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...

Lamp pictures

Bob over on the Old Town Yucca Coleman forum asked for pictures of my Kerrosafe with the shade off. I'm going to post them here as its easy to link them over that way.

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...

More on the AGM

Spent some more time with the AGM lantern last night. Actually I spent some time cleaning my work bench first which was probably the best time I've spent in the garage in awhile...

Anyway I wanted to see if the packing on the valve was the same size as on the Coleman. The nut that holds them together is NOT the same size, the AGM is 1/2" the Coleman is 9/16". In finding this out I noticed that the nut on the AGM was very loose, like finger tight while the Coleman was tight... I tightened the AGM down and no more leak. Sweet!

I moved outside and got the lantern to light for maybe 10 seconds but not well. Working the tip cleaner seemed to help but not entirely. At this point 2 things seem likely:
#1 I didn't have enough fuel in the thing. You get kind of tunnel vision when the lantern almost lights. I didn't have very much fuel in it at all, I should add more like 1/4 tank and try again.

#2 Something is clogged. This seems quite likely since I ran the tank out when I was at my grandparent's house last week. I thought it had a bunch of fuel in it and it turned out to be pretty much empty...

So next test I guess is more fuel and see what happens, if that doesn't help it'll be time to disassemble and clean. I hate to do that since I just put new mantles on but thats the way things go.

AGM 2572

The double mantle lantern is an AGM 2572, its in fairly rough shape, most of the paint on the base is compromised and the top has some significant chips out of it. The pressure pump and gas cap seem to both work correctly (a first, usually the pump's leather is dry) but the packing around the valve leaks. I'm going to try gently tightening it but it'll probably need replacement. Assuming its the same size as the Coleman 220F I've got it's easily obtainable.

I haven't found out much about this lantern, it seems uncommon, at least when compared to the 3016 which I've seen several of. AGM (then owned by King-Seeley-Thermos) seems to have stopped producing lamps in 1968 so mine must be older than that.

I tried to order a pump for the Kerosafe today but Lehmans' says they're out of stock. I tried to contact them to ask when they'll be in stock but their webpage won't accept any email address so I don't know if my messages are getting through. At any rate that same page, which used to be excellent seems to have gotten mostly broken in a redesign. In the meantime I'm trying some other sources.

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.

So I keep thinking about the Kerosafe lamp, how could I not? It sits in the living room and mocks me...
I've done more research, its interesting that there is actually very little info on kerosene pressure lamps available. Most of what I've found relates to the Petromax and Butterfly lanterns.
In the meantime I've gotten the Coleman whitegas lantern Angie's pepre gave me working. The gas cap leaked but the one from my grandfather's whitegas stove works so I used that. I need to get some replacement seal rings as I've got a couple other stove caps that leak. That experience reminded me how cool whitegas lanterns (and pressure lanterns in general) are. My grandfather had two which both still hang in his garage. I'm on vacation next week (starting now actually) and I'm going to try to get those going.

I'm going to get a couple of the Petromax mantles in the Kerosafe. Apparently kerosene lamps burn at higher pressure and the Petromax mantles supposedly have a larger mesh which keeps them from blowing out. They're also supposed to be very bright and are only a little more expensive than Coleman mantles. With any luck I'll find the pressure pump for the Kerosafe where I found the kerosafe (in my grandmother's house) originally. If not I have a complete spare pump assembly from a Coleman stove I was trying to get working, I wonder if with a small piece of tubing I could make a pump. Thats the kind of can-do spirit this country was built on!