Metholated spirit burners

[Pete999]

Any of the Older members remember these burners, used for soldering etc?

 

[Spoon]

One of the guys who used to work at our place told me a story about these.
When he was a young lad they had one in their outside bog. Now, being a young lad he used to go in there to 'knock one out'.
He told us that in his adult life, when he smelled meths it used to give him a boner.....

 

[ipf]

One of the guys who used to work at our place told me a story about these.
When he was a young lad they had one in their outside bog. Now, being a young lad he used to go in there to 'knock one out'.
He told us that in his adult life, when he smelled meths it used to give him a boner.....

What memories can do for some, eh?

 

[Vortigern]

Yeh they were brilliant have used one quite a lot. Also camping stove version. Used to have to put a lit circular thing around the flame head to heat it up while pumping away then off you go.

 

[Pete999]

There wasn't any pumping on the thing I'm on about just a small cylinder with an infil somewhere to stuff the wadding and Meth Spirit, light the outlet and do some emergency soldering, bloomin kids don't know they are born theses days, lol.

 

[SparkySy]

I still use my old trianga for a brew occasionally! Reminds me of great times away camping off the beaten track!
The pot stand is the middle out of a cable drum with some tweaking.

 

[FatAlan]

Wasn’t it the old paraffin fuelled primus stoves and blow lamps that used meths to get them going?

 

[telectrix]

Wasn’t it the old paraffin fuelled primus stoves and blow lamps that used meths to get them going?

it was. also i remember meths camping stoves. like a can about 6" diameter with a meths burner ib the bottom. you lit the meths then put your pan (or tin of beans) on top. think they were only a few quid.

 

[static zap]

Meths , Mamod fixed stream engine . Middle class kids ..eh
(Definitely a different memory - Scalded fingers )
And an uncle missing his eyelashes / eye brows from messing with a 3/4 empty stripy glass bottle .

 

[R-fur]

The paraffin lamps that you had to pump up are called tilley lamps, I still have one that my mum bought for the power cuts in the early seventies.

 

[Midwest]

I remember I had a little meths burner for my Hornby steam engine, when I was very young

 

[Lucien Nunes]

Meths, Mamod fixed steam engine

Those are connected for me too. I still have mine, complete with the lineshaft driving the hammer, grinder, polisher and press. But meths also goes with fondue, which IMO is a much better use of the burner than heating a tin of beans. For meat fondues we heat electrically these days, but cheese (and chocolate) still best using the ceramic pot and meths burner.

When I was young, my family used to run a speciality restaurant where all hot dishes were cooked at the table. Despite a dozen meths burners on the go, flambés, charcoal-fired hot-pots and whatever, no-one ever managed to set light to anything. The safety rules were strict but friendly and anyone not grown-up enough to be trusted with a meths burner wasn't likely to be tempted by the menu and the prices. It was hard work but great fun, we had some regular customers who would set the whole place buzzing when they were in. A night with a couple of tables booked out to known bon-vivants plus live music was unlikely to wind up before 3am.

 

[Pete999]

The paraffin lamps that you had to pump up are called tilley lamps, I still have one that my mum bought for the power cuts in the early seventies.

The one I'm on about was used as a sort of mini blow ;amp carried in Sparky's tool bags for emergency soldering, all the Sparky's had them when I was an Apprentice, nothing like a Tilly lamp at all,

 

[telectrix]

remember my dad had a paraffin blowlamp that you had to pump up the pressure. he used it for larger soldering jobs. smaller ones, he has a soldering iron that he heated up in the fire.
blowlamp was just like this one:

 

[pc1966]

Wasn’t it the old paraffin fuelled primus stoves and blow lamps that used meths to get them going?

The British Antarctic Survey teams still use them, simple and effective without too much to go wrong when you are in the ice-cold arsend of nowhere. I think they struggle to get spares these days!

 

[Pete999]

The British Antarctic Survey teams still use them, simple and effective without too much to go wrong when you are in the ice-cold arsend of nowhere. I think they struggle to get spares these days!

Crikey I was asking about an old fashioned tool that Electricians carried in their tool bags, didn't really expect a History lecture. Vintage "ALTOCK MAJOR AUTOMATIC BLOW LAMP" Google it folks I can't copy the link but use Google or you preferred search Engine

 

[static zap]

Aha this one , like waiting for a valve TV to get warmed up !
(I remember risky stoves fueled on petrol )
Did have a butane piezo torch -with clip-on copper slug solder tip .
but found open flame an inconvenience.

 

[pirate]

I've got one of those, Pete999!
Bit fiddly, but hey...got the job done.
In fact. I'm going to dig it out tomorrow and pop to the pharmacy for some meths....or, maybe not...
[automerge]1590872813[/automerge]
Oh...mine doesn't have the wooden handle or the spreader tube thingy...my Dad used it quite a lot, but I don't think I'll be using it for heat-shrink tubing

 

[Midwest]

My Dad had a paraffin blow lamp. He used to strip old paint off the window frames. He used to send me up the local hardware shop, to get the paraffin.

Dum, dum, dum dum Esso Blue.

 

[telectrix]

My Dad had a paraffin blow lamp. He used to strip old paint off the window frames. He used to send me up the local hardware shop, to get the paraffin.

View attachment 58532 Dum, dum, dum dum Esso Blue.

how many window panes did he crack?

 

[pc1966]

Dum, dum, dum dum Esso Blue.

I remember garages used to have both blue and pink paraffin, I don't think I ever found out the difference other than advertising!

 

[telectrix]

blue for boys, pink for pouffdas girls

 

[UNG]

Wasn’t it the old paraffin fuelled primus stoves and blow lamps that used meths to get them going?

You could use the paraffin to get your Primus stove going just needed a bit of the Tampax from your survival pack to soak up the paraffin and allow it to burn

I've still got 2 working Primus stoves not had them lit for a few years and the last time they were used in anger was on an event in the French Alps back in Jan 2008 both of them are around 60 years old

 

[Midwest]

how many window panes did he crack?

None as I recall. He was very skilful, not clumsy like some

 

[telectrix]

None as I recall. He was very skilful, not clumsy like some

bet he never tried on metal frame windows, like my dad did. metal expands when hot he ended up replacing 5 panes before he'd dig in his pocket for paint stripper.

 

[Midwest]

bet he never tried on metal frame windows, like my dad did. metal expands when hot he ended up replacing 5 panes before he'd dig in his pocket for paint stripper.

If I recall, he’d remove the bead of putty, which was a good inch wide, strip off the old paint. Replace putty, then apply new paint. Used to do it almost yearly.

Till ‘ali‘ windows came along. Precursor of upvc double glazing.

 

[Spoon]

If I recall, he’d remove the bead of putty, which was a good inch wide, strip off the old paint. Replace putty, then apply new paint. Used to do it almost yearly.

I remember my day having to replace a particular pain of glass regularly, as we used to break it while playing football.
Yep, you did miss out tacking the thin pain of glass in before reapplying the putty. I also remember him hitting the glass and shattering it while doing so, then having to go an get another one...

 

[Midwest]

My bad, forgot about the pins.

 

[Zerax]

Till ‘ali‘ windows came along. Precursor of upvc double glazing.

I always remember my grandmothers house having metal 'Crittall' windows... you could watch the condensation literally dripping off of them... not a great invention in my opinion !