That Half-Assed Kerosene Lantern
Jan 28, 2012 15:56:57 GMT -5
Post by avordvet on Jan 28, 2012 15:56:57 GMT -5
Actually it was Half Assed on my part, but I relearned a valuable lesson... if you are gonna do it... do it right the first time.
An old friend gave me a Lantern quite a few years ago, a AIDA 1500, made in Germany. Globe was missing, everything froze up. so it sat on the shelf for about 4 years.
So last night I decided to get it going, after figuring out how to disassemble everything. I gave it the once over and threw everything back together... at least I was smart enough to take it out to the driveway.
I grabbed the small propane hand torch to save on matches... Holy cow... I was immediately trying to remember where I put that fire extinguisher. Because when I lit the thing, it was quickly engulfed in a very impressive and spreading fireball.
Making matters worse, the "control" arm that would have turned the lamp off... yeah it was frozen from corrosion... the red "control" knob just went round and round, doing absolutely nothing.
Kerosene was spraying from the leaking valve, a leaking tube, a leaking joint coupling... well actually it was leaking at pretty much every threaded joint and spray nozzle on the lantern.
The ignition tube, which, as I found out, is a secondary always on valve... yeah it was also frozen from corrosion, which kept the spring loaded plug from covering the spray nozzle, so it just kept spraying kerosene into the burning globe.
Thinking the thing was about to blow like an IED, I was frantically looking for something to contain the "blast", and wouldn't you know, not a damn thing in sight that I could use... luckily every seal and connection on the lantern was leaking, so as the pressure subsided, so did the blaze.
Wife pulled up in the driveway, as I'm scrambling around to get the fire out, she just sorta glances over and says "is that the stove?"
Yeah, learned quite a few lessons again... as I re stripped and properly cleaned every nozzle, tube and seal on the entire Lantern.
Fired it up earlier, works just great. ;D
An old friend gave me a Lantern quite a few years ago, a AIDA 1500, made in Germany. Globe was missing, everything froze up. so it sat on the shelf for about 4 years.
So last night I decided to get it going, after figuring out how to disassemble everything. I gave it the once over and threw everything back together... at least I was smart enough to take it out to the driveway.
I grabbed the small propane hand torch to save on matches... Holy cow... I was immediately trying to remember where I put that fire extinguisher. Because when I lit the thing, it was quickly engulfed in a very impressive and spreading fireball.
Making matters worse, the "control" arm that would have turned the lamp off... yeah it was frozen from corrosion... the red "control" knob just went round and round, doing absolutely nothing.
Kerosene was spraying from the leaking valve, a leaking tube, a leaking joint coupling... well actually it was leaking at pretty much every threaded joint and spray nozzle on the lantern.
The ignition tube, which, as I found out, is a secondary always on valve... yeah it was also frozen from corrosion, which kept the spring loaded plug from covering the spray nozzle, so it just kept spraying kerosene into the burning globe.
Thinking the thing was about to blow like an IED, I was frantically looking for something to contain the "blast", and wouldn't you know, not a damn thing in sight that I could use... luckily every seal and connection on the lantern was leaking, so as the pressure subsided, so did the blaze.
Wife pulled up in the driveway, as I'm scrambling around to get the fire out, she just sorta glances over and says "is that the stove?"
Yeah, learned quite a few lessons again... as I re stripped and properly cleaned every nozzle, tube and seal on the entire Lantern.
Fired it up earlier, works just great. ;D