Tilley Stormlight advice

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tombear

On a new journey
Jul 9, 2004
4,494
556
54
Rossendale, Lancashire
My apologies if this is the wrong place but I could do with some advice.

2 Days back I picked up a Tilley Stormlight presure lantern in remarkably good condition. The antique / junk shop in Accringtonhad 3 for £20 each so I picked the best.

I'm rather chuffed but there are two things wrong with it. There is some rust on the chromed cage and handle and more importantly it is missing the meths primer.

Before I attack it with wire wool etc could someone recomend the best way of removing the rust, if there is a best way, and where can I get a Part No. 151 pre heating meths torch? I wouldn't mind a spare No. 606 5" vaporiser as I've heard they have a limited life but that can wait.

Any pointers would be gratefully received.

ATB

Tom
 

johnboy

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Oct 2, 2003
2,258
5
Hamilton NZ
www.facebook.com
Hi,

Basecamp will have all the spares you need..It might be worth picking up a tilley service kit SP3 IIRC and giving the whole thing the once over. New pump leather, new Non return valve 'pip' ,new mantle etc.

If the lantern has sat for a while you'd be advised to give the air tubes in the hood a rinse through with some hot water to clean out and gunk or spiders webs etc. If they are in anyway slightly blocked then the lantern will not burn correctly... Be warned my experience of spares quality for Tilley is that it's pretty poor. I've had brand new Vapourisers that were way oversized on the jet etc... Hopefully your experience will be different.

You can use steel wool on the glass cage and handle.. I used some HT silver spray paint on mine....

http://www.base-camp.co.uk/tilley.html


Hope this helps....
 
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rancid badger

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
My apologies if this is the wrong place but I could do with some advice.

2 Days back I picked up a Tilley Stormlight presure lantern in remarkably good condition. The antique / junk shop in Accringtonhad 3 for £20 each so I picked the best.

I'm rather chuffed but there are two things wrong with it. There is some rust on the chromed cage and handle and more importantly it is missing the meths primer.

Before I attack it with wire wool etc could someone recomend the best way of removing the rust, if there is a best way, and where can I get a Part No. 151 pre heating meths torch? I wouldn't mind a spare No. 606 5" vaporiser as I've heard they have a limited life but that can wait.

Any pointers would be gratefully received.

ATB


Tom

Ebay indeed, put it up for sale and buy a Vapalux instead;)

seriously though, try this:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Tilley-Lamp-s...ing_LightsLanternsTorches?hash=item2a034e1620

And a new cage:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/tilley-lamp-s...ing_LightsLanternsTorches?hash=item2a03471120

No connection at all to the above.

I really would cut my losses and buy a Vapalux M320

cheers
R.B.
 
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GST138

Tenderfoot
Feb 21, 2007
65
0
52
North Yorks
Hi
The best thing that I have found for rust on chrome is aluminium foil dippped in lemon juice.
Found this when I had a vintage morris minor and have used it on a tilley lamp cage to very good effect.
Good luck
 

tombear

On a new journey
Jul 9, 2004
4,494
556
54
Rossendale, Lancashire
Cheers folks, just what I needed. :-{D)

I do indeed have a (much superior) Vapalux M320, got new from a Army Cadets stall at Bury Militaria fair for £5. The dumbest thing I have ever done was not buying the second one they had! D'oh!

Evil bay it is!

ATB

Tom
 

rancid badger

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Cheers folks, just what I needed. :-{D)

I do indeed have a (much superior) Vapalux M320, got new from a Army Cadets stall at Bury Militaria fair for £5. The dumbest thing I have ever done was not buying the second one they had! D'oh!

Evil bay it is!

ATB

Tom

Aha! well if nothing else; you could always do a comparison review of the two lamps, once you've refurbished the Tilley:)

I did this one up last year:
IMGP0003.jpg

didn't make anything on it when I sold it but really enjoyed doing it up:)

Hope I didn't come across as a 'pressure lamp snob':eek:

good luck and let us know how you get on;)

atb

Steve
 

tombear

On a new journey
Jul 9, 2004
4,494
556
54
Rossendale, Lancashire
Hi Steve
cleaned up the Tilley last night, used citic acid and superfine wire wool. Its good enough for a user even if the tops a bit bent and rusty.

TilleyStormlight.jpg


The Vapourlux is a sweet bit of kit, much better in my experiance, theres a guy on ebay selling new old stock army ones for £79 a pop which if I had the money I'd love.

I've found several preheaters for sale but it is grating that with postage they will cost half as much as the rest of the lantern did! Just call me Mr Meanie!

Nice to see your reflection on the tank, somewhere there is one of me reflected on the side of a billy, buck naked and looking remarkably like budha... I only relised years later when I saw thepic again and by then I'd forgotten where it was posted D'oh

ATB

Tom
 

rancid badger

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
I know what you mean:)rolleyes: no pun intended) about the cost of the preheater:(

That looks a cracking piece of kit though, is that the original cage or a replacement?
The tops always chip and you get people trying to paint them with heat resistant paint, which just makes them smell even worse when lit.

Ref the Vapalux on ebay; £80 is far too high a price, you can pick them up for £50 in unissued condition. You need to be wary of the p+p too, it should only cost around £10 maximum, to send a lamp via Royal Mail 1st Class Recorded delivery.Some folk charge £16.50!
I actually got one in new condition but without the spirit tin ( I use a 'Valvespout' oiler bottle) for £29.95 plus £12 p+p. and that was 'buy it now'!
Just hit lucky with that one:)

Anyway, nice job that, I still think I'd be tempted to sell it to fund another Vapalux though:D

atb

Steve
 

rancid badger

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
I'd be interested to see how you get on with the Tilley. Mine is in excellent shape but gives out a really poor orange light. My Vapalux by comparison is a blazing star !

NS

Rik will hopefully be along to offer true wisdom but that sounds like you may have either an air leak or a dodgey vapouriser.

It's a shame that Tilley let their quality go completely to hell in the 70's and never bothered to try to sort it out later.
I actually like the look of the Tilley but they are let down by quality and efficiency issues. I can't believe they ask £110 for a new one:eek:

Vapalux every time for me,now:bigok:

That said mind; the Vapalux alloy frame, is a pretty poorly finished casting. The curious attitude of ' that'll do', seems to taint even these, otherwise excellent, lamps.:confused:

R.B.
 

tombear

On a new journey
Jul 9, 2004
4,494
556
54
Rossendale, Lancashire
Sorry for the delay in posting, had issues with the broadband and yesterday the 5 year old boiler went tits up (service contract bod coming out tomorrow) so I've been keeping the kids warm which has taken a bit of effort.

Anyroad, I've still not got a preheater so the Tilley is still untried.

Thats the original cage, there was some rust spotting but the citric acid solution and superfine wire wool took it off sweet as a nut!

£50 sounds doable, even in my usually fianancially distressed state... I do happen to have a unused brightred valvespout I picked up to go in a early GPMG kit, before I got a proper green one, it never occured to me to use it for priming. Nice one! I have been using the Platypus littl' nipper with the US backpackinglight red pouring spout I use with my trangia/clickstand but thats a bit bulky.

Cheers folks

ATB

Tom
 

tombear

On a new journey
Jul 9, 2004
4,494
556
54
Rossendale, Lancashire
Certain comments reminded me that in the summer I picked up another older, Tilley for £3 in a charity shop. They wanted rid as the glass is broken and the tops as rusty as all hell.

3lamps.jpg


Can anyone tell me anything about the model and would it be worth restoring. It will involve sourcing the duff parts but if they are better than the more modern version it may be worth it.

I had the vague idea of keeping it for spares but if its worth doing up...

ATB

Tom
 

johnboy

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Oct 2, 2003
2,258
5
Hamilton NZ
www.facebook.com
The Tilley lantern in your photo with the gold fount and Brown Ventilator is a X246 Guardsman. The other lamp you've been restoring is a X246B.

Tilley quality was generally better on the older stuff and is Carp on the more modern stuff. It depends what you want to do with the lanterns...

If you just want solid reliable light for emergencies of camping then buy another vapalux they work period...

If you want to potter in the shed and marvel at a bygone age then fix up the Tilley.

I have several X246's and they all work with varying degrees of performance. I wouldn't worry about the rust on the ventilator or the cracked glass. replacing both will likely cost more than a new lantern with a better glass and less rusty ventilator. If you need some help drop me a PM.

Cheers

John
 

tombear

On a new journey
Jul 9, 2004
4,494
556
54
Rossendale, Lancashire
Hi John
the glass on the Guardsman is completely gone on the other side so It looks like I will be saving that one for spares incase I turn up another for a song.

Yeah, another Vapalux the same model as I already have is looking more and more like the way to go, it will make holding spares etc easier.

Cheers!

Tom
 

Mike_B

Tenderfoot
Dec 21, 2009
68
1
Perth, Scotland
Hi - my first post here, although I've been lurking and reading for a while. Great forum.

Can I defend the venerable Tilley? For more years than I want to admit I was involved with a Scout Group which used Tilleys for camp lighting and we never had any notable problems with them.

I've got two of my own, one very ancient, the other acquired when the Civil Defence was shut down some years ago - it was brand new, never issued, and absolutely perfect. Both still work very well and are totally reliable.

That said, whenever I have had problems with a Tilley, it was almost always traced back to the evaporator tube and fixed by changing the tube. Sometimes, removal of the carbon build-up on the needle shaft would help, but generally we reckoned that if the shaft was carboned, so too was the inside of the tube.

Some of the group's Tilley's worked better than others, and we never managed to find out why that was, even despite switching parts around between them. Pump washers can be troublesome, but nothing a bit of oil doesn't fix although in one case I had to liberate a washer from a Land Rover to sort one and that fix is still there some 15 years later I believe.

I've no experience of the Vapalux, but over on SoTP there's a thread commenting about problems with "pulsing" on both Vapalux and Tilleys which offers some interesting thoughts. http://www.songofthepaddle.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=13960&highlight=tilley+lamp Whenever it's happened to a Tilley, I've usually found that operating the valve to ***** the jet would stop it. Making sure the thing isn't overpumped also helps and it's essential to use a paraffin funnel to fill it, as even "clean" fuel often has bits and gunk in it which don't help at all and can sometimes foul the pick up filter.

On the subject of the tubes, we trained the Scouts to understand that the valve had to be fully closed (ie. taken past the point where the light went out) for the pricker to rise up thro the jet.

That in turn led to another discovery, which was that when changing a tube, it's essential to have the valve fully open (no pressure obviously) when removing or replacing a tube. If you dont, the needle will usually break off in the jet as it rises while the tube is being rotated. I regard the tube as one of those things which you have to accept will need to be changed on a fairly frequent basis.

The price of things like pre-heaters and meths jars is extortionate - we did find that a pre-heater stored for any length of time in meths will disintegrate! We also found that there are other alternatives to the genuine meths bottles which can be often found in the form of mustard jars, baby food jars and condiment jars.

Wonderful things. We had some big Camping Gaz lights as well - the Tilleys were far better.

Apologies for such a long "first post", but I hope it's of some use. I'd not heard of the citric acid and wire wool trick, so I'm going to use it myself on a slightly rusty cage on the oldest of my lights. I can affirm that there is no point in painting a top!

Mike.
 
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tombear

On a new journey
Jul 9, 2004
4,494
556
54
Rossendale, Lancashire
Hi Mike
Cheers for the info as previously I've only used a Vapalux.

Two days ago I bit the bullet and put in a chit for herself to get me a preheater off ebay. It was physically painfull coughing eight and a half quid (including postage) for such a simple thing.

The citric acid (I get mine from the brewing section of Wilkinsons, about 75 p a 2oz pot) is wonderfull stuff. I should have done before and after shots. Ideally you soak it for 20 minutes but it works fine just rubbed on with wire wool. I use about a teaspoon full in half a mug of boiling water for a soak. Infact after watching the Victorian Farm Christmass episode last night the eldest lad begged me to let him clean up a old glass and tinplate oil lamp that had emerged from the crap we had to remove from where the boiler repair guy needed to work.

Anyroad, he used vinegar on the glass and soaked the very rusty tinplate in the citric acid solution (convenuiantly a plastic kuska was the perfect size) and it buffed up a treat. There was just enough wick to get it going with parafin and it gives off a surprisingly good light. He's chuffed to bits with it anyway. I just need to source some more 20mm wick, unfortunately the local hardware store didn't re stock when the last roll was finished.

I'm looking forward to using the Tilley! No doubt It will need more spares but what the hell, its a ikon!

ATB

Tom
 

Mike_B

Tenderfoot
Dec 21, 2009
68
1
Perth, Scotland
Hi Tom - excellent!

I've just spent a happy half hour checking my Tilleys, the older one being a X246 Guardsman like yours. I know for sure it's not been lit for about 5 years, and with a new mantle and fresh paraffin she fired on the first attempt - mind you, it's kinda cold so she got a double pre-heat which always helps!

I pulled the vaporiser (not evaporator - duh) just to check its condition and found the wire bent! No doubt because of someone before me not knowing how to remove / replace them. That was annoying, so one new tube later and she's perfect again.

The other one, which hasn't run for 3 years, also fired up perfectly.

You're right about the cost of parts tho - I've just been on eBay to source a second pre-heater - ouch. The cost of a vaporiser isn't exactly low either! As previously mentioned, Base-camp is an excellent resource, and instructions and the like are available there so it astonishes me why anyone would want to pay for copies of them on eBay!

Mind you - I've got an instruction sheet somewhere - and a photocopier! On which note, let me know if you need!

Long live the mighty Tilley - I had the Gaz lamp running at the same time, and it's not a patch on either of the Tilleys. Doesn't sound as nice either!

Enjoy - Mike.
 
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tombear

On a new journey
Jul 9, 2004
4,494
556
54
Rossendale, Lancashire
Hi Mike
I'm loathe to start stripping the Stormlight to check the condition of the vaporiser, I'll try it and see if it works first Its not blocked as a few pumps gets some air coming out of the top end.

Its the waiting for the missing part I can't stand!

If it don't work I'll be back to pick your brains. I may get the SP1 spares kit and replace all the bits anyway, I have a compulsion to fiddle.

ATB

Tom
 

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