Here’s the US Military manual for the folks who are digging these old military stoves. Big thanks to a happy BernieDawg cap purchaser who was kind enough to share this file with me, and with permission, the world! BD
Category Archives: Stoves
Svea Campus 5 – Nickel Plated Tank
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.
Svea 175 Marine Stove
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
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. :-(((
Swiss Army Stove Manual in English
These surplus Swiss Army two-burner gasoline stoves turn up on the popular auction sites from time to time.
You can watch a three-minute video of the one I have on it’s virgin burn one cold January night. The video was shot about four years ago and you can find it at my YouTube channel, BernieDawg Cinema, right here:
Several years ago I translated the three-language (French – German – Italian) manual into English. I made a big effort to format it so that it closely resembled the original manual. You can download it at the link below as a PDF file
Swiss Army Stove Manual English copy 894KB PDF
More Stove Instructions
1.9MB JPG 72dpi
Optimus Explorer_11 exploded schematic 2.9MB PDF 300dpi
1.5MB JPGs 72dpi
Homestrand Marine 206:209 Stove diagram 3MB PDF 300dpi
Kenyon 406 marine stove manual 520KB PDF 300dpi
JetBoil Joule Instructions 8.2MB PDF 300dpi
JPGS
Kap-Arctic_instructions 7.3MB PDF 300dpi
JPGs
Optimus 111T Manual 4.7MB PDF 300dpi
Primus Multifuel 3288 and Varifuel 3278 Instructions 503KB PDF 300dpi
Primus Multifuel EX 328894 Instructions 517KB PDF 300dpi
Primus OmniFuel 3289 Instructions 1.3MB PDF 300dpi
JPG
Phoebus 625 Instructions 597KB PDF 300dpi
Labels for restoring the Phoebus 625 can be found here:
https://www.berniedawg.com/phoebus-625-restoration-labels/
Coleman Stove Instructions
Here is a collection of Coleman documents and instructions I either have in my possession, was gifted by other stove collectors, or that I have personally collected. I’ll add more from time to time as I process and scan other documents on Coleman stoves. I hope that it helps some of you who are looking for information on these old vintage rarities. The really good images are the larger PDFs. Just click on the hyper-linked document name to download the PDF. Or, for those with limited bandwidth, click on the screen-readable JPGs for faster, but less detailed, viewing.
1945 Coleman 457 Handy Gas Plant Instructions Full-size 300 dpi PDF 2.7MB
smaller 72 dpi JPG 314KB
smaller 72 dpi JPG 383KB
Coleman 348 Marine Alcohol Stove Instructions 3.3MB
smaller 72dpi JPG 234KB
smaller 72dpi JPG 328KB
Coleman 419 Stove Instructions 28.8MB
smaller 72dpi JPG 616KB
smaller 72dpi JPG 657KB
Coleman 500 Stove Instruction Sheet 25MB
smaller 72dpi JPG 495KB
smaller 72dpi JPG 572KB
Coleman 500 Stove Manual 11.4MB
smaller 72dpi JPG 296KB
smaller 72dpi JPG 320KB
Coleman 511A700 cat heater exploded diagram 557KB
smaller 72dpi JPG 354KB
Primus 100 Silent Cap?
Dear BernieDawg
I found a great old Primus 100. It works well and is very nice. But, how can I make it more quiet for use in camp in the early morning ? Thank you for your help!
Noisemaker
–
Hi Noisemaker
The Primus 100 stoves are among my favorites. A silent damper cap can make your stove quieter, and also generate a better fuel/air mix for efficient burning.
–
Best choice is a Primus 4010 silent damper cap. They work super awesome on the 100s.
Base-Camp in England had some of the 4010’s a while back, but they’ve sold out of them now. Watch for a possible (though unlikely) return of the 4010 at Base-Camp sometime in the future, or ask around to some of the stove forums. Perhaps someone there would sell you one of their extras.
–
Another good choice for a Primus 100 silent damper cap is to fab up a cap adapter I call a spigot plate. I’ve made lots of these over the years. It’s a great newbie brazing project for anyone who wants to work on stoves.
–
Basically, you take a round piece of sheet metal with a hole in the center and braze a short piece of 5/8” diameter tubing to the middle.
The spigot plate holds the inner cap centered, and the outer cap settles around the inner cap.
You can make the diameter of the sheet metal base to fit either the first or the second ledge in the lipstick burner bell and then just use a regular cap set with the stove.
Good luck on this project. It can be done with hand tools and an electric drill. You don’t need specialized tools.
Happy camping!
BD
Kolibri (Hummingbird) Stove – from Hungary
Here’s a Kolibri kerosene-burning stove I received from a seller in the stove’s native country of Hungary. Kolibri means “Hummingbird”. It’s an attractive little porcelainized stove with very 1950’s or early ’60’s styling.
Just click on any image for a larger picture.
Sadly, while I received two of the original inner caps, no outer cap came with the stove.
Here are some detail shots of the stoves workings.
The on-off valve is missing it’s plastic or bakelite handle. This valve does not control flow rate, only whether the fuel is on or off.
The knob on the front controls the cleaning needle which acts to throttle the stove.
This ceramic knob pump knob is unlikely to be original. It is probably a cabinet door pull. The original would have been a round black sphere.
The stove was disassembled and cleaned.
Here is the cleaning needle/throttle peeking out of the stove body.
Unthreaded and removed.
The unique shaped NRV (Non-Return Valve) from the bottom of the pump tube.
As the stove came without a complete set of silent caps, I made a pair of stainless steel outer silent caps to match the inners. The number and size of exit holes and the general shape and size of the outer caps I based on inspections of photos of complete stoves researched from the web.
The fabricated outer caps worked well. Strong full flame. Note in the photo below that I repaired the chipped porcelain around the pump tube mount with matching white epoxy paint, built up in layers and smooth and polished with ultra-fine abrasives and polish.
And a nice simmer.
But, I also liked the performance of the stove with this 3D laser-printed BernieDawg prototype cap.
Optimus 11
This is a late-in-the-series Optimus 11. This stove has never been fueled or fired. The spindle knob is not original to the stove. The knob form on the spindle is correct for the period, but the shaft is a round end that I consider mechanically squaring so that it could be used with the square spindle on the stove.
