AGM goodness

Some months ago Fred picked up an AGM lantern for me. I forget the price but it came with a Coleman 220 which I thought was an F but looks to be an E transition, its got an F collar and vent but is stamped E. More on that later, I'm not really a fan of the 220, I think the 228 has a better look, I wanted the pair for the AGM.

Looking at Terry Marsh's site: http://tgmarsh.faculty.noctrl.edu/ under early AGM I found the 4614 which AGM made for Sears in the early '30s. Dates are tough on AGMs since they aren't stamped. Anyhow I'd been off lanterns for the winter but lately have been getting back. I've got a couple Colemans I've been working on that were giving me a rough time so I decided to give the AGM a little attention. Its got an integral pump/gas cap arrangement with the typical hard/cracked gasket and dried out pump leather. The leather softened right up in neats-foot oil and I've got some o-rings to replace the gasket. With the pump working the lantern held pressure and flowed air through what looks to be a Coleman R55 generator. It also came with the filthiest Coleman rising sun globe I've ever seen. After quite a bit of work with some Simple Green the globe is nice. It doesn't belong on this lantern since you can't access the generator or light the thing with it in place. I've contacted Fred Kuntz about a proper mica chimney.

Anyway since the lantern held pressure I figured it was worth trying to fire up. With fuel in place and some mantles tied on it fired up with little trouble, I had to crank the cleaning knob a bunch but it was otherwise pretty straight forward.

The thing was it didn't burn right, it'd get real dim, almost go out even, then brighten back up. It seemed like if it was dim and I fiddled with the knob it'd brighten back up again sometimes but sometimes it wouldn't. Overall I knew something was up.

Taking the lantern apart was surprisingly easy, its very similar to a Coleman 220 which of course shouldn't be a big surprise. Even the valve came out easily, considering how clean the tank is that wasn't a real surprise. The lantern was very dirty, I think it must have sat in somebody's wood shop for awhile, it had a lot of sawdust in it.

With the valve out I was presented with the standard AGM bottom end with what appeared to be a dirty screen. Many AGM lanterns have a fine screen on the bottom of the fuel pickup, usually the assembly comes off with a twist. To my surprise when I twisted this one the whole tube twisted.

That explains the poor running, there must have been a crack in the tube and I was occasionally getting a slug of air instead of fuel. I bet if I'd played with it for awhile I'd have found that the lantern ran better on low pressure than high.

The fix is actually pretty easy, I cut apart a Coleman fuel/air tube from a 200A (the bad one from my original 200A) and found that the tube slid nicely over the AGM tube. I cut out the bad part of the tube out which meant cutting off the end and then cutting the bad part back. Before I did that I measured the length of the tube so I could get it back together the same. I don't want the pickup pushing on the bottom of the fount.
Then I reassembled it all with JB Weld. In initially I tried to solder but I couldn't get a consistent solder joint while keeping everything in alignment.

Foam meat trays make excellent frames for something like this since its easy to adjust and get everything in proper alignment. You can see the transition from the very thin AGM tube to the thicker Coleman. Also if you look closely you can see the nub of the AGM air tube, it looks like this should be an instant light lantern.

The downside of JB weld is that it takes a long time to dry, I had to put the end on, then let that dry overnight, then put the tube on and let that dry overnight. Later today I'll polish up the AGM fount, then put it all back together and give it a shot.

4 stoves, *snort*

I like looking through the analytics and seeing what people are reading from my blog. Apparently recently several people read my "4 stoves" post from 2009. Interesting how things can change in a couple years. Back then I listed my 4 stoves as:
#1 is the Coleman 425 I got from my grandmother
#2 is the Coleman 413 I got from Angie's grandfather
#3 is the Coleman 502 I bought on Craigslist
#4 is the Prepo I got from my grandmother

Now add to that, in no particular order:
#5 Coleman 425E my Dad bought at a charity auction, this one lives at camp now

#6 AGM KampKook I bought at the Coleman Convention auction

#7 Thermos Holiday Stove I traded a 220E for

Now undergoing restoration, I got so far as repainting the tank and burners, got stuck on the body, it really needs sandblasting but I haven't got a blaster. Need to find somebody who has experience on light metal so as not to warp it.

#8 Butterfly stove, a birthday present

#9 Coleman 520, found in my in-laws garage

#10 Thermos 3 burner, from a bundle of stuff, I still haven't worked out the NRV on the pump so I haven't played with it much.

#11. Optimus 8R bought at the Coleman Convention

Probably my favorite stove

#12. Coleman 413C, got this from Tim, it needed a new tank so I got a good deal, not sure why I bought this other than I'm a sucker for round tank stoves. Curiously I can't find a picture...

So anyway 12 stoves at this counting. I really should get rid of some of them and I tell myself "its only stuff" but then I can come up with a host of reasons I can't live without this one or that one. Its an addiction I swear. That said there have been a number of stoves I've turned down. When I bought my Sears bighat for instance. Recently I told a guy not only would I not pay for a stove I'd charge to take one...

It could be worse, I'm definitely not a stovie, my friend Steve has a shed that is packed floor to ceiling with stoves.

AGM 3705

I just realized I haven't posted the video of the AGM 3705, in fact I don't think I've ever talked about the 3705 before...

Its an odd little lantern from the '30s from the company that was famous for odd lanterns. If you look carefully at the picture you can see that the knob tilts down. Thats normal, it makes space for air to go into the air tube. Why they just didn't put the air tube on the other side I have no idea...
Anyway you can see my 3705 in action on YouTube

CAMPING!

Eric's bachelor party was last weekend. We went whitewater rafting on the Deerfield river. We did the Monroe dam section which includes class 2, 3 and 4 rapids. It was AWESOME. For the second half of the ride I was the "bow bitch" which means I kneeled in the very bow of the raft and got slammed around by the water. Amazing...

Anyway we camped Friday and Saturday nights at the Barton Cove campground. I brought the Coleman 425E stove that Angie's grandfather gave me, the AGM 2572 lantern that was my grandfather's and my $5 Coleman 202 lantern.
Everything worked great. I burned both lanterns quite a bit and found that we would have done just as well by having only one lantern, the second was excessive. The AGM is slightly brighter but in some cases is TOO bright... I need to buy one of the quart bottles of white gas, the full gallon cans are decidedly unhandy for pouring, I end up spilling a lot...

I did have one time where I tried to start the AGM too quickly and got fuel dripping from the mantles, that caused BIG fire. Fortunately nobody (especially me) got real excited...
One guy brought a 2 burner propane stove but after seeing the heat my 425E could put out nobody was all that interested...

Here's my AGM 2572 in action at home on one of my proving runs before taking it on the trip with us:

I can't believe

I can't believe I didn't post here when I figured out the problem with the AGM... That was like a week or two ago too.
Anyway heres the deal, the AGM 2572 would light if it had been sitting for awhile, it'd burn for 20-30 seconds and go out like it had run out of gas... I cleaned the fount, cleaned the fuel/air tube, cleaned the valve, installed a new eccentric block so I could use a new Coleman 220 generator, cleaned and painted the air tube and burners, nothing...

Then one day I tried opening the valve MORE after the problem started, fuel came pouring out... So whats happening is that with the needle only a couple turns open the fuel/air tube is still closed and we're burning on fumes from the top of the tank. Its not that the lantern needs to sit its that the pressure runs out too quickly... With the valve open more like 3 full turns the fuel/air tube is opened and fuel can get to the burners.

This lantern is now the absolute brightest in my collection.

Whoa!

Geez what happened? I can't believe I haven't posted for 2 weeks... My parents brought my good Samsung camera back from camp and I've gotten some great pictures of the Kerosafe in action but I can't find the stupid cable so I can't get the pictures off the camera... I'll stop at BestBuy soon and get a new cable...
Speaking of the Kerosafe as an experiment I lit it the other night using just a windproof lighter (they shoot out a flame more like a torch than a regular lighter). Worked slick, one small poof and it was lit and running. The lantern works much better on Coleman fuel than it did on kerosene. I need to try blending in some kero and see how that works. At some point I need to pull it apart and clean the fount but as its still working okay I'm not going to rush.

The AGM is all apart again. Cleaning the fount made no difference in how it burned, it'll light for 20-30 seconds before the flame peters out. So I figured the problem was the generator, AGM generators are of course hard to find so I bought a Coleman 220 gen and made a modified eccentric block so its different style pricker rod would work correctly.

Same problem...

So yesterday I pulled the manifold, air tube, and burner tubes off. The burner tubes are soaking in Metal Ready (which is an acid that removes rust and corrosion), the manifold and air tube got an electrolysis bath. After a couple hours the electrolysis had done is work and I put some paint on the manifold and air tube. The burner tubes got flipped in their bath as I didn't have enough Metal Ready for them to be completely covered. They'll get a coat of paint tonight.
I didn't see anything about those parts that would explain my problem when cleaned them but maybe I'll get lucky...

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.