Sold a stove!

I think this marks the first time I've actually sold any Coleman anything. Oh no wait, I sold a 242C to Fuzz back at the original TrueNorth gathering.
What, no pic? I thought we had a pic...

Anyway the other day I sold my 502 single burner stove. Honestly I never really liked that stove, it didn't put out all that much heat for its size and when I bought my Peak 1 I knew it was time for the 502 to go. The Peak 1 is physically smaller, weighs less, lights easier and puts out way more heat than the 502. I also paid less for it. In the sale I got back what I paid for the 502 which I consider a win.

502 on the left, Peak 1 on the right. Its hard to tell in this picture how much more fire the Peak 1 puts out...

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.

Something new

A couple weeks ago a challenge was issued on the CCF, thats the Coleman Collectors Forum;

Use a camp stove once a week for 52 weeks. Every week a new theme is issued, follow the theme and post pictures.

The first challenge was hot dogs. Now I don't normally eat hot dogs but I'm always up for a challenge. I also figured that anything worth doing was worth overdoing so I decided to make a video:

Week two's challenge was eggs. Eggs are so easy to do poorly that I went with french toast.

These videos were really fun to make, I'm hoping I'm able to keep up with making a video every week. Theres nothing like a challenge to get you up off the couch and get things done.

4 stoves

Did I ever mention I have 4 stoves now?
#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
and
#4 is the Prepo I got from my grandmother.Its my only propane stove and as most propane stoves are pretty soulless and since stoves take up a lot of space it'll probably stay my only stove...
It is, like my Wenzel, pretty cheaply made. The case is just stamped steel welded at the edges. It uses a piano type hinge for the lid which was probably an off the shelf item.
Propane comes from little 6oz cans which are no longer available. Thats going to be a problem. One of the reasons I wanted this stove is because I hate using liquid fuel stoves in the house. For camping they're the bomb but in the house they smell. Propane is basically odorless so its a nice alternative when the power is out. This is also why I like kerosene lanterns, my 249 is mostly odorless too.

So since the small propane cans are no longer available I'm planning to rig up a way to run this with today's larger cans. Theres 2 ways to go about that:
#1. Adapt a valve system from a newer stove to go to this stove's burners. The problem with this idea is that theres no valve for the right side burner, just the valve on the can. Most newer propane stoves have 2 burner controls.

#2. Adapt from the newer type propane bottle to the older type mount. I like this one because if I were really clever I could hide some of the conversion parts inside an old can. The problem here is making sure my fabrication skills are up to the job. Propane is a high-pressure fuel so care is called for. This is not something that can be bodgered together with tape...

Another problem is that the hinge had rusted (okay it got painted when I was a kid...) and wasn't working and at some point the case had torn some where the hinge mounts. So thats got to get welded or brazed or whatever back together. Then the whole thing needs to be stripped and repainted so I'll need to remake the Prepo sticker in the lid. Its a pretty simple design so I'm hopeful its something I can accomplish...

Whoops!

Didn't mean to neglect posting for so long, things have been busy.
Since my last posting Angie and I camped at Burlingame State campground in RI, that was the same weekend as the annual "ChowdaQ" Mercedes enthusiasts gathering. I took the 202 and the AGM 2572 with us and they worked out great.

We had more light than anybody...
We stayed in a yurt which was okay but nothing I'd write home about

When they say "rustic" they mean it, theres the yurt, the platform its on, the door and nothing else... The quarter operated showers nearby were warm and relatively clean... Apparently the cabins in the park have actual bunks and are more comfortable.

The ChowdaQ was great, as usual the weather was lousy but we had a good group: 6 cars

6 cars and about 10 people, about the same as last year. I did burgers, dogs and sausages on the grill with peppers, onions, mushrooms and bacon fried up on my Coleman 413E which worked out really well.
We took the 190D down because the throttle was sticky on the 240D, that turned out to be the throttle shock. I wish we'd been able to take the 240D its got more space, we were pretty well crammed into the 190D...

Anyway, first snow of the winter was today!

*2025 Update* the Photobucket implosion made the pictures here not show up, I've moved them over to Google and added a bunch more to the post.

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:

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...