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How to service an oil lamp | TA Outdoors

Description

Graeme shows you how to service an oil pressure lamp! These lamps are great if you are out beach fishing in the dark. This step by step instructional video is full of tips to help service your oil lamp.

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Mike Pullen

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Tags: Oil Lamp (Invention),service,how to,tips,guide,simple,easy,fix,maintain,pressure lamp,oil,vinatge,collectable,fishing,outdoors,hunting,shooting,graeme pullen,graham pullen,mike pulle,ta outdoors,totally awesome outdoors

Video Transcription

welcome to the totally awesome outdoor show now obviously in that a little workshop things are going to be trying to show you some of you about all I think now down on the beaches if you're going out fishing if you're working out in the environment outside you probably got one of these if not you really ought to invest in one they're quite cheap no question of that very very cheap in fact for what they are and you can get rechargeable batteries of them you have a strobe light in case you want to go completely covered and you know they're very very useful go on your head you can work your hands-free because sometimes you know you're out that it's really cold and it's cold out today to be honest and if I was out there tonight if I was working outside indeed if I was doing anything in the outdoors years ago we didn't have those only 23 week tiny weeny little headlights used to feed batteries to like like you give a kid sweets might give them kids get kids candy wheeze use these high-pressure Lantern now they give out a really good constant light different turns LED battery powered units you get nowadays you can still buy these this one is actually my boy it was the anchor lamp I've had it waiting for this 30 years it's had some use had a few services I haven't used it for years several years in fact and I thought do you know what I've got a feel I can get this going again because you can also use it for heat at the top here is very very hot it runs on pressurized paraffin it you know can be a food filter light if it if you having on a windy day but once it's going it gives off heat you can even if you wanted to put some tin foil on the top there you can put a meat pie or something on the top you can actually warm a replan I know I've done it from years ago so this is just a brief a little bit of an introduction on how you might be out if you've got one of these old lamps it's been in a garage like mine for a long time at the workshop out the shed and the fishing shed and the tool shed don't worry as long as you're not totally rusted up a few little pointers and tips and you could probably get it going again I'll show you what I mean okay

now quite a big unit I think you'll agree

this is a paraffin pressure lamp okay you put your paraffin inside it it you pump it up it's pressurized and that squirts a paraffin up through a central jet which is offset it's actually not central it comes up in a big loop and comes back down and it squirts or through a tiny little hole which is adjustable by a needle the needle gets hot and then it vaporizes as it vaporizes it burns whit inside a mantle you can buy replacement metals like these okay so now let's just look at it briefly this is the plunger in fact let me just show you just put a pinch on that let's screw it up start around here okay this is actually where you fill it up it has a little release valve here which you can let it out with always open that first before we undo the main filler if there's any pressurized pathway or where in your hips just releases it you know it's safe to undo so I just if it's done up tight like that just give it a couple of turns you'll hear the air come out of there and just undo it and you'll see that simple

there's your washer there's the hole for filling and there's a little filler that you normally get with these and it's gotta be mesh in there just so that you don't it filters out any nasties you might have in your paraffin can so it's a filter so it goes in quite clean there's a little piece of grit inside that jet the needle can actually block it up I'm just going to see what's in this I did users a few years ago I'll go I'll go check that out and change that that paraffin but you only want to fill out to about here because if where I found this is only my own experience if you fill it right up to this overflow in here put it back on and pump it up it part pumps fuel that's so fast it doesn't burn someone you need a bit of air in there as well so I feel it's about just over three quarters under there as you can see if I tip it forward you just just should see it took them out my finger there that's there so I reckon I'm down to about here now if you haven't used yours for some time you might want to invest in a new washer because what it's been screwed down tight it does get groove for the purpose of this one I am going to send away for water obviously they're just a matter of pennies but the shoes I'm just going to turn that washer over the other way just like that so as you can see it's there and then it's effectively effectively a new washer okay so I'm going to change this out and let me just show you I'm going to change you all let's assume it's all been changed isn't it which I will do screw it back up and you can see when it's tight there's your pressure gauge like your bar pressure if you like one two three four and off the scale okay so you do your nut up here now let me just show you around here when you want to pressurize it here's the pumping or it's locked at the moment let me twist it round there has a little twist lock there if you can see that you twist it and lock it as a flat flange and a rounded edge and the rounded edge goes underneath it stops it it locks it in position you want to pump it up and pump up here and it pops up the gauge there when I get to about between one to one-and-a-half to live with everyone now in here as well just so you notice they know they look like how these things work the plunger comes right out it's there it's on a spring it's a spring there but there's a leather washer there okay now you can make sure that's nice and tight there but you can also send off and you can get a replacement leather plunger that's for the air going in there if it starts to wear when you're pumping up and down you're not pushing it into the storage canister so that's a little tip there that's quite a coupon hakufu that's not good if you can imagine a piston inside an engine has to be have pistol means to take up the space that's really what this sort of leather washer is I'm assuming it's leather oh no I can feel the pressure there as I push it in you can hear it that's tight to go in so we do that one back up

and I'll show you the gubbins at the top okay going to try to show you the top half which is really the most important part

there's the glass shade you can get those as replacements as well let me just undo two rings there's two rings here and here which are your carrying handles okay so they also hold this fucking song so just undo them they won't come right off because obviously the ring here the handle is probably fixed to it you just what you're taking right off you won't don't need to you just need a gap to be able to take the top off so basically so you see that's just a cover that is just a cover in here is the housing if I'm turning sideways and I'll bring the camera down let's have a look at this and I'll go in a little bit closer see if we can get that zoomed in for you there when you pressurize it it comes up through the spout up through here and then vaporizes and goes out through the needle at the end might even vaporize after it comes out needle if you're basically travels through in goes out there at the top you also have an adjusting screw which you can adjust the actual air and makes you look a little nicer like our breath really at the top of suppose it'll mix your control there you can use I'm just going to ease this off now this is the point where you must not break that mental now if that was foken I just put it straight out so look down the center here and you'll see I'm lifting it right out in the circle there now you should be able to see that this is unbelievably fragile okay it does unscrew from they're not going to unscrew it it does unscrew from there and when you first get them they just come I'll get this one as a piece of cloth looks like a piece of cloth you can see in there that pink that's just that this would all burn off so you have a piece of cord around the edge which you tie you see that because the camera just around here and it hangs right down to here it will hang all right down here as a loose pouch and when you burn it off with meths they're all shriveled and it actually makes the mantle which is where all the paraffin vaporizes inside that actually is your lightbulb with an in effect is a light bulb now having said that unscrews be careful when you do that I tend to want to lay that down on its side gently if it breaks I'll have to pay another one that is the downside of all pressure lamps is damaging the metal okay so I'm going to say the glass shade out just wiggle it out gently again you can get replacements still at the moment with these you know it's the names on it can't even read they're so much so OB can still get these replacement ones give that one a clean now here at the top I'm going to get the camera to show you there's a little needle there which is the adjuster flow for the fuel going in

okay now I'm hoping you can see that just there

it's a tiny hairlike needle now on the on the valve around here at the side which is let's say it's your throttle you can braise and lower that needle I don't know if you're going to see that I'm not just in there obviously if you lower it down the fuel is going to come out and vice-versa and that will get as you adjust to for your fuel flow in effect really letting go get you cut you can increase it we can decrease the actual brightness of the light through lowering that needle there so one of the problems you can get around the other side that needle gets bent inside that shot so you need to get a replacement needle you can just crack that nut there and gently very carefully undo this this nut comes off as you can see if I go round the other side hopefully when I adjust this now there you should be able to see how oh there's a fuel can you see the difference as I lower that what's the fuel come out and that's those few pumps I did earlier on on that on the on the pressure pump they have watch there comes a fuel comes out so you can see that now to avoid that going all over my desk I'm going to undo that valve at showed you earlier on I can hear the air coming out of it all the pressures then release if I open it again you'll see it goes up and down but no fuel comes out so you can see that is sort of fuel adjuster okay now what happens when this keep fuel up here after August very hot you will get carbon on the rod inside this look and this is call this a needle at the top but then there's a center for our shaft down there which you can undo a nut here let's try and do that now and might be at the wrong angle to do this to show you but I'll try to keep my hands out of the camera shot now let's get that one crack for the other side now if you get an adjustable spanner on that nut here just pop it you can actually undo this nut if you can see this as well and the whole shebang release a bit more pressure on there let's come out there we go comes out to reveal that shaft of brass underneath okay now I can already see that the shaft recall is the way up has a carbon deposit on it you can see the black there which is the carbon deposit leading up towards the top with the needle is right there so let's get that brass needle out which is only done down here at the base pretty well finger tight there we go find it so you can see it you see the car when coming off on my finger so the whole rod comes out like that and you can see hopefully there and we get to get it in the camera for you there's the needle so I'm going to bit of a build up a carbon here and also carbon deposits also got carbon deposits there you can again you can buy these rods you want that fuel to go up they're nice and smooth so I'm going to get some fine emery paper and just rub this down both here and here to help that fuel go through but you can also adjust the height of the needle with this nut here right at the bottom you can see that nut there that can be adjusted up and down to make it rise and fall on the little solder I guess it's like a cam effect that's in there let's get this cleaned up I've got this main shaft now from cleaning up with bit of fine paper just be very careful of that needle at the top there you can see it now you can take these out replace them generally as spares there you go that's what it looks like

probably best to take that out put to one side before I clean the end of this and that carbon off of that and the nut at the bottom your Justin I won't I've got to try and fire this up first if it needs any more adjustment up or down the shaft to raise them lower that needle height I can do it with that nut there so let's put this needle generally the people give you two or three needles you can buy two thin either jaws one spares they're very easy to bend and even though you can get say a pair of tweezers or following pliers to straighten them again they're never really the same you can't really get them straight they need to be straight like that as you can see that's ready now to go back in so minimal maintenance really now for this main shaft here as you can see black on the outside it's probably some carbon on the inside as well so if you wanted if you get a piece of fine emery paper and just roll it around something very fine I don't use the actual brass piece at the insert you can get that indeed in there and you can give that a good cleaning as well get some I'm just one of doing a little bit or just doing a bit I've already done some of this anybody before so just showing you what we do and get some of the carbon they'll look black so I know there's plenty of carbon in there I'm pretty sure if we just follow this procedure as basic as it may seem you should get this lamp go this pressure lamp gun it's not been going for years and just cleaning out the worst of the carbon it there again all these parts you can normally buy again if you want to be honest you know if you can just work away and clean them up play every bit of six strip that's all you need there we go you just want something obvious using the end of a paintbrush here just to get it right up in there give it a good don't snap it off won't be used to get out spin it round you can try vertically or just twisting it around that's pretty well clean and polished on the inside it's now ready to go back so all basic tips are really troubleshooting in effect okay having cleaned all the brass Center needle and either straightened and or bought a new needle their replacement let's assume we put a spare in or we've been lucky I'm going to put it back in here just in that central area that fuel comes out just twist it down when I twist it in there and always check see if it's moving up or down yep still going up and down and then I'll realign the shaft on the top over the top agenda this is where you'll be care if you've got to slide that down without bending the needle generally once it's inside the needle naturally comes out at the top and again make sure you don't get cross loaded down here and make sure that the circle on the top which is where the fuel goes round make sure that is dead central because that's inside here is where your mantle is got the rest all right let's just knit that up a second you don't need to over tighten these their brass your scrip it so just give it a nice neat tweak okay now I put the nut back on the top this is also you know pretty critical you need to would I find best at is my tip would be to drop the shaft down with the needle in it and then just gently because if it's up high and you screw this thread on just do it gently now you can bend you can bend the needle so now I'm just going to feel my finger yes I could just feel the needle tip come through the top I'm going to try and zoom in and show you that so I drop the needle down I'm just during this on but before we do it outside I just feel gently can I feel a needle there raise it up and just do it very carefully and I could just feel it coming up there can you guys see it that should be up now so that's the needle just through the top there here we go there I just feel it I feel you're going to be able to see that on the camera there's an absolute hair at the top maybe if I move it you can see it going I'll come I can definitely just feel a little pricking with my finger they are like that should be able to see that so be careful when you put that nut on that you don't actually bend the end of the needle over and then jit again just give it a little tweak not a great deals you don't you don't no pull out of alignment this sir is ring this ring here yeah they're just on there not there I want to do it too tight just enough so that the fuel obviously can come out now I just want to show you I managed to take one out of the package this is the new replacement mantle bimetals okay if there's a hole in it replace it they're only very cheaper they like silk and they're just made in such a soft material and one in what it is basically is that look you can see it's very very pliable and the pink side has a hole in it so it's like a little bag if you like with the air can get in and you've got a couple of draw strings there so you put it around the base which is showing very carefully of one that's already burnt off around the base here of a piece of ceramic and it effectively these are so fragile when they burn I can tell you so this shape when you burn it off with the first pair of in burn will assume or should assume this shape so it's going to suck right back up and make a ball now where I can touch this like this now you didn't even breathe on this thing is absolutely as fine as you could ever get in fact the principle of how it doesn't we fall to pieces when it's burning under pressure is beyond me there you go that's what they looked like get a packet of two three because you're always going to get through me just bump them you go oh it's gone easy to change five ten minutes burn it off you got a new one but be careful with them because they are very fragile when they have been set okay I'm just giving the glass shade here it's called a super EPS glass it's obviously very very highly resistant to heat what you going to do is you're going to slide this over first and it just pops right down in here and rest now you've got here down at the bottom there the sheet now you've got down here at the bottom a reservoir which is where you're going to light the fuel from so the paraffin is going to be coming up here pressurized we're going to hold the tap with it closed until this gets really hot and then start to vaporize in here to create that temperature we're going to put some methylated spirits going to burn there and that burning methylated spirits up here we'll get the mantle hot ready to sort of flame up your see it's much easier to show people as we go along so you need to be able to do this in one go really I'm just going to show it to you as it is so the glass is in there now you can see here I hope you can see this there's a hole here and if I turn out the other way it continues in piping down here and when it goes through there that's where it comes into the mantle so looking at the end of that you can see I tip it there you can see that's the circle here where the mantle has to go through without touching the sides because it will break and this is your inflow if you like and that that brass nut with the needle has to locate in that hole there and you also have to like locate two squares here you can see those either side over here so it's very very careful to just get it lined up so you know and then I always aim on this a do it with two fingers you cannot afford to mess around with it there we go it's just locating nine - gently don't jam it down wiggle it this down job done all of it who then is I'm just doing this to show you drop the top on

make sure you screw up you're carryin hands because that pinches the top on and actually holds it and you're ready for moving around with it now what about lighting it two ways to light these you have what's called a sort of instant jetty used to call it jetting and there's a funnel up here and a lever here now mine is totally seized up because I never ever use it because you use quite a lot of your fuel for jetting but you used to have to open this put your lighter in there and that will flame it will be roaring but as you see a jet coming out of that tube and generally it would be 30 40 50 seconds and it would be a light as much much it's not a fast burn effect if you like but when I'm out all night it's going to use a lot of blah blah loves paraffin so I didn't I don't really use a jet the others I use it two or three times and figured with this problem being you have to switch the lamp right after refill it I would sooner have the lamp pretty full here and use a slower burn to start it with the methylated spirits knowing I've got probably six or eight hours of fuel left in here probably eight hours to give me light all through the night so what we're going to do is we filled up let's assume we filled up with paraffin and then you're going to shut that valve at the top and whether you can see that or not there's a little arrow there I put the arrow to the top okay and then I'm going to turn it round here and we're going to pump up here until such time as I get the pressure up to about one and a half just like this okay so you're just gonna undo that and I'm ready to pump some people go to to join about one and a half I get up to the one in the hole that's enough to get me started keep this oil with something like wd-40 and I'll push down on the lamb because I do not want to vibrate that man / now I can hear by the noise is changing the pitch and going home so I know the pressures coming up nearly up to one now I turn that around and i zoom in on it you should hopefully he says be able to see on just over one on the pressure up here on two would be about the average average burn so I'm going to go get it up to two and that's just under to about one and a half a month and then we're ready to get it started okay to fill that little reservoir at the base with paraffin they give you this little dispenser which is unscrew and it's got a nice brass tube there so you can stretch out and just fill that reservoir up because methylated spirits for those who don't know if operates really really quickly

obviously it burns usually a sort of purpley flame so I'm going to fill that up that little canister screw at the top on there and we go two snaps on now you could lean across stretch the rubber the glass shade and light it with a regular flame I however recommend these little auto lighters which have a little thumb piece here which lock it and it's not standing the same carry on box so I take it in so you can't make any mistakes it won't your world light or spot until you unlock the safety and then you can adjust it with a flame up or down just to light it so much easier I feel much safer because you can stretch under the glass right let's get all this moving smoothly now to get this lit unscrewed the hood at the top of the handles on it so you can take the top off you've got to take off very carefully without damaging that mantle there you can see the mantle just here you don't want to damage that at all just lay it down gently to one side and what I'm going to do is fill this up light it and put the mantle back on straight away so this is how it should work just check my lighters working yeah so I'm going to put this camera further down hopefully so you can see that that reservoir down there which I'm going to fill just there so just like the glass up I just use that to fill up with methylated spirits and I like the mess let it heat up and it should be away that's a way to lower the glass down if you want to do this relatively quickly noise it's sweet it's not hot at the moment I put on that lid the hood at the top make sure is located there do the nuts up so you can pick it up and move it around then they'll be doing this outside obviously doing it in the garage give it away from all combustible materials now what you see them in there and you can see that the the meths you should be able to see it there is heating up that stalk and you should just be able to see that glowing now that the actual power if you like the turning I'll move this around the other side is needle is here now if you open that now it will flood neat the all into the center of the mantle and it will burn and flame out and it just won't like it needs to be vaporized it's no good burning the paraffin it just washes around and it will never like you have to start all over again so you need to let this nearly burn out this this at the bottom almost all of that has to go because that way you know it's hot enough in there to actually vaporize that paraffin and then you can just open generally I usually hear a popping sound is say hasn't been used for years this is a real trial and error thing if I've done it properly it should work however we might need a second go at it fingers crossed we're going to give that in a while to burn up and heat on this mantle and the brass and the fuel I just can open this valve a little bit and if it floods paraffin are going to close it again it might even be beneficial just to show you if it takes great if it doesn't at least you see what you shouldn't do very slowly I can hear the path in hissing there we go we got lucky folks so nearly too much you see a flame out then I'm just going to leave it like that because I want it to be prized inside that mantle now it's getting hot the last of this math is going to burn away here I can just adjust it tweak it back a little bit more around here my my pressure

I still got over one on the bar pressure and hopefully you can see that on the camera it is indeed going and it's getting warm around the top as well I'm just going to try a real tweak open that's what you call power that's what you call a pressure lab yeah it's working after all those years I just remember if you do want to shut it down without the valve on the side just release this air pressure the little nut on the side of the pressure gauge here it releases all the air it goes down you'll hear it it dies right down but it's still very hot just be careful with it let it cool down before you put it away

don't forget close it up again I am tickled pink that lamp is 30 years old I haven't used it for several years maybe three or four years a little bit of servicing you can replace that leather plunger make sure that's working replace a leather washer or the rubber washer over the filler I turned it around if you remember I took out the needle just check the needles okay if not replace it the main thing is you want a clean flow of fuel over that brass center shaft just every paper that down check the mantles okay

it's not replace a mantel and there you are 350 candle power they make a 500 counter power one can you believe that this is 350 candle power more than enough to light up anything on working outdoors with and more important is flowing out and unbelievable about the heat when you were outside in the winter the hit torch is not going to warm your hands this is only rate makes you feel good I can cook a meat pie on it tell you what let me put the lights out and see if you can see it then camera light first is pitch-black outside by the way well guys it's pitch black in here look I can't tell you I'm gonna put the lamp outside so you know our dog is you know not faking it I'm just going to put the lamp outside carefully shut the door and you can see yes it's dark let's go and get it you can show you it lights up an absolutely enormous area should be able to see me in there who wouldn't want to see me in there so there you go a few tips a little bit of troubleshooting very very easy to do or the thorough reliable anchor pressure lab great for outdoors camping fishing anything you want to do working the garage it's there it's got heat why just working the garage actually look door up guys fumes don't forget is still a burning combustible unit but is paraffin not petrol I believe you can get pepper once by the way do not put anything but caffeine in a paraffin oil lamp will light your life in the bank you don't want any of that very very pleased with that as you can see a brilliant length thanks for watching the totally awesome outdoor show and keep watching us tell your friends about it subscribe and don't forget we do a fishing show that's about the third biggest fishing show in the world

if you're an outdoorsman you're bound to go fishing fishing sooner or later and buy one of these and you might want some of our totally awesome fishing show tips thanks for watching guys you

About the Author

TA Outdoors

TA Outdoors

Bushcraft, Wild Camping, Wilderness Hiking Trips, Solo Overnight Camps, Shooting, Hunting and Backpacking. My dog joins me on some of the trips. His name is Jaxx.

My name is Mike. And I'm addicted to adventure...

Check out our other YouTube Channel TAFishing: https://www.youtube.com/user/TAFishing

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