Wednesday, March 23, 2016

It works!

Sorry this blog has been slow in coming, life and all...

Anyway, I finally found time to get the Turner Torch back together. The new paint came out pretty good if not outstanding, as the torch gets banged around it'll look more original. I assembled it and found a little leak around the torch head where it goes into the fount. A drop of blue Locktite cured that. I couldn't get the pump shaft to seal so I dug out the old to replace with an o-ring, in doing so I realized the old seal was leather.



If I'd realized that earlier I would have just treated it with neats-foot oil but since I already had it half dug out I figured I'd just finish the job. The o-ring seals okay but could be better. I think if I sand it down so its got a square edge against the found it'll seal better.

Finally a dose of alcohol into the tray, wait while it heats and crack the valve. Actually for the first attempt I double dosed the tray to make sure everything was plenty hot. This picture is from my second light up and you can see its not really hot enough yet.


After a couple minutes it settled down and burned nicely but suffered from the twin issues of needing to be pumped up often and having a poorly working pump. The pump is improving with use, it gets a lot of exercise trying to keep the torch going. I'll need to work on the cap seal more before going much further...

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