Fixing a hole

[Joamon]

I have this Sears lantern that I bought last month (my first). I think the guy wanted $20.00 dollars. After I discovered a hole in the font, he dropped the price to $5.00.
Easily worth that just for the globe. So I was debating to weld it or try another fix. I do have a welder but not very accomplished at it. I did not want to screw it up or have to repaint it at this point in time. I cleaned it up with a wire brush, then I I took a stainless steel screw about twice the size of the hole
and screwed it in. Then I backed it out and ground it down and cleaned it up with a grinder. Then I put it back in with some J.B. Weld, and let it dry for a day.
The next day I ground it down almost flush, and put a smidge of paint on it. Put the lantern back together and fired her up.





What you can't see in the picture is that when I put it back together I got the collar/Frame rest, upside down.

O well, Another day.

Keith

[eamarquardt]

Hi,

Nice job getting the lantern going again, however, please warn me and anyone around you when you fire that baby up cause I wanna be far away. I'm guessing the fount was rusty to the point it was perforated in the one spot you fixed. There may be other places that are just short of failure and are just waiting to fail. When that happens the lantern is gonna be like an incendiary bomb going off.

Please do yourself (and everyone else) a favor and drill a big hole in the bottom of the fount and turn the lantern into a museum piece or salvage it for parts.

Better safe than sorry.

Gus

[Joamon]

You might be right, but that was the cleanest fount I have every seen. Bar none. No rust what so ever. Clean, clean, clean. I only had to blow it out. Still perfect grey inside. I think the hole must have been from the outside.
Keith

[eamarquardt]

You might be right, but that was the cleanest fount I have every seen. Bar none. No rust what so ever. Clean, clean, clean. I only had to blow it out. Still perfect grey inside. I think the hole must have been from the outside.
Keith

Color me chicken. I may or may not be right but you sure don't want to be wrong.

There are plenty of fine lanterns out there for less than $5. Yer betting some serious burns against JB weld. Is it worth the risk? Braze it up and test it to 50 or 60 PSI with it filled with water and pressurized by air. Filling it with water first will make any failure a lot less dramatic.

Gus

[campmaster-k]

Its all about risk assessment . Fixing founts is ok I guess if you are good at. I dont fix them because they are cheap and plentiful.

Fixing founts, in terms of risk, seems to come in just under eating wild mushrooms. Many people do it, most live to tell about it. If you are good at you will probably live. Its a free country.

[eamarquardt]

Its all about risk assessment . Fixing founts is ok I guess if you are good at. I dont fix them because they are cheap and plentiful. Bingol!

Fixing founts, in terms of risk, seems to come in just under eating wild mushrooms. An opinion, IMHO. Many people do it (again, IMHO, an opinion, who does it on a unit they plan to use on a regular basis? I know of only one other person who has done so, and the unit is now a "museum piece" as he agrees it shouldn't be done on a "daily driver"), most live to tell about it. Yeah, but ask the families of those that didn't live if they wished their loved one hadn't eaten the mushroom. If you are good at you will probably live. OK, this is his first lantern, the first one he's fixed, so how much practice does it take to become "good at it"?. Its a free country. Not entirely true. You can't fly a commercial jet with paying passengers aboard w/o an FAA ticket, you can't drive w/o a license, you can't practice medicine w/o a license, etc., etc., etc.

I can be reasonable. So, let's call Coleman and see if they approve of "the fix".

If someone wants to endanger themselves, fine. I don't think one has the right to risk the health of bystanders.

I've taken too many coworkers to the ER to suit me. I "escorted" a good friend to Arlington as a result of "pilot error". I saw a peer at a factory burn to death. Safety is not to be taken lightly, IMHO.

I simply can't believe that someone would do sometime like this and boast about it.

Call me an obstinate PITA but I'm exceptionally familiar with pain, injury, and death and I do my best to avoid these if at all possible.

Gus

[Mukilteo]

I vote with Gus.