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

I can still primitive camp a bit, butt toilet paper is high on the must
have list right next to extra mantles, fishing line, firewood, newspaper,
and such. No oak leaf wiping, please. My wife would freak.

Now we attempt to camp.

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!

"Frank Gilliland" wrote in message
...
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!




Ive been told that alcohol is good fuel for Coleman lanterns. Is this true.
I tried it once in a camp stove and it seemed to work OK.

On Fri, 5 Jan 2007 04:16:38 -0500, "Jimmie D"
wrote in IHonh.19219$_X.15045@bigfe9:


Ive been told that alcohol is good fuel for Coleman lanterns. Is this true.
I tried it once in a camp stove and it seemed to work OK.


NO! Not unless it was made for alcohol. The main reason is that
alcohol (ethanol) will always have some water. It absorbs water right
from the air, whether in storage or from the air that you pump into
the fount. The ethanol/water solution is corrosive to the parts and
you get all kinds of nasty white/green deposits inside the fount. For
the same reason you should never use oxygenated gasoline in dual-fuel
lanterns and stoves. When they were designed it was never expected
that gasoline would ever contain ethanol. Coleman made a short run of
lanterns and stoves that could run on oxygenated gasoline but no
longer (and they are now prized collector items).

You -can-, however, run the lantern on kerosene! You have to pre-heat
the generator to get it started, and it will clog up more often, but
it will run just fine. I wouldn't use it indoors or in a tent because
kerosene will run rich in a gas lantern and you could die from carbon
monoxide poisoning. But outside it should be fine. You can even run a
gas/kerosene mix for easier starting. I haven't tried diesel or
heating oil yet but I suspect they would work like kerosene.

"Frank Gilliland" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 5 Jan 2007 04:16:38 -0500, "Jimmie D"
wrote in IHonh.19219$_X.15045@bigfe9:


Ive been told that alcohol is good fuel for Coleman lanterns. Is this
true.
I tried it once in a camp stove and it seemed to work OK.


NO! Not unless it was made for alcohol. The main reason is that
alcohol (ethanol) will always have some water. It absorbs water right
from the air, whether in storage or from the air that you pump into
the fount. The ethanol/water solution is corrosive to the parts and
you get all kinds of nasty white/green deposits inside the fount. For
the same reason you should never use oxygenated gasoline in dual-fuel
lanterns and stoves. When they were designed it was never expected
that gasoline would ever contain ethanol. Coleman made a short run of
lanterns and stoves that could run on oxygenated gasoline but no
longer (and they are now prized collector items).

You -can-, however, run the lantern on kerosene! You have to pre-heat
the generator to get it started, and it will clog up more often, but
it will run just fine. I wouldn't use it indoors or in a tent because
kerosene will run rich in a gas lantern and you could die from carbon
monoxide poisoning. But outside it should be fine. You can even run a
gas/kerosene mix for easier starting. I haven't tried diesel or
heating oil yet but I suspect they would work like kerosene.




Speaking of kerosene I have a lantern you would love. It a railroad lantern
with mirror for signaling. It was my grandfathers when he used to work for
the RR. He ran a depot for the GA&FL. or G&F as it was called then.. ITs
brass with two big concave mirrors one red and the other not tinted..Only
used one mirror at a time, actually Im not sure if you were suppose to swap
the mirrors but grandpa did. When I was a teenager we actually used it for
camping. Soon it will be in a RR museum in South GA. The mirror is really
the interesting part to me as I have never seen one like it before. IT looks
like it was made by blowing a sphere then silvering the inside and
flattening it. Only half of the sphere was silvered, the part next to the
blowing stem the rest is clear and form the front of the mirror.When the
depot was shut down there were several old mirros around that the stem had
broken on, as you can imagine the silver probably didnt last long after
this. Are you familar with this type of lantern.

On Fri, 5 Jan 2007 06:22:57 -0500, "Jimmie D"
wrote in 3yqnh.19222$_X.2678@bigfe9:

snip

Speaking of kerosene I have a lantern you would love. It a railroad lantern
with mirror for signaling. It was my grandfathers when he used to work for
the RR. He ran a depot for the GA&FL. or G&F as it was called then.. ITs
brass with two big concave mirrors one red and the other not tinted..Only
used one mirror at a time, actually Im not sure if you were suppose to swap
the mirrors but grandpa did. When I was a teenager we actually used it for
camping. Soon it will be in a RR museum in South GA. The mirror is really
the interesting part to me as I have never seen one like it before. IT looks
like it was made by blowing a sphere then silvering the inside and
flattening it. Only half of the sphere was silvered, the part next to the
blowing stem the rest is clear and form the front of the mirror.When the
depot was shut down there were several old mirros around that the stem had
broken on, as you can imagine the silver probably didnt last long after
this. Are you familar with this type of lantern.


I can't quite picture it in my head. Got a pic? Or can you find a
similar lantern on ebay?

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

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!

Good advice all the way, Frank!

--
Be the rain.