A quickie alky lamp

[Dean W]

I wanted to make something today.  I didn't have anything in mind, except I felt like something simple.  Looking
at "The List", I see I have the words 'alcohol lamp' written among a hundred other things, and that sounded easy
enough for how I felt when I got out of bed this morning.
Would also be nice to have another heat source for the Duplex engine, and this should do.




Last summer, I found this piece of brass tubing at a yard sale.  It's 1.5" dia and .040" wall.  It was made for
a shower curtain rod, and the guy had cut off what he needed and this was left.  For $5 I couldn't leave it lay.







Cut off a piece and faced the ends.







Then cut out a couple of discs from .025" brass sheet.







Silver brazed one end on using a few pieces of 45% silver bent into arcs to approximate the ID of the tube.







Well, it needs to go into the pickle for about 20 minutes.







Used a step drill to put a hole in what will be the top.  This hole is for the wick tube. 
I've had this step drill for years, but I often forget to use it.  Every once in a while Stew or Bogs will
mention them.  I finally put the thing next to my brass drill bits a while back so I'll see it.

The hole is 1/4", and I have some modeling tubing the same OD to fit.







With the wick tube cut to length, a step reamer is used to clean up the edges inside.  The reamer is also
used on one end to expand the tube so that end will be slightly larger than the hole that was drilled in
the previous step.  To do that, I just tapped the reamer in a few thou using a small plastic mallet.







Next step is to drill another hole to tap for 1/8" NPT.  This will be the filler.  I tapped it at a slight
angle so the filler neck will cant slightly away from the wick tube.  Probably not needed, but I thought I
should do it, so did it.
I used a 1/8" brass pipe nipple.  The reason for that is, electric lamp fittings are made with that thread.
Things like finials, little caps, and decorative dingle-bobs for people who make or restore table lamps and
such are threaded to fit 1/8" NPT.  Kind of handy, and I'll use a table lamp cap for the filler cover.







Another brazing heat, and then into the pickle again.
In the above pic, the base has also been brazed on.  I did that last piece with 56%.  It melts a couple
hundred degrees below the 45%.  I didn't want the smaller pieces coming loose on the last heat. 
As you'll see, it wouldn't have mattered.  A goof is imminent. 






Ahhh-ha-ha-ha!  Ugh.  Very funny.  Obviously, something didn't go right when I was finishing this up
in the lathe.  This stuff happens, sometimes.  Nooo, I wasn't on my meds.  Not when I did this stupid
thing, anyway.  I was taking bitsy little cuts and all was fine.  Then I bumped the cross slide handle
as I backed out of the last cut, and suddenly, Chubby Checker was singing "The Twist". 

So I fixed it. Filed off a bit of the threads on the filler and cut off the wick tube.  Putting in the
new wick tube, I just used regular solder.  Also made a loop handle from 3/32" brass rod, and put it on
with regular solder too.  None of this needed brazing silver anyway.  I did the other parts with it for
the fun of it, and for practice.  The whole thing could be done with plumbers solder.


Well, it came out okay, after all that.  I'm not very good at polishing all the pink out of heated brass,
but it will have to do.














I don't think it will hold an ounce of alcohol, but it burns for over 15 minutes. 
Last time I made a lamp type thing, it was the small Jerry Howell propane burner. 
Then I had to make an engine to go with it...

I tried this little lamp in the Duplex engine, and was surprised at how well it worked.  As good as the
propane burner I made for it, and seems to keep a steady speed better on the alcohol. 
I let it run for a timed 7 minutes, then blew out the flame, as nothing unusual seemed to be
happening, and I got bored.


I made a short vid at the end of that 7 minute run, just to show it will run on the juice.
Stew asked about that!  Yes Stew, it runs on the booze!

Thanks all, for having a look.

Dean

[Bernd]

Very nice Dean. 

Great recovery on that goof. I'm sure that was a bit disheartening at first though.

Bernd

[Dean W]

Thanks Bernd!

I'm sure that was a bit disheartening at first though.

Nah.  When you're me, you get used to it.

Dean

[Stilldrillin]

Very nicely done, & shown Dean! 

More nicely recovered from the whoopsie! 

I`m on with a meths burner for the Huxtable. Unfortunately, most of it is still inside me head, at the moment...... 

David D

[shoey51]

nicely done there and great recovery
 

[Lew_Merrick_PE]

Great recovery on that goof. I'm sure that was a bit disheartening at first though.

Herr Meister Muller, owner of the shop I apprenticed in gave me the definitions for apprentice, journeyman, and master that are appropo.  "An apprentice, he makes a mistake and knows not what to do.  A journeyman, he makes a mistake and fix it he can.  A master, he sees the mistake before he makes it and avoids it."  Four decades in the "trade" and I am still only a journeyman.

[Bernd]

Well Lew, sounds like you need a bit more practice,right? 

Bernd

[Lew_Merrick_PE]

Well Lew, sounds like you need a bit more practice,right?

Hey, I've never screwed up a job so badly that I could not get new material and make it right!

Back in 1972 they changed the reference temperature from 70°F to 20°C (68°F).  I was working a NASA job making rollers that were ø1.750 +0/-.000050 tolerance.  I have no idea why such a tolerance was applied, but that was the job.  I lapped all 24 of them to size -- and then discovered that the inspection chamber was set to 70°F.  When I cooled it down to 68°F almost all the rollers were small!  Peder Muller (no relation to Herr Meister Muller), a Dane with whom I worked on numerous contracts, took them and froze them in liquid nitrogen -- and then struck them all using a brass bar dropped (using a guide) from 18 inches.  They all came "to size" within a couple of "hits."  (The liquid nitrogen freeze transmitted the force such that the rollers expanded consistently along their length -- a truly slick trick I have been able to use a couple of times since then.)

[Tinkering_Guy]

Never heard of that trick before.    I assume you mean the rollers were struck along the axis?  So they gained diameter but lost length?

[Lew_Merrick_PE]

Never heard of that trick before.    I assume you mean the rollers were struck along the axis?  So they gained diameter but lost length?

Yup.  The lengths were +0/-.010.  It was the diameters that were (stupidly) critical.  As I said, I have no idea why such tolerances were applied.  I have used functional tolerances in that range a couple of times when dealing with optics, but I designed adjustments in such that they could be "set" at the last minute using nulling techniques.

[madjackghengis]

I wanted to make something today.  I didn't have anything in mind, except I felt like something simple.  Looking
at "The List", I see I have the words 'alcohol lamp' written among a hundred other things, and that sounded easy
enough for how I felt when I got out of bed this morning.
Would also be nice to have another heat source for the Duplex engine, and this should do.




Last summer, I found this piece of brass tubing at a yard sale.  It's 1.5" dia and .040" wall.  It was made for
a shower curtain rod, and the guy had cut off what he needed and this was left.  For $5 I couldn't leave it lay. 
Hi Dean, I picked up this thread and you did a fine job on that burner, just about what I need exactly, which is why I picked up the thread this morning.  Thanks for making the mistake of too much cut in the lathe and saving me from having to make it, I'll pretend to be the master this evening, and see how mine works, seeing as how it needs about an inch additional height from where it is now.  What are you using to pickle it in?  With two decades in the Marines, I know how to polish out all the red in the brass, lots of practice during dead times.  mad jack







Cut off a piece and faced the ends.







Then cut out a couple of discs from .025" brass sheet.







Silver brazed one end on using a few pieces of 45% silver bent into arcs to approximate the ID of the tube.







Well, it needs to go into the pickle for about 20 minutes.







Used a step drill to put a hole in what will be the top.  This hole is for the wick tube. 
I've had this step drill for years, but I often forget to use it.  Every once in a while Stew or Bogs will
mention them.  I finally put the thing next to my brass drill bits a while back so I'll see it.

The hole is 1/4", and I have some modeling tubing the same OD to fit.







With the wick tube cut to length, a step reamer is used to clean up the edges inside.  The reamer is also
used on one end to expand the tube so that end will be slightly larger than the hole that was drilled in
the previous step.  To do that, I just tapped the reamer in a few thou using a small plastic mallet.







Next step is to drill another hole to tap for 1/8" NPT.  This will be the filler.  I tapped it at a slight
angle so the filler neck will cant slightly away from the wick tube.  Probably not needed, but I thought I
should do it, so did it.
I used a 1/8" brass pipe nipple.  The reason for that is, electric lamp fittings are made with that thread.
Things like finials, little caps, and decorative dingle-bobs for people who make or restore table lamps and
such are threaded to fit 1/8" NPT.  Kind of handy, and I'll use a table lamp cap for the filler cover.







Another brazing heat, and then into the pickle again.
In the above pic, the base has also been brazed on.  I did that last piece with 56%.  It melts a couple
hundred degrees below the 45%.  I didn't want the smaller pieces coming loose on the last heat. 
As you'll see, it wouldn't have mattered.  A goof is imminent. 






Ahhh-ha-ha-ha!  Ugh.  Very funny.  Obviously, something didn't go right when I was finishing this up
in the lathe.  This stuff happens, sometimes.  Nooo, I wasn't on my meds.  Not when I did this stupid
thing, anyway.  I was taking bitsy little cuts and all was fine.  Then I bumped the cross slide handle
as I backed out of the last cut, and suddenly, Chubby Checker was singing "The Twist". 

So I fixed it. Filed off a bit of the threads on the filler and cut off the wick tube.  Putting in the
new wick tube, I just used regular solder.  Also made a loop handle from 3/32" brass rod, and put it on
with regular solder too.  None of this needed brazing silver anyway.  I did the other parts with it for
the fun of it, and for practice.  The whole thing could be done with plumbers solder.


Well, it came out okay, after all that.  I'm not very good at polishing all the pink out of heated brass,
but it will have to do.














I don't think it will hold an ounce of alcohol, but it burns for over 15 minutes. 
Last time I made a lamp type thing, it was the small Jerry Howell propane burner. 
Then I had to make an engine to go with it...

I tried this little lamp in the Duplex engine, and was surprised at how well it worked.  As good as the
propane burner I made for it, and seems to keep a steady speed better on the alcohol. 
I let it run for a timed 7 minutes, then blew out the flame, as nothing unusual seemed to be
happening, and I got bored.


I made a short vid at the end of that 7 minute run, just to show it will run on the juice.
Stew asked about that!  Yes Stew, it runs on the booze!

Thanks all, for having a look.

Dean

[Dean W]

Hi Jack;
I use ascorbic acid for pickle.  Vitiman C, in other words.  Works well, and doesn't hurt your skin.
You can get it at health food stores, and some drug stores.  Also, online.  It comes in crystals that look
like powder.  Mix about a cup to 2-3 quarts of water.  The stronger the solution, the faster it works.

Twenty years in the United States Marine Corps.  Thank you for your service, sir!   

Hey, just a tip.  When you do a quote, you can delete all the extra stuff from the post so the other guys
can find your comments easier.  I like your comments, so started at the bottom of the post thinking it
would be there, then read my way back to the top.  Yeah, I always do it the hard way!  ; )

Dean

[Chuck in E. TN]

Just what I was looking for. Now to luck out and find a similar piece of brass tubing. Anyone else have a similar build? I'm just now teaching myself to silver solder/braise.

Chuck in E. TN

[Dean W]

Hi Chuck;
Just a note, in case it matters.  You don't have to silver braze this thing.  Regular solder will do.  I just silver brazed
it for the heck of it.

You can get thin wall tubing that will work very well for something like a lamp at the hardware store.  The chrome plated
drain pipes that go under the kitchen sink are brass.  Sand off the chrome, and there you go.  You can get a short straight
piece 6" long for about $5. 
For flat brass sheet, some home builder's supply stores have it.  It's sold for use as
decorative kick plate for house doors.

Good luck with your project!

Dean

[madjackghengis]

Funny you should mention kick boards for brass plate, I've got one I took off after it lost all its laquer, and turned brown, and it's donated body parts for years.  Some sink and bath drain tube is left in the brass and not chromed, but you have to look for it.  Very nice alky lamp, and a nice video of the tandem running again, it sounds fine on that lamp. mad jack