Trying to light HK500B, incomplete?

    Let there be light! (well, nearly)


    Cleaned the rapid-preheater with aceton (nail polish remover really, it was what I had in the house, courtesy of the mrs.).


    Build up pressure, about 2,5 atm. Now being a little more careful, it would not light. Dropped pressure to 2,0 -- would light sometimes. Dropped pressure to 1,5 atm -- IGNITION!


    Kept pumping a bit to keep pressure around 1,5 atm, slowly increasing to 2.0, counting down about 60 seconds. Turned the knob... light? But flames coming out of the top.


    Need to practice a little more I guess :-)


    Brie

    Hi Brie,
    if the Rapid is burning you can get the pressure up to 2.5 or 3 Bar. If you use a solderinglighter, you even can
    start with 3 Bar without any problems. I use and start all my Maxe with 3 Bar, without troble. If you use Petroleum,
    the preheating time should be 90 secounds and more. A Solderinglighter looks like this :

    Good things take time. Check if your nozzle sits right in the mixing chamber. Check as well if the distance between nipple and mixing tube is the right one.



    TO give you a reason to keep on working... it should look like this when you are ready.



    Picture shows my Petromax HK500 Petrol a few hours ago. The best lantern I have, no smell, brighter than a bright thing in bright land and reliable as well.

    :) that's cheating!
    All I had to get it burning was matches, candles and a cheap plastic lighter... nobody told me about the pro edition!


    Brie

    Ähh Brie,
    that's no cheating, that's cleverness or technik :D I used it once, because i didn't have something
    else, with the exeption of that, and i found out, that it worked perfectly. Now it's in my Maxe toolbox... :stark:
    Some other members, which had been at the last Pelam meeting close to Kleve, know this part, because i used it often..

    The innenmantel is a "clone" -- it's not a Petromax part. But since I got the whole package (innenmantel, mischrohr, mundstuck, tonbrenner) and this whole thing would in fact fit, it didn't seem like a very bad idea.


    The trouble is, the distance between the nozzle (50) and mischrohr is too tight. It was originally only about 4mm -- so I'm getting flames out the top. With a lot of McGyvering (some of the screw thread is gone so the "beautiful piece" is not adjustable very well) I've managed to get the gap larger, about 9mm -- and it works better, but not good.


    It should be about 14mm as I found out in the chat, courtesy of Joern.


    I should be on the lookout for a fitting original part...


    Brie

    I also have one (two) of these special lighters because at the beginning I had trouble making the preheater burn stably, like you, Brie. But I wanted to be able to get by with the usual tools as well (e.g. at my parents' home) so I tried lowering the pressure and everything went fine. Furthermore, my first "special" lighter is not ok any more because it looses pressure completely within one day. Anyway, your preheating problem is solved now, congrats! You will manage the rest soon, I am sure!!! What about your vapourizer needle, is it fine now?


    Regards,



    Aladdin

    :megaphon: Tilley X246-Ersatzteil 707 (Spigot) gesucht!

    Still have problems with the needle -- it doesn't fit on top of the rod. Looks like it is not the same screw thread, I might need to replace the top rod to get a fitting part.


    I've preheated a little longer, about 2 minutes -- since it does not have the curve on top I figured it might need more time. I increased the distance between nozzle and mixing chamber as far as I could, which helps. I'm still not yet getting the bright white light that I expected tho -- that will come with time when I find the missing part.


    It's a hobby thing -- if I wanted a perfect lamp I would have bought a brand new one in one piece. This way I get to learn how it works and I can actually take care of the thing if it would break down one time when I'm in the middle of the jungle on expedition.

    Hi Brie,


    this is definitely not a HK500B, since the B indicates the Bundeswehr - Edition, and they are all in matt chrome. From the picture, this is a Geniol Lamp (black pump knob) and might even be a HK250 or HK150, which would explain your problems starting the lamp. You would need different mantle, nozzle and needle.


    A picture of the type plate would be helpful.


    Bye,
    Christoph


    It is definitely a HK 500 Freck, i've seen the typeplate. The only thing i'm fighting with is the type 829...
    It could be that's an 826 ?(

    Hi,


    826 and 829 are Petromax type numbers, aren't they? I still think this is a Geniol lamp.


    Anyway, the distance between the nozzle and the mixing tube needs to be increased so the lamp gets enough air. The easy solution would be another innenmantel. You could also try to get the vaporizer a bit further into the tank or make the haltegestell a bit higher or the mixing tube a bit shorter. All of those are hacks though. :(


    Bye,
    Christoph

    Year Freck, you are right, 826 and 829 are Petromaxnumbers. The typeplate say, that's a Petromax HK 500.
    Just the innermantle is not original, Brie bought ist extra, because it was missing and some other parts like either.

    Hi Brie,
    i think I have recognized your problem.


    So I can see, the Lamp is build in 1960 or later.
    The "Innemantel" you have, is build in 1930 or 1940.


    So you cant adjust the "Mischrohr" high enough.
    You need a "Innemantel" build 1960 or later, like that you can by at the Shop. ;(



    freck: You can use the "Innenmantel" on Petromax or Geniol lamps, they are exactly the same.



    Ciao


    Hartmut


    P.s. Sorry about my terrible English and if you find spelling mistakes, you can keep it. :D

    Und möge das Licht mit Dir sein. ;)

    Joern:
    what's your problem with Petromax 829? It is the 500 HK Rapid Version, whereas 826 means 350 HK without Rapid. Of course you can combine a 829 cage with a 826 tank, but vice versa might be difficult because I think there is no hole for the Rapid in the 826 cage...


    Brie:
    You are absolutely right! Without having to tinker this would be a bit boring. My first 500 HK (a used Bundeswehr one) worked quite well at once except for the pump valve. During cleaning, polishing and replacing wearing parts I learned a lot about the lamp though had been a bit timid of damaging something or not assembling all parts correctly again. Now I like to maintain my lamps (but only if this does not need to happen too often, of course :D ).


    Regards,



    Aladdin

    :megaphon: Tilley X246-Ersatzteil 707 (Spigot) gesucht!

    The lamp is definitely a 829 / 500HK. The label on the lamp also says 829, without the B. I thought the -B suffix meant "Benzin" instead of "Bundeswehr" -- since the vaporizer is a Gasoline version I added the -B. My mistake.


    See the second picture on http://www.dnd.utwente.nl/~bre/petromax.html -- you can just make out the label there.


    Arno

    Hi, to complete the confusion about the lamp:


    Is it pure brass and the lamp is golden or is it some chrome plating, looking yellow at the picture?


    I even wonder 'bout the brown plastuc knobs at the pump and the wheel.


    See ya


    Orthotiger

    It should be nickle plated brass. As far as I understood the HK500 "domestic version" was made in two versions -- chrome plated steel, or nickle plated brass.


    The bottom of the tank is not plated, so it has about the same color as the vaporizer tube has, looking like brass to me. It's not steel or stainless steel. I'll try to take some pictures later.


    The pictures may make it look a bit more yellow then it really is -- I took those pictures without flash and with normal lightbulbs on so the ambient light might have a yellowish hue.


    The knobs are a darkish brown, almost black, looking a bit like bakelit to me -- but I cannot tell if it's that or plastic. The ones I've seen normally have blue colored knobs like the color on the bottom of the rapid preheater "Kipphebel".


    Arno

    Hi Brie,
    you are a little bit wrong, but it's not your fault. It's the fault of the unaccurate description of us.
    The old German domestic type is just nickel matt and nickel polished often called chrome, but it's not chrome,
    it's nickel polished. The knobs are in two different colors, the old ones are greenbrown and the newe ones blue.
    The Geniol Laterns have black ones and the Anchor and Santrax Laterns have red knobs. So the brown
    knob shows that your Latern is an old version. The brown one seems to be original and the blue one at the Rapid
    shows, that the rapid seems to be exchanged from a more modern version. The vaporizer seems also not to be
    the original one. May be, it has been changed to be used by gasoline, instead of more expensive Petroleum.