Bladon blowlamp.

[Refugee]

I have found also that half a tea cup of white spirit will get rid of most tap root weeds when they come up through a path too. Keep it at least two feet from any plants you want to keep though.

[pwdrive]

Forgot to mention two other non electric/gas lamps:

The UCO candle lamp, collapsable with a 9 hour burn time with the proper candles, also available for them is a stainless steel reflector, bright enough to read by if positioned close by, we have one of these also (told you we had a fair few) The UCO is a bit of a brand icon these days so the price as gone up somewhat since I first got mine, we used it in the log cabin down the woods, 100% reliable and very compact.

Also the bog standard hurricane lamp (parrafin) cheap as chips, nowt to go wrong, downside: they can rust quickly! stinks if used in the house and a bit dim but better than nothing, as per name they will work in just about any weather outside.

Lawrence.

[pwdrive]

Poor weeds....

Lawrence.

Edit: Google the words weeds (and) friendly and checkout all the return search headlines....looks like a world vendetta on weeds, I like weeds, they are ingenious, true warriors and never go down without a fight....Hats off to 'em I say. There's even a video of a guy killing weeds on his veg plot with long handled blow torch, he's obviously never heard of a hoe.

[Refugee]

On the veg plot I use a brickies pointing tool pushed down the side of the tap root and leaver it out. The veg would go cold by the time I got to eat it if I used a blowlamp. Once dried weeds make a good sun shade to stop the veg roots overheating in sunny weather when placed as a mulch.

[Joe]

That washer looks very like the one I made, Col. My camera batteries are currently flat so I'll add a picture tomorrow.

- Joe

[Refugee]

I repaired one in the 1970s using shoe leather and it worked fine for a couple of years and then I list touch with the owner of the blowlamp.

[Joe]

Here's the washer

   

and pricker made of copper wire and a wire brush bristle.

   

- Joe

[Retired]

Hi,

Whatever we do to get rid of weeds Refugee as Lawrence says they are warriors and will always come back to fight again.

Our local council comes and sprays the kerb edges every year along our street so at least we get something for the rates we pay.

Many thanks Lawrence for the lamp information and also thanks Joe for taking the trouble to post the pictures of your home made leather washer and jet pricker.

I'll be visiting Rufforth Auto Jumble again first Saturday in August so I'll keep a lookout for a paraffin lamp; if I can't find one there are lots on eBay and even brand new ones are very cheap.

Kind regards, Col.

[pwdrive]

There are a fair few far eastern new vapourizing lamps around, I have no experience of them.
Needless to say don't prime indoors, if the vapourizing tube hasn't reached temperature and you pump or open the control valve to let the paraffin out under pressure then it will flame up, sometimes dangerously so with a lot of black smoke.

Lawrence.

[Retired]

Hi,

Many thanks for the safety warning Lawrence; better to know this upfront before the bungalow ends up in ashes? If a paraffin lamp is used indoors say a front room due to power cut are there any dangerous fumes to be worried about?

I wish I hadn't mentioned power cuts. We suffered two blips in our power last night shutting everything down then immediately starting everything up again. Our bedside clock didn't like it and each time starting flashing so I had to get out of bed to reset the time which at 2:30am is annoying; no sooner done this once then it happened again. Each time it triggered the security lights but worst of all I could have cheerfully broken into a neighbours house with a sledgehammer to silence the loud burglar alarm which ran a full 15 minutes after each cut?

To add to my misery I went into the kitchen to find eight slimy slugs on the cushion floor no doubt upset and trying to find a new home as the recent flood defences are now drying everything out; after the second power cut I visited the kitchen again and put out slug #9; one more slug and they could have happily played five a side football on our kitchen floor. I dislike harming any living thing so put the slugs in the garden using paper towel then washing my hands. Hopefully these slugs will disappear once and for all once the underfloor area completely dries out?

When I returned from early morning shopping Bron told me we had suffered a third power cut.

I've just taken pictures of my blowlamp plunger unit. As I explained earlier I expected to see the usual cup shaped leather washer but this blowlamp is different? It is fitted with what appears to be a thick flexible washer and I'm unsure what this is made of. In the compression position this washer rests and seals against a brass boss but in the air inlet position the washer moves towards the rod end allowing air to bypass it through its very loose hole (bore) and hence through the triangular steel washer allowing the chamber to fill with fresh air.

The pictures show the two washer positions and the third picture shows the sum of the components. The problem is that this washer is now worn around its outside sealing edge although I can possibly get around this by installing a common leather cup washer? I wonder if this is why the blowlamp ended up for sale?

Kind regards, Col.

           
Compression position. Air inlet position and sum of parts.