Beiträge von Brie

The "naked" lamp -- just the frame and the tubes, without the glass or the hood -- is now closed when I put pressure on it and dip it in a bucket of water.

When I open the vaporizer-foot-valve by turning the handwheel, with the vaporizer / carburator not preheated, a fine "beam" of liquid petroleum sprays out nozzle nr. 50. Closing the valve also closes down the stream of liquid.
However -- I've not been able to screw the needle on the rod, for some reason it does not seem to fit?

I've put some aceton in the tank which came out brown, so I guess the inside of my tank is covered with muck and it would need cleaning.

If I strip all the tubes, could I fill it up with aceton and leave it overnight? Would this damage the pump valve? Are there rubber / plastic parts in there? I've not been able to loosen this or take it out, and it looks properly closed so if I don't have to I would rather not open it.

How would I clean the inside of the rapid / flamethrower tube?
Is it possible to take the filter off, or to disconnect the tube from the nozzle?

Brie

I tried to light it by having a holder full of burning spiritus under the rapid, which has a flame that does not blow out easy. The rapid/flamethrower still does not keep burning by itself then, so maybe the tube is blocked or the filter is dirty.

When emptying the tank out and pouring the petroleum back in the bottle I noticed that the petroleum (which was clear before) is quite dirty -- so the tank may not be very clean inside.

So that kinda fits with the whole theory of the tube being dirty.

How do I take the little tube from the Rapid? What would be the best stuff to clean it with? Thinner / Aceton?

Brie

Well... I ordered some parts, that arrived today, and had some fun disassembling and reassembling the lamp. I replaced the vaporizer valve, which had not been closing. Put viton washer as a temporary replacement for the lead washer since I will probably be taking the thing apart a few times. Build up pressure, which it keeps, build up 3 atm, dropped the whole thing in a bucket of water and watched for bubbles. No bubbles, good, so it looks like the thing is now closed.

The needle does not fit on the rod (this is a benzine / gasoline type vaporizer, is that different?) -- might be that the old needle broke off and got stuck. I cleaned the nozzle.

With about 2,5 atm of pressure, tried to light the flamethrower, which it did on first try... wheeee!

So, with high spirits, put the back of the lamp together, burned a gasmantle down, and tried to light the lamp -- only to find that the flamethrower is now back to stuttering again. Another bucket test, everything is closed -- build up pressure, which it keeps, the flamethrower will not light.

Disassembled flamethrower, took a look if anything looked wrong, check all three holes on the flamethrower nozzle, looks like it is ok. It will not light tho, even after repeated tries.

What can be wrong...?

Puzzling...

Hi...

I've been a bit busy, haven't been able to test further.

I've done the "bucket" test. The pumpvalve is closed. I'm imagining I'm seeing a small, occasional bubble forming at the base, I may need to replace a lead washer there -- air is not leaking out, but it doesn't look like a perfect seal either. The top of the vaporizer is always blowing air bubbles, independent of the tap/handwheel 111 setting.

I got some help troubleshooting from another forum member, and it looks like I'm missing some parts.

I've taken the lamp apart and took some pictures,

http://www.dnd.utwente.nl/~bre/petromax2.html

So, the needle is missing, and rod 101 looks a little bend.
I think I also need new lead washers (or silicon substitutes for those).

Any suggestions?

Arno

Hi,

(sorry for writing in English, my German spelling is terrible but I can read it ok)

I'm trying to get a Petromax HK 500 to work. It looks a little bit different from the ones I've seen before -- I've been told it's an 829B / Benzine / gasoline model, because it misses the spiral pipe on part number 152.

There's some pictures on http://www.dnd.utwente.nl/~bre/petromax.html

I've since found the top part, i.e. assembly 117, glass chimney 74 and nozzle 3 -- so I thought the lamp would be complete now.

Looking at the bauplan on http://www.pelam.de/bauplan.html -- I'm wondering if I've got all the parts complete. Is the needle 68 inside the tube 152?

Arno