and starter to examine damages:

So i examined lamp, to notice that #3 was broken, but when starting to dismantle lamp, it seemed to be almost impossible task ! I wouldn't recommend anyone to use these "exhaust pipepaste"-products, because if and when you need to change #3 burner, you need dynamite for that task.

So, i put #33 to my filing bench, heated whole assembly ( #3 and #34 )with heat gun, and rapidly cooled #33 with water. Then grapped #3 with good pliers, and forcefully tried to open joints. It took three tries, before joints could be opened ! And with my full 100kg force. So i DEFINITELY WON'T recommend to use those additives to threadjoints, by my experience.

Also when i wanted to save some money ( as these tests make big whole to my wallet ), i cleaned all threads, but even that was big pain in the ass. First i broke what was left of #3. Then i had some dental doctor's spike/sting, to clean rest of those threads.

Conclusion: As written in Biltema's paste tube: "...product expand and fill all joint's...", and that safety wire wasn't installed too tightly, i am almost sure that this paste caused #3 to crack, by expanding with heat !Or then these two combined, can't be too sure...As before this "locking", #3 and #34 loosend every time i used lamp, so something must be done, but what ?

Any ideas ? I am exhausted, to be honest.

Best regards,
FinLamp