Sunday, March 4, 2012

Big Maroonie Jumbo Lantern

Ok, started on a new project and I will post as I make progress. This one I am calling "Big Maroonie" a table top lantern from left over parts. Looking at these pictures it is hard to tell the actual size of the fount I am using. Ed

These ports into the fount were drilled and tapped, but since the fount isn't real thick walled I soldered them in as well, as a mechanical contractor I have hundreds of thousands of solder joints under my belt and it makes it look easy:




All the port joints done here:


Ready for a thorough wash and dry in the oven:


Primer coat:







The fount is a "fatboy" propane tank, concave bottom, much smaller than the BBQ 20# propane tank. The valve is really tough to remove from a propane tank and this time I decided to cut the valve off flush at the weld-o-let fitting that is welded on top of the tank. Afterward the brass remnant of the brass valve was carefully ground flush, then milled with a flat file. Two other ports are just drilled and tapped 1/4 NPT, like standard plumbing fittings.

Now here is where I took a chance, the 220/228/236/237 valve assembly do not use a standard thread. The 200/200A uses the common 1/8 NPT size but I wanted a bigger lantern head on my Maroonie. So I looked through my tap and die set and came up with a tap and die size just smaller than the odd ball male and female size and thread count that Coleman used. It came out just fine, so that joint at the top of the fount and the valve assembly is custom sized to make it all work.

The pressure gauge is 1/8, as well as the schrader air valve and they just screwed into the 1/4" x 1/8" brass bushings that had been drilled and taped to 1/4", soldered screwed in place. The fuel fill is a brass male half union 1/2 pipe thread to 3/4 hose thread with a 3/4 brass cap (Viton gasket). It uses a bicycle pump or compressed air tank to pressurize.

No comments:

Post a Comment