On 05 Jan 2007 03:12:40 GMT, Steveo wrote in
:

Frank Gilliland wrote:
On 05 Jan 2007 02:19:06 GMT, Steveo wrote in
:

Frank Gilliland wrote:
-snip-
I would gladly trade any of
the crusty old CB's from my pile for a crusty old Coleman lantern.

I have a knack for busting the mantles on them, but otherwise that is
usually the brightest non-electric lamp in camp.

Don't mess with clip-on mantles -- they're worthless. Use the tie-on
type. Use a double-overhand knot, tie it loose -before- you slip on
the mantle, then even out the wrinkles and pull it tight. That way you
won't have a loose mantle that will fall apart when you bump the
lantern. But even doing that I still get about 1 in 3 mantles that end
up with a hole after burn-in. The quality just isn't there anymore.


Yeah like you said tie the knot and don't trip over the lamp, especially
while it is lighted..like a moth to a flame that seems to be my weakness,
Frank.

Heh, now-days we are upgrading the generator instead of the mantle..arrrggh


Easy enough. You can even rebuild the generator if you want. Use a
plastic scrub pad to clean the parts, but be careful because they bend
really easy. Then polish both the inside of the brass tube and the
outside of the cardboard tube with mega-fine sandpaper until the
cardboard tube slides freely inside the brass tube. Put it all back
together and fire it up. There will be a little muck left over so
you'll have to turn the cleaning handle a few times, but after that it
will work for almost as long as a brand new generator.

Oh yeah.... I hate to sound like a commercial, but don't use anything
but Coleman fuel. There are other brands of fuel available but they
are refined like pump gas; the shelf life is short, and if the fuel
has been sitting for a few months it will muck things up just like
pump gas does in your lawnmower over the winter. But I've never had a
bad can of Coleman fuel.


I can still primitive camp a bit, butt toilet paper is high on the must
have list right


Absolutely! In a major disaster, everyone should know where their
local TP warehouse is located!