Author Archives: BernieDawg

SVEA 123R Candle Flame?

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Hi BD
I bought a Swedish Svea 123R factory brand new about four years ago. It’s always had a small candle flame at the jet whenever I turn off the spindle. Do you have any tips you can share about how to fix this? Thanks!
Bert in MO

Hi Bert
Thanks for your question. One thing though…

If you bought your Svea 123R new about “four years ago” then it was not made in Sweden. Svea is a brand owned by Optimus since the early 1960’s after the Svea company in Sweden sold their company to Optimus. Optimus (now also just a brand and one cog of the big Swiss-based Katadyn corporate conglomerate) has not been making stoves in Sweden since the late 1980’s or early 1990s, if I recall correctly.
So, yeah, yours is an Asian-made version of the Svea. Even though it says “Sweden” on it. (It doesn’t say “Made in Sweden” because it is not made in Sweden, but in Taiwan.)
Just my opinion, but, I’d suggest getting one of the Swedish-made models as the quality and performance of the originals is much higher in those better-made stoves.

I have a couple of videos at my YouTube channel that show the disassembly, repair, and reassembly of the Svea 123R. You can find them here:
https://youtu.be/LNJSDacuCHQ
https://youtu.be/-svgLuqyGG4

Here’s the lowdown on candle flames on the SVEA 123R.

  1. Make sure the cleaning needle timing is not the issue. Remove the needle and try the stove without it. If there is still a candle flame without the cleaning needle in the stove, go to #3.
  2. If the candle flame goes away without the needle in the stove… reset the cleaning needle a click shallower into the valve body (fewer clicks). What’s happening is that the cleaning needle is hitting bottom before the spindle tip can seat closed. So, putting the cleaning needle rack higher (less clicks) will allow the spindle tip to seat before the cleaning needle rack hits bottom.
  3. Remove the spindle nut and the spindle. Check the condition of the cone-shaped end of the spindle. It should be a smooth cone.

    Good condition spindle

    It should not have a ring worn into it and it should not have a step or steps worn into it. If it does, then someone has been closing the spindle valve too hard and has damaged the spindle tip. If there is enough material still there (if the damage isn’t too bad), you can chuck the spindle into some sort of spinning tool. A cordless or corded drill will do the trick. A drill press or a lathe is even better. Reshape the cone on the end of the spindle with a fine file and sandpaper while the spindle is spinning in your spinning tool of choice. If you can’t get it fixed because there is not enough material left or the damage is too great, you’ll need to replace the spindle.

  4. While the spindle is out… examine your spindle graphite. Brand new, spindle graphites should be about 6mm long. If the graphite is less than 3mm long or if it is not shiny and grey, but instead has grey-colored pulpy, woody, or hairy looking material (asbestos?), change it out for a new graphite. The pulpy ones fall apart faster than the solid grey graphites and the pulpy stuff gets in the spindle valve seat so they leak.
  5. While the spindle is out… clean out the threads of the spindle nut, and the threads in the valve body they mate with, of any graphite residue so it doesn’t end up causing leakage by getting in the your spindle valve. Dental tools work good for thread cleaning. Use some Qtips and clean the spindle valve seat with some solvent or Coleman fuel so the Qtips come out clean. Do a visual inspection of the spindle valve seat inside the valve body using a flashlight. You should see a circle of bright brass with a little hole in the middle. The bright brass is the metal surface your cone-shaped spindle tip seats against. Make sure there’s no debris or goo in there.
  6. Reassemble everything, with new parts if you are using them, and give it a try without the cleaning needle. No candle flame? Great! Now add in the cleaning needle set to between 3 and 5 clicks into the valve body and top off with the jet. Test again. Should be working fine now. If you get the candle flame, then reset the needle one click less (shallower) into the stove body.

Happy camping! BD

BernieDawg Silent Cap Index – Which Cap Goes On Which Stove

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Do you want to know which cap to get for which stove? Here’s a quick-look index!

Primus
Omnifuel and Omnifuel 2 – OmniDawg
OmniLite Ti – OmniPup
Multifuel p328896 – DragonTamer
Multifuel EX p328894 – DragonTamer
Himalaya Varifuel p3278 – Minicap w/Legs
Himalaya Multifuel p3288 – Minicap w/Legs
Primus 96 – Midicap or Minicap
Primus 70 & 71 – Minicap

Optimus
Nova – Dawg-A-Nova
Nova+ – Dawg-A-Nova
Hiker+ – Dawg-A-Nova
Polaris Optifuel – PolarDawg
#96 – Midicap or Minicap
#97 – Midicap or Minicap
#80 – Minicap w/Legs
#99 – Minicap w/Legs
#8 or #8R – Minicap w/Legs

MSR
Dragonfly – DragonTamer
XGK EX – XGK Dawg
XGK G – Midicap
XGK GK – Midicap
XGK II – Midicap
Firefly – DragonTamer
#9 – Midicap

Coleman
#530 – Midicap
Denali – OmniPup

Svea
Svea 123 and 123R – Minicap or Minicap w/Legs

Edelrid
Hexon – uses the PolarDawg – may be a small bit of fussing to get it situated, but lab tested (4/2021) and works well on all fuels

Trangia
Trangia X2 750001 Multifuel Burner by Primus – PolarDawg using isobutane or white gas, the preferred fuels (note: if using kerosene with the PolarDawg on an X2 75001 with the 0.28mm burner, best performance is with the OmniDawg rather than the PolarDawg)
Trangia 780001 Multifuel Burner made by Optimus – Dawg-A-Nova

American Military Stoves
#520 – Midicap
#521 & #523 – Midicap
M-1941, M.1942, M-1950 – Midicap
#527 Coleman Medical Burner – PuppyDawg

Others
Phoebus 725 – “Wide Body”
Enders “Baby Benzin” #9063 & #263 – PuppyDawg
Radius #42 – Minicap
Radius #20 – Minicap
French Vesta 1 and 2 burner stoves – Minicap
Chinese-made Lixada stainless steel gasoline stove – Minicap with Legs

Do you have a stove that’s not on the list and want to know which cap to get? Just drop me an email at bd@berniedawg.com You can order your custom BD caps at i.materialise (EU). My former USA printing partner got WAY too greedy and I’ve severed our relationship.

SIGG FireJet Stove Adapter

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I was asked to make an adapter for the SIGG FireJet stove so that the stove could connect to a Primus Omnifuel Ergopump hose. You can see the full story at my YouTube page right here: https://youtu.be/MH9CWeeqfOs

I’ve also posted the full SIGG FireJet manual as a PDF here at my site (16.4MB). Click the highlighted words below to see it. Click the “Download” button below here (not the image) to download it to your computer.

Sigg FireJet Manual pdfDownload

You’re welcome! BD

Svea Campus 5 – Nickel Plated Tank

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Here’s a stove I imported from Europe. It came in its original packaging. I include some photos of the packaging for those who are interested in packaging history. I reckon this stove was made somewhere in the 1940-1955 range? Click on any image for a bigger view of that image. Please don’t steal images.

The Campus 5 came in two flavors a model with a pump and a self-pressurizing model. This would be one of the pump-equipped models, the 5. I believe the self-pressurizing models were termed the “5B” and usually had a tank-mounted SRV (safety release valve”, absent on this 5. The stove came equipped with an attractive spirit tin, a spindle control knob, a yellow rag/cloth and a pot stand.

The pot stand rests cleverly on the edge of the sheet metal case.

The stove shipped overseas complete with an unknown variety of fuels liquid which had leaked out over some of the stove.

A bit of cleanup and a flush of the tank interior, and things were much better.

The Campus 5 is a multi-fueled stove, meaning it can burn kerosene or white gas (aka naphtha or Coleman fuel). Below the stove is burning white gas on a first fire. There are lots of streaks to the flame caused by debris escaping from the tank and burner after a long period of inactivity.

 

 

Which Cap for a “Multifuel”?

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Hi BernieDawg
I  have  a  short  question  about  the  bernie dawg silencer caps. Does the Omnifuel Cap fit to the Multifuel Burner?
Best regards,
Stove Guy
Hi Stove Guy
Thanks for your questions.
I’m not sure from your question which “Multifuel burner” you are meaning. Primus has made several different stoves they have called the “Multifuel”.  And, Trangia has sold two different types of “Multifuel”-named burners. All this makes things confusing if you don’t go by model numbers or full product names.
Sooo… I’ll cover them all. Sometimes “short questions” need long answers. Sorry about that. This is a bit complicated, so please read through this carefully.
Omnifuel 3289
The OmniDawg cap is for the Primus Omnifuel 3289 stove.

Omnifuel 3289

Trangia X2 Multifuel 750001 Burner made for Trangia by Primus – current production
The Trangia X2 Multifuel 750001 burner is made for Trangia by Primus, but it is made in a way so that it is not as powerful a burner as the Omnifuel. It looks like an Omnifuel, but it’s less powerful because of the reduced power jet supplied with the X2 for use with the preferred fuels (isobutane canisters and white gas). This is also a very expensive burner for what it is. You can usually find used or even new Omnifuel stoves for less than the cost of the greatly overpriced X2. You’ll also retain the precision control and simmering using an Omnifuel due to its spindle control (absent on the X2).

For the reduced power Trangia X2 Multifuel burner, the PolarDawg silent damper cap works best using isobutane canisters and white gas due to the smaller jet supplied for those fuels. The DragonTamer is a pretty good second choice for these fuels. Trangia makes it pretty clear in their product manual that isobutane canisters and white gas are the fuels of choice for this burner. If you intend to use kerosene with this burner (I discourage this fuel for this burner), then the supplied same-size-as-the-Omnifuel (0.28mm) jet that comes with the X2 will need to be used. This turns the burner back into a simmer-disabled Omnifuel burner, so you should use the OmniDawg cap if you decide you absolutely must use kerosene.
Some clever stove users have changed out the jets on their Trangia X2 Multifuel burners so that the X2 runs the same jets as the Omnifuel. For example, using a 0.37mm jet will let you run the X2 burner with white gas at the same power as the Omnifuel. Using a 0.45mm jet will let you run the burner with isobutane at the same power as the Omnifuel. If you intend to do that, it may cause melting of your Trangia windscreen surrounds if you are not careful and attentive. But, using the more powerful jets makes the X2 more like the Omnifuel, and a OmniDawg cap would be the right one to use. If you use a 0.25mm jet with kerosene (not recommended), thereby reducing the output of the burner, you can use the PolarDawg or the DragonTamer. Confusing isn’t it?
Caution! I do not recommend the use of a re-jetted X2 with an OmniDawg cap with the Trangia 27 sets as the small size of the surrounds puts the surrounds too close to the flame. Trangia 25 sets are okay… if you are careful.
Trangia Multifuel Burner 780001 made for Trangia by Optimus – discontinued product
The original Multifuel 780001 burner sold by Trangia was made for them by Optimus and is a stripped-down Nova burner. There are “fins” inside the burner bell of this burner.
The proper silent cap for this burner is the Dawg-A-Nova cap.
Primus 328894 and 328896 Multifuel
The newer 3288 (correctly termed the 328894 or the newer 328896) Multifuel is a reduced feature (no stove-side control spindle) Omnifuel-based stove. Sort of a Omnifuel “lite” stove.

Multifuel 328894 or 328896

For a bit more money you can get a real Omnifuel and the additional cost is well worth it for the control spindle. Because the Omnifuel is also much more popular, you can even commonly find new Omnifuels at discount for prices well below the retail cost of the 328894 or 328896 Multifuel. The 328894 or 328896 Multifuel comes with a reduced size jet set compared to the Omnifuel. While the Omnifuel has 0.45mm, 0.37mm and 0.28mm jets for isobutane, white gas, and kerosene, respectively, the Multifuel comes with 0.37mm, 0.32mm and 0.28mm jets for those fuels. This is why the Omnifuel produces 3000 watts of power while the Multifuel only produces 2700 watts of power. If you plan on mostly kerosene use, get the OmniDawg for this stove. If you plan on white gas or isobutane and intend to use the correct jets for the Multifuel, then you need a slightly less powerful cap like the DragonTamer or the PolarDawg to match up with the lower output of the Multifuel.
You can also “cheat” a bit if you are planning on using white gas by using the 0.37mm jet that came with the Multifuel for white gas. This will increase the white gas flame output and let you use the OmniDawg cap just like with an Omnifuel stove.
Sorry that this is a bit confusing. Primus is marketing a strange beast with the Multifuel. Your best bet is to bypass the odd Multifuel stove and go directly to the full-featured, award-winning, and more powerful Omnifuel.
Primus Himalaya Varifuel 3278 and Multifuel 3288 – discontinued product
These are two long discontinued stoves from Primus that I am often asked about. Both stoves feature small diameter burner bells and smaller jets than the Omnifuel.

Both stoves, the Varifuel 3278 and the Multifuel 3288 work well with the Minicap without Legs, but make sure to get the one without legs – the bell is so narrow that the legged Minicap won’t fit. If you would like the flexibility to use your Minicap on other small self-pressurizing stoves like the Optumus 80, Radius 42, or Svea 123/123R, the Minicap without Legs will work for that, too.

Sorry for any confusion this may cause. Primus and Trangia haven’t been kind to us in naming so many stoves as a “Multifuel”. I hope my post will enable you to select the right cap for your stove.
Happy Camping!
BD

Stuck NRVs??

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Hi BernieDawg
I have this great old Primus 100 stove that I’m trying to fettle. I’ve got the NRV loosened up, but it seems to be stuck in the bottom of the pump tube and won’t drop out of the tube. It’s hung up somehow. It wiggles around and is loose down there at the bottom of the pump tube. I wonder if there’s some gunk in the tank that’s hanging it up?
What can I do to get it free?
Sincerely,
Stuck and perplexed
____________________________

Hi Stuck

Well… I think this might make a good blog topic actually, because I get this question and this issue fairly frequently. And, don’t feel bad – it’s common and it happens to me, too. Here’s how I handle it.
1. best thing is to buy a tool which can solve 75% of these sort of stuck NRV issues. What you want is an “ear forceps” aka an “alligator forceps”. They come out of Pakistan (for reasons I don’t understand) for pretty cheap. They are stainless steel. And they help you with other tank related stuff, say reaching into a tank to retrieve something, or at the end of the pump tube in case a rotted leather pump cup gets stuck down there. Check pricing on eBay, but here’s a screen shot of a pair I picked at random just so you can see what I’m talking about:
The larger one is about 6.5″ long and is a great size for pump tube and stove tank work. But, you can get them a lot longer, too. It was selling as a Buy-It-Now with free shipping for only $6.50.
2. next thing is to take your little flashlight and peer into the tank. Is it all black and gooey in there? If it is, then your idea about gooey stuff being on the end of the NRV barrel is probably right. Here’s how to fix that and clean your tank, too. Get a gallon of acetone at Home Depot, Lowes, or wherever. Fill the tank with it. Let it soak (plug the openings with some paper toweling to control evaporation). If you want to get really industrious, you can add some BB’s to the tank and shake it around. Pour out the acetone into a metal or glass container through a coffee filter for reuse – you can reuse it on many tanks. Shake out the BB’s, or use a magnetic pen tool to remove them. Rinse the tank with just a splash of acetone and you should be good to go. Acetone dissolves the black gooey crud (dried kerosene). It will dissolve the gooey crud on the end of the NRV barrel and then it should pop right out. This should take care of another 20% of the problems.
3. two other issues can cause the NRV to hang up in about 4% of cases.
a. there can be a little burr of brass where the vent hole in the side of the NRV barrel was punched in the barrel. You can use your alligator forceps gripping the NRV head with an unscrewing motion (like you are unthreading the NRV) to “unscrew” the burr past the opening in the pump tube end plate. Do it with the pump tube opening facing toward the floor to allow gravity to assist you. Use a little 400 grit wet dry sandpaper or a small file to remove the burr once you’ve got it out so it doesn’t give you problems again.
b. the other problem comes about from using lead NRV head washers. The lead will expand outward when the NRV head is tightened down, sometimes into the opening for the NRV head threads. This can hang up the NRV. Alligator forceps should help you to get it out, again with that unscrewing motion. Consider to switching to HDPE (#2 plastic) NRV head washers. You can punch them from the lids of food containers, so they are cheap to make and they almost never cause these hang-up problems. They last forever, too.
4. Lastly… for that final 1% of stubborn NRVs… if you have compressed air… set the air output to about 40 psi. Hold a rag in your hand over the pump tube opening to catch the NRV. Install the vent screw and apply a little compressed air into the burner mount opening with your thumb over the filler opening. Pop! Out shoots the NRV into the rag in your hand. These can shoot across the shop if you don’t use a rag to catch it and be difficult to fine otherwise.
Hope that helps!
Happy camping!
BD

Svea 175 Marine Stove

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Here’s a Svea 175 that I restored. It’s a great old marine stove that came jetted for alcohol but which I converted to kerosene. The stove appears in an old 1958 Svea catalog. The marine trivets seem to be a special option. Gotta love those excellent Svea #1915 regulated burners.

These slide out cups deliver the correct amount of preheating alcohol to the spirit cups under the burners via a long metal tube. The curved end inside the slide out cups automatically siphons the alcohol when the slide out cups are filled. Pretty slick!

The galvanized steel trivets were pretty well oxidized. I chose to gently glass bead blast the oxidation, but not the plating, off of the trivets. The one on the left is finished, the one on the right yet to go.

The cork fuel gauge floats on both of the tanks was perished. I turned new floats on the lathe from old wine corks.

 

Optimus 111T “Bling” Restore

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Here is an Optimus 111T that I “restored” for a client a few years ago. The client specifically requested the polished copper windshield and floor pan.

The embossed case was stripped, derusted, and repainted. The left hinge on the case was separated – the spot weld had failed. I silver brazed the hinge back in place before prepping and repainting.

Here are the beauty shots.

Sadly… the client was better at buying old stoves than actually operating them. Within three months of this restore the inept client had set the stove on fire, destroyed the paint, and melted part of the copper windshield surround. Sigh. :-(((

Monitor Pump Tube Repair

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I often am asked to help out when a stove collector has problems removing a NRV (non-return valve) from the bottom of a stove’s pump tube. Usually the stove owner has done their best to remove the NRV, but has inadvertently rounded the soft brass head of the NRV valve. Sometimes I can get these damaged NRVs broken loose by using an “easy-out” (screw extractor bit) mounted in the end of a spade bit extension. I’ve actually made my extension a bit longer by welding an additional section of 1/4″ hex rod to the unit.

Spade bit extension with welded addition

Sadly, this wasn’t possible on this old Monitor stove I was asked to repair.

I use the stove’s original pump lid, some washers, a bolt and a nut to make up this little pump pulling tool. It’s easy to do and works great without the fuss or expense of a “special” tool.

Usually I clamp the head of the bolt “tool” in my bench vise, hold the tank with one hand, and use the torch in the other hand to heat the area of the tank immediately around the pump tube. I put a wad of wet paper toweling all the way into the bottom of the pump tube to keep the heat from melting the solder holding the pump tube base block in place.

Here I’ve pulled the tube. But, I encountered some resistance as the tube would not completely exit the pump tube opening in the tank. It’s hanging up on the over-large pump tube base block.

It turns out that the folks that made Monitor stoves in England decided it was a “good” idea (not!) to make their pump tube end block larger in diameter than the outside diameter of the pump tube. There is no way to pull the tube while the end block is in place since its outer diameter is bigger than the hole the tube mounts in, so I had to desolder the pump tube end block from the pump tube and have it drop into the tank.

You can see in the photo above that that too-big end block is not going to fit out through that too-small hole. But, by using a small pair of Vise-Grip pliers to hold the end block, I was able to machine two facets into the block to reduce its diameter. I used a grinding wheel on a Dremel tool to do the work, taking off just enough to get the block out the opening. I also made sure I placed the facets in such a way that I could later clamp the block up in the three-jaw chuck of my mini-lathe to clean up the block.

Once the outer diameter of the end block is machined down in a couple of places, it pops right out. A little persuasion with some penetrant and some torch heat pops the NRV head loose from the block.

The pump tube end block with the NRV barrel, pip cup and spring removed.

The damaged NRV head removed from the pump tube end block.

This stubborn NRV had a lead washer in place under the head. Didn’t seem to do much good to assist in removal, though. This is often the case with old lead washers as they seem to tend to get brittle and harder with age.

Because I had to desolder the end block inside the tank and with little control to the operation, the lead washer “migrated” a bit into the block and also into the threads of the block. I chose to clean the lead residues out of the block as I didn’t want this old lead to be causing me problems later on when resoldering the assembly together (I wanted to avoid contamination of the new solder with the lead). Spinning up the block on the lathe took care of the inside of the block and using a tap cleaned up the threads nicely without removing any brass. I’ve found through doing many pump tube pulls in the past that a 5/16″x36tpi tap is a remarkably close and completely functional match for the original proprietary non-standard NRV head threads.

Getting the lead out.

Cleaning the threads.

So… I then soldered the end block back into the pump tube, then turned the pump tube end block flush with the pump tube diameter so that I could get the assembly (easily and sensibly) back inside the stove tank.

I needed to cut a special small pip for the small-size “tailed” Monitor pip cup.

From left and for comparison – standard NRV pip, small weird Monitor NRV pip (about 3.5mm in diameter), Monitor pip cup with it’s long “tail”, standard 4.5mm pip cup.

This is the special pip cutter I made a while back for doing the 3.5mm size pip cups (left) next to the Monitor “tailed” pip cup with its new Viton pip(right).

I also chose to rebuild the head of the Monitor NRV since it was slightly different than a standard NRV in an effort to keep things sorta “original” looking.

First step was to machine off the twisted remnants of the NRV head.

Machining the NRV head flat.

Then I cut a socket or “mortise” into the head of the Monitor NRV head.

Machining a pocket “mortise”.

Next was to machine a small piece I could silver braze to the NRV head to restore the NRV head. I made a corresponding “tenon” to fit the “mortise” I’d cut in the original Monitor NRV head.

Machining a “tenon” on the brass NRV head repair addition.

Ready to cutoff.

Checking for fit.

Silver brazed together.

I cleaned up the brazed head, then hand-filed the two facets in the head.

Newly rebuilt NRV head with hand-filed facets. Pump tube end block all cleaned up and ready to resolder.

Here is the completed restored pump tube and rebuilt NRV ready for reinstallation into the Monitor stove tank. Note my use of a shop-cut HDPE (high density polyethylene) plastic washer in lieu of a lead washer. I’ve found these HDPE washers to be entirely fuel resistant and superior to lead washers. The HDPE does not stick to the brass of the tube or creep into the threads of the pump tube end block. It also provides a fuel tight seal with much less torque required to make the seal than with lead washers.

Here I’ve used my simple bolt-and-washer tool to set up the pump tube in the tank for soldering, holding it in place with some stiff wire jigging. This jigging setup allows me to use both hands – one for using the torch and one for applying solder to the pump tube/tank joint.

I use standard electrical solder and rosin paste flux to do stove soldering. The rosin flux is inert until heated and any flux residues trapped inside the joint will not erode the brass of the tank on down the road. Acid fluxes will erode the brass over time which is why acid fluxes should never, ever be used around vintage brass stove work.

Thin diameter rosin-core electronics solder from Radio Shack and a paste rosin flux.

Inspecting the completed joint. I’m looking for any gaps or pits where solder may not have flowed into the joint. There should be a uniform silvery and liquid-looking seam of solder flowed in all round the joint.

Here’s the repaired stove reassembled and fired up with no leaks and a great quality clear blue burn.

Simmering nicely.

The owner of this stove is a competent stove collector who may or may not chose to polish the stove. I’ll leave that chore to them. I hope this overlong treatise maybe helped some readers who were considering repairing their own stoves.