Do you know what this is? Oil Lamp

Yea, good times with a lit road flare right next to it when you shoot it.

I would only do that on private land during the wet season though.




I was completely unaware that those tanks could be refilled!!!!!

I'll have to ask the guy I buy propane from if he would do that if I bought the adapter.

Edit: I have a box of empties I was saving to shoot - glad I haven't had the chance to go do that now.

 

You can do it 2 ways, cool the empty down, use the adapter on your 20# tank, upside down and fill till it will take no more. Or i've seen another way that gets more into it if you use forceps to pull up on that little pressure relief valve till liquid comes out, I have not tried that method. I always check the seal with soapy water afterward.

Caution they are not meant to be re-filled.

I have about 50 on hand, and I re-fill them; all, you get a failure every once in a while, use it for target practice.

Rancher

 

So would a guy get the adapter and fill it from a 5gal+ tank?

I did a stint at a rental pace as a kid and did propane fills as part of it so I've had some training and worked with it before.

I'll have to do some Google fu to see how to safely refill those little guys. It seems like there would need to be a bleed off port but at this point I'm assuming it's on the adapter.

If anyone has links they use that would be greatly appreciated.

 

No bleed off on the adapter, like I said you can use the high pressure release valve on the can to vent, otherwise it's pressure of the 20# can to fill the 1# can.

I've tried the 250 gallon tank with the wet leg valve, to fill the 20# tanks but with not much success, I think I need to drill out the adapter to a larger diameter.

Again as has been said, it is legal to do this, just not transport after.

Rancher

 

You can buy brass caps for the 1 lb bottles to insure they don't bleed off the gas after partial use . they are about $8. for 2 in a package .
I refill my own all the time, and put caps on the new and used refilled bottles . they work .
Your best off not tampering with the safety valve as they tend to leak after breaking the seal . I've made my own shredder valve tool for adjusting it but it's not advisable to be doing that with out knowing what's going on .

 

You can also refill them at home too.... utube it....

 

That's ingenious! SRG

 

I just serviced all oil lamps with Paraffin for the inside , & kerosene on outside,
Aladdin & i need to install a new wick in few years on one .
This is for a Major storm / crap & deal with it

 

TEG power modules are another source of energy one can harvest from there heating source for electrical energy .
I am thinking of getting into as well for the winter months .
They are put in proximity of say a wood stove and the differential of heat creates energy .
I can use the cold temperatures from out side to cool the back side and adding this to the charging system wired in the house.
They work similar to a thermocouple on the old stoves an water heaters working off the pilot to hold the gas valve open. If the pilot goes out the electromagnet holding the valve open is no longer energized and the gas valve is closed to prevent the unit attempting to automatically light with out a pilot going .
If you rely on solar normally in the winter there is not much sun , this provides an alternative, since one is using some sort of heating any way on the one side and there is plenty of cold air for the other. the broader the differential the more efficient it is.
Though the work differently and can be used solar , they are not photovoltaic .
Photovoltaic work best in cooler temperatures actually. heat is a real killer for them.
TEG modules run watt for watt about the same price, but are significantly smaller than photovoltaic panels.
Food for thought.
Wouldn't it be a hoot, if you could heat a few TEG power modules using a kerosene light flame to make power for running LED lights through out the house ?

 

TEG power
Toy energy is a grand !!
look at the cost to buy & then fuel , move into a better RE style of power & figure the MATH out .

 

Wind mills only work in wind and solar only work in the sun , there are trade offs with every thing , working in combination makes a whole system worth while.
I Figure that Every single investment is a contribution,( I don't rely on one thing alone ) , when so many other investments produce nothing .
I'd be running the wood stove any way during the winter ,so that is the time of year it will pay off ,seeing the solar panels don't get much sun in the winter.
I've worked in the repair industry most of my life ,and one fact is true 100% of the time , when things are pushed to the limits continually, they break.
I've gotten years and thousands of more miles out of cars that others had given up on who tend to drive things into the ground.
Some of my solar panels are over 50 years old and still functional .
In some instances I switch out power sources that don't need to be working when the demand is low.
if your running a 6500 watt generator just to run a few lights, that's a lot of wasted energy/wear and tear/ fuel/

 

I use my woodstove "Airtight" is my hot water & heater of the ranch , I cannot see TEG make any real power .
I live RE & have viewed the specs . Over Panel & use math to figure it out.
My ride is 650,K on the clock & driven across NA with it twice & in Mexico .

Sloth

 

Tell me it ain't so CS...you have a Federal Airtight also? Great stove!

Adding 1280 more watts worth of panels shortly to help reduce the need of the antique lamps (but they are staying around!) At $0.57/watt (including shipping) it's really a no-brainer.

 

I have a 2014 Pacific Energy "Airtight" .
I bought it & got the steel box that day , 3 days later the selling store came up to deliver the fancy door & custom fire bricks !
He looked in my shop & saw this new stove all in bits & cut open for my hot water jacket I built .
Extruded seamless schedule 40 with bulkheads to a preheating tank on convection .

FIRST WORDS were "NO WARRANTY "!!
Mine were , Your second argument with me & you lost the first one !!
He didn't want to sell me the LARGEST stove , BUT I have lived on wood / coal /anthracite since birth (but in citys) .

You can ALWAYS turn a stove down , Never UP more than % of the factor.
I won the BTU/ house SQ"footage .. Sales snakes know only whats printed , never lived IT.

SLOTH

 

I am hoping by this winter I can afford a TEG 15 watt unit to mount on my wood stove and use the cool air from below the floor to cool it on the back side as well as drive that air in the damper for super heat.
It burns the wood up fast that way, but it gets really hot when I want it that way. It has an oven as well as a cook top, and I have configure the stove pipe in a dog leg to maximize the efficiency, rather than strait up, letting half the heat out the pipe.
The system works .
It is an AUTO wood stove I rebuilt ,originally built in the 1860s some time, and we used it for many years every where we lived .
It finally rusted out, and all but the cast iron parts are replaced with boiler plate steel.

 

First thing is to pipe in cool outside air to the stove so you have external air for combustion !!!! Keeping the cabin (house ) in a neutral pressure with outside !! IF not all cracks will suck in cold outside air & defeat the stove . Internal air for the fire combustion is making the cabin -NEG pressure than outside & drafts are felt.
& good luck with the KEG toy

 

Those old kerosene lamps were all we had at the cottage before the electric was hooked up. I still have lots of little ones that were my grandparents bedside lamps.

If older is better, I've had to meet an odd lighting challenge every year. When I go to the fall rendezvous I have to have a period correct eighteenth century light source to stumble around in the woods with. Candle lanterns are the norm, but a little research showed that the Betty lamp was what the common man would have used. I built one out of a couple oval shaped tin cans and fired it up on olive oil. (No smell, no smoke, self-extinguishing if spilled) Couldn't find any whale oil, and I figured that rendered racoon fat might not smell too sweet. The simplicity of the Betty lamp makes it an attractive option when you have limited options for portable light, or really want to get back to basics..