And then there were 6

I'd been thinking of getting another lantern for awhile now and Sunday when Angie and I took Buster for a walk I decided it was time. Around the corner from our house theres an antique/junk store called "The Barn" where I'd seen a couple Coleman 200As hanging out. We stopped in and they were still there just as I remembered. One had a safe on the bottom with a wrench and a pair of new mantles. Unfortunately that one had a brown fuel cap (probably from a Coleman 275, AKA "the turd") and a wing nut for a vent nut. The other had a proper 3 piece fuel cap and nut and as Angie noticed an old school sandblasted globe like my 202 has. They were marked at $15 each so I took the one with the sandblasted globe inside and asked if he'd take $12. He said yes pretty quickly which makes me think I should have asked for $10 but whatever, its a niceish lantern.

I got it home and drained out nearly a quart of disgusting smelling, but surprisingly clear whitegas. The vent is dirty but doesn't appear to have any scratches or dings. The fount is dent free with decent paint thats only scratched off in a few places. The fuel cap needs a gasket of course but surprisingly the pump works perfectly...
The generator had a 1/16" of carbon right at the nozzle, which probably explains why it wouldn't light with more than a dim glow (of course I tried it).
I've disassembled the whole thing and the found is sitting with BBs and vinegar. It was basically clean except for the filler hole which had some fairly serious rust buildup.

I tried the fuel & air tube from this lantern on my Grandfather's 200A which FINALLY got that lantern working correctly. So my theory that the FA tube was the problem there turns out to be correct. I'll need to order another FA tube. While I'm at it I should order a new generator ($20, gasp) for my 249. I'm trolling eBay for a new fount for that one. The old one is bent, I dunno if I did it when I took it apart or if it came that way but, who cares, its bent...

Finally!

Finally a little success with the 200A. I got it assembled late last week but it wouldn't light correctly. It was hard to get lit and required heat on the generator to stay burning otherwise it was big fireballs all around which can be pretty scary. I kept asking questions over on the OldTown Yucca Coleman board and eventually tried the old generator again. I didn't have much hope for it since I'd soaked it in Metal Ready (ahh the things we do when we don't know better) but the son of a gun worked fine. Much better than the replacement. I've lost the packaging for the replacement but I'm 99% certain it said it was for a 200A lantern...

200a update

Tomorrow I plan to once again wet sand the 200a in preparation for clearcoat. With any luck I won't sand through the color coat again, I'll be real careful... In the meantime have a look at all the other bits of the stove polished and lined up for reinstallation:

Still pluggin

The paint on the 200A is getting there. I wet sanded yesterday with 2000 grit and once again sanded the paint off around the rim at the base. Not everywhere just a little strip. The rest of the fount cleaned up nicely so a couple more heavy coats paying particular attention to the rim should have it. This is the hardest part of the job, I want it to come out good but I'm excited to have it done... I've decided to go all out and get it as good as possible without removing the dents. I'll wet sand to remove orange peel, then I'll clearcoat and then use polishing compound to get the best shine possible. In a month or two I'll wax it so the shine stays.

The Kerosafe has been lit, I need to get some pictures of it burning. Its quite a process getting it going, put 20 or so pumps into the fount, then hit the generator with the propane torch until its good and hot, then crack the valve and it lights. Thats if everything is working correctly, if its not working right you get big flames... The first two times I had it lit I had mostly flames, then Angie went out with me to see it go and I got it lit with very little fuss. I've only had it lit with the shade once and that time I had major big flames which indicates I had way too much fuel and the generator wasn't hot enough... I hope to use this lamp inside this winter so I need to keep playing with it.

Finally I got Angie's grandfather's Coleman 413E stove working correctly. That one had a dirty tank when I got it, I sealed the tank and in so doing managed to seal the tube that brings air from the pump into the tank. I finally got a new tank from a fellow on the Coleman forum at OldTown Yucca. With the new tank I realized that the generator was all dirty but when I tried to clean it I managed to break part of it in the valve. Fortunately I had another valve so I ordered a replacement generator and with that installed and the manifold and burners cleaned the stove lights easily (maybe easier than my 425E) and burns well. Yesterday I made a dutch oven BBQ which had the stove burning for nearly 3 hours straight so I'm ready to call that one a victory. It could use some more cleaning but functionally its all set.

I need more pictures... I should work on that tonight.

Busy busy

Life continues....
I thought I was done with the paint on the 200A until I went to wet sand in preparation for polishing and I sanded right through the paint! Shouldn't be able to do that with 2000 grit paper. I think in my effort to not have any runs I was applying paint way to thin and as I was sanding between every coat I was thinning what little was there. Now I'm going to put on 2 or three layers and lightly sand with the 2000, then 2 more. Last night I realized the reason I get such bad orange peel is that I'm painting too thin a coat so I went as heavy as I dared and I seem to have lucked out and gotten no runs.

I got my 413E stove to work yesterday after having it for 8 or 9 months. When Angie's Pepre gave it to me the gas tank was dirty so I sealed it and in doing so I sealed the tube that lets pressure in from the pump, oops! A nice person on the Coleman forum at oldtownyucca gave(!) me a replacement. Then the generator broke so I had to buy (cheap) a replacement and THEN I had to clean the manifold good but finally everything works. I had it lit yesterday morning but in the bright sun its hard to be sure everything is good so Angie and I lit it again last night and it's perfect.

Just before I left for Burbank I mowed the lawn with my '64 Cub Cadet model 70 but I'd fueled up with the last of some old snowmobile gas which turned out to be bad and full of water. The tractor would run but only with the choke on and had no power... We've had loads of rain and the grass has gotten really long so Monday I pulled the carb and hosed it down with carb cleaner and let it soak overnight. Yesterday I slapped it back together (literally, no new parts) and shazam it worked! I'm very pleased with this one since Angie didn't seem to think it'd work...

Finally I'm working on an 8hp Tecumseh to put into my '65 Snapper. Its in a newer (mid '80s I'd guess) Snapper right now so once I get it started I'll be able to make a couple laps around the yard before moving it (and the wheels) over to the old beast. The old Snapper was my Uncle Pat's and I'm excited to have it going. Honestly I think it'll be a more appropriate mower for our yard, the Cub is really too big and ungainly...

200A painting

Paint on the 200A fount has progressed. Its pretty much done, I just need to figure a way to get paint into the lip on the base. To do it well I'll need to mask the base some, before I do that I want to let the paint dry and harden, its handy I'm going away for awhile...

Coleman paint underway

I don't know what came over me but Monday at lunch I took the drill with a wire wheel and ground the decal off the Coleman lantern... With the decal gone I just HAD to paint it. So over the next 30 minutes or so I used the drill, angle grinder and dremel to grind all the paint and most of the rust off. I found the date stamp on the bottom, 11/71 which makes this lantern older than I'd expected. I also found a fair amount of rust. Once the paint was taken off I inverted the fount and filled the base with Metal Ready. Metal Ready is an acid which will eat the rust off if its left alone for awhile.

After a few hours the base looked pretty good but there was still a lot of rust on the sides so I put it in a bucket with some washing soda and an iron bar for electrolysis. The nice thing about electrolysis is you don't lose any good metal and it makes a really nice finish. I let that run all night, rotated the found 180 degrees and let it run until lunch Tuesday.

At lunch I pulled it out, cleaned it off good and hit it with primer. Its going to take several coats of primer to build up in the rust pits. The primer also shows all the dents and dings in the fount, this thing is a disaster. Oh well, I knew that going in. I'm not going to bother with the dents and dings but I do want the rust pits filled in. It'll probably be a few days before I'm ready to paint. I need to get another color of primer so I can alternate to more easily be sure the pits are filled in...

I think I've got a better vent sourced. Who knows, this thing might turn out yet.

Coleman 200A Madness!

So last night I FULLY disassembled the 200A following the instructions from OldTown Yucca. They're excellent instructions by the way.
I've decided not to paint, this after buying new decals... I really like the patina the lantern has now. We'll see, my opinion has been fickle about this whole thing...
Anyhow I got all the burner parts apart and found them almost perfectly clean, I think this lantern probably has very little time on it. It probably got dropped at some point early on but for some reason it didn't get thrown away...
Metal Ready from POR-15 makes an awesome brass cleaner. I floated each brass piece in that for a couple hours which restored the wonderful brass color and left behind little piles of gunk. The primer works now too, it was the worst I've seen yet but soaking overnight in ATF softened it right up. It was in testing the primer that I realized the check valve in the fount didn't work. Pulling that was a chore. I soaked it in SeaFoam "Deep Creep" penetrating oil for hours and then still stripped the head. I drilled a bit and used my largest screw extractor and it came right out (WHEW!). So now I'm stuck waiting for parts. I've got my list in to Robert at Old Coleman parts waiting on a final price with shipping. I'm going whole hog including the packing and generator. I don't think theres anything wrong with this generator but I figure if I'm doing it I ought to do it right... I'll keep the old generator as a spare.

Disassembled the 200A last night, thats the little red Coleman in the trio picture.
Its a really simple lantern to take apart, 2 wrenches required. A good cleaning revealed its BEAT. The paint is trashed, the ventilator (thats the top part) was bent pretty badly and the valve is all gunked up.
Supposedly Rustoleum makes a good color match for the red so I'm gonna give that a shot. I could undoubtedly buy a replacement 200A for what I'm going to spend in parts and time with this one but thats not the point, that replacement lantern wouldn't be my grandfather's old lantern...

I've also sort of thought about just waxing this one and keeping the "patina" that its gotten from a lifetime (its certainly older than me) of use...

Anyway for parts I'm going to go whole hog and replace just about everything that could need replacing starting with the missing globe, the valve packing (don't want to get it together and have it leak) and generator. Other than that it should just be a matter of cleaning and reassembly... What interests me is how simple these things really are and how effective. I've got the bug now, I'll need to avoid yard sales and the potential for acquiring a ton of them...

Lantern pictures

Pictures, finally!

The trio, together on the bench. You can see the absolutely remarkable condition of the 220f that Angie's Pepre gave me compared to the other two that lived in my Grandfather's garage for so many years. Incidentally the fuel cap on the 220f is from the AGM to the left, the cap on the AGM is from my Coleman stove, I was testing caps, those two are both good. *EDIT* Lies! The cap from the AGM leaks but slowly enough I can't hear it. The cap off the Coleman 200A seems to be good. Its of the new type. So far I'm 2 for 2 good new type caps and 0 for 3 on the old type. I've got 4 cap gaskets on order.

Model plate from the AGM, interesting that it says to open the valve 1/2 turn. Some "experts" I've read say to just crack the valve to start a lantern.

The decal on the Coleman 200a, compare this to the decal on the 220f below.Which makes me think the 220f is an older lantern. I'm sure people in the know will groan and say "of course it is idiot". This is the way we learn...

One mystery down

I've been wondering where the Kerosafe lamp came from and how did it get in my grandmother's house? Did it come with the house, a relic of a bygone era?

Well the answe is no. My dad bought it at a yard sale for $0.50 years ago because it "looked interesting".

I checked out my grandfather's whitegas lanterns. One is a fairly old (60's?) AGM double mantle. The other is a newer (mid 70's?) Coleman single lantern. I plan to snag them both. Technically the AGM is my cousin
Tom's and the Coleman is mine. We'd decided this years ago when were were kids. Tom has kids of his own now and lives in Texas. I think maybe I'll clean it up and give it to him the next time he comes to visit his folks.