Oil lanterns

I haven't tried olive oil, but if you have a quality lamp and the wick is trimmed and adjusted properly, it shouldn't be smelly. Hmm. Is your fuel fresh? Try using white kero -- the kind used in kerosene heaters.

Olive oil is an interesting thought, tho. I'll have to try that.

 

I have Dietz and a few generic storm lamps, they both seem to work similar. I have an old Dietz that has been outside for years, and still works great.
Buy some pure paraffin lamp oil, it will not smoke like the K1 kerosene for lamps and heaters. I use it in our Aladdin oil lamps. Granted it is expensive but worth every penny when your house is shut up. I get it from a friend that supplies the churches for use in their alter wax-less candles.
I like the regular oil lamps for indoors, the Dietz are made basically for outdoors, wind resistant, tougher glass globe.

 

I also have a few of the hurricane lanterns and a few of the old chimney lanterns like Bob shows there.

I have also used "dead" canola oil. Instead of throwing away the oil after using it in my deep-fryer, I put the oil back into the original containers and reuse several times (filtering each time). After a while the oil will go rancid, at that time, it becomes lamp-oil (or fire-pit oil).

 

Never thought of used fryer oil.
And I really should have since I've been running used motor oil through a paint strainer for almost 10 yrs to use as bar oil for my chainsaws.

 

Joe-I bought a bunch of Tractor Supply Co brand bar and chain oil last fall when it was on sale. As you know I cut a whole mess of wood, mainly over Winter, and I couldn't use the bar oil a lot this winter because it got too thick. I didn't want to play with thinning the oil with kerosene or anything so I ended up using new motor oil. It's some goofy viscosity synthetic stuff that FIL got cheap at a yard sale and we'd have no other use for anyway so it's just used for lubeing chains on farm equipment and like I said, in the saw.

Point is, I'm always afraid to try the filtered used oil because I don't want to damage my saw. You make your living with a chainsaw so I'm sure if it works for you it'd work for me. All you do is make sure it's filtered and it's good to go? Do you prefer thinner or thicker oils, or do you just use whatever you have available?

 

I strain the car or truck oil twice with paint filters, use it in the lawnmowers push and riding. Haven't had an issue ever using it for 15 years or so. Yep i use it for bar oil to. I have also one 5 gal and another half full of old fryer oil. Good fire pit started and have tried it in an oil lamp, does not smell the best but works great. A friend jokingly said to spice the stinky oil up, so i did. I put 4 drops of orange oil extract in it and after lighting ya would not believe the smell, smelled like christmas. Try it it works. O, i know ya put those pictures of those old wore out lamps on here to tease me, they look broken and need a home, ya can send them to me at...

 

Jason, I have several diesel engines so I buy 15w-40 in 55 gallon drums and use it in all our vehicles. Yes, I just run it through a paint strainer into gallon jugs. It does turn the bar and the front casing of the saw black over time but with bar oil at $6-$7 a gallon, I can live with that.

 

Bump,

What would you say is an adequate number of lanterns to have to provide lighting in the areas you're in (number of lanterns per room)?

EDIT TO ADD: I ordered the model 76 if they vary on light output based on model.

 

That would come down to what purpose the lanterns are used for, the Aladdin lamps are still used today by the Amish, and a lot of third world countries do to their brightness. They put out as many lumen's as a 100watt light bulb and are good for reading. If you are using them for just illumination 1 would be sufficient, even a regular oil lamp would suffice for that purpose.

 

Thanks Bob.

Well, I guess I'll have some spares.

 

I would say that you would want one per expected adult in the house and have a couple of spares ready to use. You might wish to setup mounts in the "major rooms" to "display" the pretty lights that you have purchased and give them a run-down a couple times a year just to make sure that everything is good on them.

Currently, my hurricane oil lanterns are on a shelf in the basement with a couple bottles of "pretty smelling" lamp-oil ready to pour into the reservoir (tank). I also have about 16 liters (4 gallons I believe it is) of canola oil ready to be either cooked with (deep-fry, pancakes, etc) or used in the lanterns.

 

I bought 20 lamps, 12 hanging brackets, 33' of extra wick and 4 spare colored globes (amber, green, red and blue). Plenty of kero at the ready.

I don't think Mrs. Zoom will go with hanging them for decoration as she's been working on making the house a bit more contemporary. I'll store some in one of my buildings and others at my BOL.

Oh, the colored globes will probably be incorporated into some threat level assessment plan and lit outdoors to advise those around the area how things are looking.

 

I'd like to have a few, but it seems the ones at auction go for a mint, and the ones made more currently seem cheap. I'll keep looking....I'd like to have a couple for reading, and a couple more to carry around to different parts of the house, i.e. laundry room, basement, etc.

 

I purchased some of mine at Army-n-Navy here in Calgary and the lamp-oil I can get from CanadianTire. The cost of the lanterns wasn't really all that expensive (or so I think) and they seem to work well enough.

I just did a quick eBay hit for huricane lantern and came up with some gems - including one for about $10 that is all brass, has been "in the family" for decades and has a stamp that it was made in Wales. As a collectable, it would be sweet to have.

But - function is where things are at and I found a super-cheap large huricane lantern listed for under $6. Here is the link to the eBay auction so that you can peak at it. Hope the link works for you.

 

Lamps will save your tail when you need them.

 

This is a link to kirkmans lantern store. They sell Dietz and they make their own version of Dietz that may be of better quality than Dietz. Check out the Kirkman #2 Champion. Some prices seem reasonable enough and there is LOTS to choose from.

W.T. Kirkman Oil and Electric Lanterns

 

WOW! I am so jealous of your lot of oil lamps. I only have 10 right now.

 

I've been wasting time checking at flee markets for a couple more, then I found a few different sizes right on the shelf at walmart. They were priced right too. 8$-15$ depending on which size.

They "felt" a bit light weight or cheap, but let's face it they're not really going to get abused. They just sit there on the shelf.

 

I used a couple of those cheap Wal-Mart lamps for five years out at my cabin. When I was living in a tent I read and bathed by them. After we moved in the sporatic electricity (every storm knocked it out it seemed) made them a really handy thing to have.

Run parrafin oil through them and they burn white and don't stink. I tried K-1 and I smelled like a refinery every day. Didn't bother me much as I was used to it but the clerks at the store sure looked at me funny..:dunno: