I thought the burner was fixed, but, over a few days of leaving the burner unused the whole surface became wet with kero, starting at the top and progressing downwards.
Finally at 11pm Sunday night after a quick test firing I was satisfied that it was fixed -hopefully. I nearly gave up. Then I remembered "never, ever, give up" so I didn't. On and off I'd been working on the burner for the previous week.
I've got quite adept at removing the burner, removing the jet, removing the cleaning needle, removing the spindle, burning off the liquid kero, pickling the burner in acid, rinsing it, drying it off, fluxing it, brazing it, pickling it, rinsing it, drying it off, testing it, etc. etc. It still beats watching T.V. though eh?
In the end I've silver soldered nearly every brazed joint above the control valve body. I've also wiped silver solder over the entire underside of the burner up until the large circular brazed joint including this joint - the source of the last leak. I think I've added quite a bit of value to the burner as far as silver is concerned.
I was surprised how deep some of the pits in the undersde of the burner were. Especially when I dug out a piece of original Optimus flux.
It's quite a vicious circle repairing an old burner, as everytime you heat and quench it more leaks are sure to appear, as you strip away all the dirt and carbon off the burner. And then of course you can always re-melt a repaired joint and it goes back to it's unrepaired state.
Dave.
|