Making a Lantern Preheat Cup

[@ronsilvey3539]

Appreciate you showing the struggle you went through in making these. All too often people edit out the difficulties encountered in producing something with limited tools, resources etc. but you demonstrated the value of perseverance. Respect your honesty. Looking forward to your next video.

[@philbaxter487]

Thanks for another informative video. I love watching your videos. Keep up the good work.

[@colingeer479]

When I've done this previously, I soldered the tube to the inside of the cap before the hole was drilled. I then had the tube to act as a guide when I drilled the hole through the bottom. A round file will quickly neaten up the inside edge of the newly drilled hole. Also, if I wanted to cut the end caps down first, I'd use a woodworking flat bit or a forstner bit to make a blind hole the correct depth in a piece of scrap wood. Then you can push the end cap into the blind hole and use a regular hacksaw to cut the cap to size using the surface of the scrap wood as a guide.

[@famasmaster2000]

Very well done and works perfectly. Good job my friend

[@crabtrap]

i used to just solder the copper endcap with hole to the gen tube. id just repack retip the gen tube with new parts if they went bad. prob was the solder would melt sometimes.

[@LanternLabs]

You'd definitely want a hard silver solder for that kind of application. Braze would be even better but would require a delicate hand on the torch.

[@johnfloydhumble5250]

Being a retired master plumber. As soon as I started watching the video. I could see pipe cutter was perfect for cutting the copper 1 in. Cap.

[@LanternLabs]

In retrospect it might work to super glue the cap to a piece of pipe. The pipe would give you something to hold onto while cutting...

[@benkanobe7500]

Could you get a Coleman CQ lamp and show us how to rebuild it?

[@LanternLabs]

I have a couple CQ lamps, I've never needed to do anything to one though. I'll add it to the list.

[@ReturnTheSanity]

Is this a comedy video like your 335 video? A hacksaw and a step bit are the tools for this job. I ran a timer and it took me 1 minute 43 seconds to cut the cap/pipe sleeve, drill my hole, deburr the hole, and fit the pipe sleeve into the cap turned cup. By using the step bit I was able to slowly enlarge the hole and get the sleeve to fit so tightly I had to tap it with a wooden block to seat it into the cup. This made brazzing it in place very easy and looked great.

[@LanternLabs]

Maybe I'm not a great metalworker but I can spell brazing.

[@billmoody9736]

Hey its been awhile since your last video - hope all is ok - for an idea for a new one - how well does a screen mesh work as globe - it does lower the light output a little but it doesn't break like glass

[@LanternLabs]

Good idea, I could make one from window screen and another from hardware cloth. I suspect wind will be an issue though...

[@billmoody9736]

Hardware cloth will be to loose a weave and wind will definitively be a problem - plan screen will stop most of the wind unless it’s really howling - or go really hi tech and get stainless after you figure out size with regular steel

[@tomfreebern2556]

Great video brother as usual tell the wife I said hello

[@kaseywidness]

How can I get a Lantern Lab sticker? Love the channel!

[@LanternLabs]

Make a post asking about it on any of the Facebook forums and somebody will tag me or PM curtludwig on the Coleman Collector's forum.

[@GypsyHunter232UK]

Why did u put the hole straight in the middle instead off centre???

[@LanternLabs]

Depending on the lantern Coleman did it either way. That said if you go back and look I drilled the hole way off center...

[@davidb9323]

I’m looking for a lantern to add to my power outage preps. One person recommended Alladin brand. I saw that the vintage Coleman’s or SMP* take gas. What would you recommend for a long term use, parts availability, easy to use and maintain with multiple or affordable fuel?

[@LanternLabs]

Get whatever burns a fuel that's convenient for you. For use in the house I'd probably recommend something propane, it'll make less smell. For a vintage lantern/lamp I really like the Bernzomatic Dual beam. Get a propane refiller so you can refill the small cans off a BBQ tank. If you really want Coleman get a 200A, 220 or 228, pick the one you like the look of best. They're simple to work on, parts are easy to get and they're very reliable with the most minimal of maintenance. Aladdin lamps are also fun, apparently parts are hard to get right now but a wick/mantle combo will last years in most cases. An Aladdin lamp isn't even comparable with a gas pressure lamp in terms of light but they're silent...

[@shoewriter5408]

I just pulled out an old Coleman marked 220F on the vertically ribbed collar. The sunrise is on the side of the tank and a date is stamped on the bottom- 10-61. Can this be a correct date? Thank you for all the great vids. Shoe

[@Mikeywatches]

No videos in a while hope all is well with you. Come back with some new videos.

[@LanternLabs]

I've got some stuff in the pipeline, waiting for the weather to warm up.

[@morayjames92]

nice job that's usually the way a simple idea gets hard once you start! I wondered if you ever installed a burner/wick a couple of sizes larger into a small flat wick lantern? The idea would be to get more light out of a small lantern? I am guessing air holes would need to be increased to provide extra air for the larger wick. Any thoughts or suggestions? You know what they say..."you can't do that!"

[@LanternLabs]

I've only ever put one wick into a wick lantern and it was the size that the lantern called for. I think a flat wick lantern would need substantial modification since the channel the wick rides it would also need to be expanded. That seems like a lot of work to me considering the amount of light that would/could be gained would be fairly minor. If you do it let me know, I'm always curious.

[@morayjames92]

@@LanternLabs thank you for your reply. I was thinking along the line of switching up to a larger burner designed using a larger wick and then install that burner into a smaller lamp. Since wick size is the primary design feature to determine flame size and so brightness. The modification would likely revolve around the actual retro fitting of the new and larger burner and also in increasing air intake of the lamp at the burner. That said a larger burner ought to have larger openings to provide for more air intake. I was thinking about switching from a half inch wide wick burner up to a 3/4 inch wide burner. I will let you know what I can find, I have some small inexpensive lamps now and I need to find a larger burner which would seem to be a likely candidate (size wise) and then see if I can surgically install it into the smaller lamp. While I am here I wanted to ask your opinion about the Kirkman (I really like the no.1 Little Champ), if you look at their Cold Blast lamps and then at the Hot Blast that Dietz make you will see that the Hot Blast lamp has a lot of open area on the mounting plate which holds the burner (this makes sense as you want to up draft as much fresh air as you can to improve the re burning of the exhaust gasses being pumped into the burner) but the Cold Blast version has few opening in comparison. Why do you think this is? I would have thought you would want all the fresh air possible to make your Cold Blast lamp run even brighter. After all it is the extra fresh air which makes a Cold Blast design burn brighter than the Hot Blast design. I have a lamp right now with a spare burner and I plan to increase the open vent hole area on one of the burners so I can compare the same lamp with the same burner/wick and the only difference will be the open vent area with one stock and the other with much more open vent area at the burner mounting plate. I will let you know how that works out. Please let me know what your thoughts are and if you think I am on the right track with respect to increasing the updraft air venting into the lamp at the burner mounting plate. Thanks.

[@jimhayes5928]

I like to ask is it possible to convert a coleman dual fuel model 285 into using Kerosene , if so how can this be done ?

[@LanternLabs]

Probably. Most Coleman fuel devices will burn kerosene straight up if you can figure out how to preheat the generator. That said I don't think its really worth it. If you want an kerosene lantern the 639 is a great option.

[@markusedma]

Doesn’t the solder melt when you run the lantern? Should it not be brazed?

[@LanternLabs]

Not that I've experienced, silver solder definitely won't. Soft solder might but it hasn't for me.

[@markusedma]

Lantern Lab Good to know about the solder! I’ve bought the stuff to make some too and have been holding off because of the same struggles you went through. Thanks for showing your process and what you went through!

[@bigferd4534]

Cool video!! I’ve been putting off learning how to solder and this is great information on how to get started. Are all silver solders the same? Is the flux in the same area as the soldering material?

[@LanternLabs]

The more silver in the solder the stronger and more heat resistant the solder will be. Ideally the flux will match the solder, it goes in the same area that the solder will be placed, when the solder melts it displaces the flux. For good info on soldering check out Keith Appleton's channel, he's made several excellent videos on the subject.

[@bigferd4534]

Lantern Lab Thank you kindly 👍🏻

[@smo-guiver8315]

That's cool - I presume you went to all this trouble so that you can burn 1-K kerosene in your lanterns. I've never tried this, does it burn as brightly as white gas, or only something like 90% as bright?

[@LanternLabs]

Primarily preheat cups would be used for a kero lantern. They'd also be useful on a quicklite lantern that needs preheat to light with white gas (Coleman fuel). Kerosene has more energy than gasoline but the brightness of a lantern is determined by its design, not the fuel used. A converted 200A, for instance, will be about the same brightness using kerosene as it would with white gas. Be on the lookout for a future video where one of these preheat cups makes another appearance.