Today , I tested some of the new arrivals to the collection . Photos soon !  @ Bulbman : Glad you got it lit ! 

I got some spares for my Tilley lamps through the post today.
One of the spares that I got was a brass control valve assembly, and in trying to take the knob off the stem, to replace a seal I (...)ed it.!
I have ordered a couple more valve assemblies, and they've already got new seals fitted.!
I did manage to fettle Sam's old pump so that it's now fully working, I've just got to restore the plunger handle as the aluminium is a bit corroded.

I recently bought a copy of Tilley,The versatile vapour lamp, and it's a very interesting read with some very useful information about the lampses that I've got. 

Rather you than me, I am officially useless when it comes to things mechanical. Electrics I'm fine with, but anything that involves nuts, bolts and/or large bits of metal and I'm no good to anybody 

Hung out with my buddy who owns the 1966 bel air, he recently bought a Chevy 305 engine out a wrecked 1980s caprice for it. Helped him tear apart the bottom end of the engine, was in fairly nice shape except for the rod bearing on Cyl #7 having a big gash in it. He plans on doing a quick and dirty rebuild on the 305 and put it into the bel air while he works on rebuilding the original 283 with more performance oriented components. The 283 still runs fine, it's just a very tired motor at this point and it started to burn some decent amounts of oil. The 283 will go back in hopefully connected to a 4 speed manual of some kind.

I used a US spec 135w/180w LPS HX ballast, ran just fine. First HX ballast that I've seen with PF correction added on.

I'll look into those programs, thank you Ria. I also have all my other lights that deserve new photos. Over the summer I plan on doing a lamp census so I can figure out how much I have. (lots is the answer)  

What ballast did you use..?

For collages I tend to use LibreOffice Draw, but there's another program I use sometimes called PhotoCollage. It's ok but doesn't let you re-size the images once they're in the program, so can be a bit of a pain. Draw takes more time, but I think it gives you better results.

Last night I lit up the 180w LPS lamp that Tim gave me, holy cow those things are BRIGHT! I had sunglasses on and even still it felt a little too intense to stare at. I made the mistake of opening my bedroom window and I lit up the side of the neighbor's house with it. Pictures of it coming soon, I gotta figure out a good way to make a collage again.   

Sam has now been fettled, and once he has cooled down after a very successful test burn I will fit a new mantle and get him litted properly.

Picture up now.!