The Coleman Thread

[taccruiser97]

That was one of the steps I performed, the fount was placed upside down in the machine, the filler neck and pump was pressed in, copper brazing rings were placed around the filler and pump body, an air tool was used to screw a needle valve in the end, (kinda looked like the needle for a basketball pump), then the pump was rotated 180 degrees, another brazing ring was laid inside what would be the bottom of the fount, then I operated a press that put the bottom of the fount in, and in four more steps, the machine turntable rotated, gradually curling the edge of the fount over the bottom and sealing it. Then I took the finished fount, tossed it on a long roller belt where it gravity fed into an oven to melt the brazing rings, then it was pressured tested and went to the paint booth.

When I wasn't doing this I and another guy ran the inner coater which shot paint on the inside of the fount, placed the fount on a "wheel of fortune" which had magnetic turnables mounted perpendicular to the edge, they turned while the wheel turned and completely coated the inside. The inner coated founts came off of that and went to the paint booth. After that, the founts went upstairs for final assembly and packaging for shipment.

I will say that working for Coleman was probably the sorriest place I have ever worked. Management was horrible to the employees, the working conditions were the worst I have ever encountered, and the machines we used were continually breaking down due to Coleman's refusal to replace anything, and management would go off on us about low production. Hopefully things have improved over the years.

The mindset among most Coleman employees was to work there long enough to get some manufacturing experience and then go to Beech, Boeing, Lear Jet, or Cessna. Pay was way better, and working conditions were much better.

I endured it because I had a new 1979 Toyota 4x4 mini truck to pay for. Priorities ya know?

 

[FJ60Cam]

So, Cruiserdrew hooked a brotha up with a super-bro-deal on a 426C three-burner that he hustled from some meth cooks or something (I haven't heard the story yet.)

After patiently waiting a few days, a box the size of a coffin finally lands on my door. I quickly cut into the package and wrestle the beast out of the box. This thing is huge!

He prepped me for the worst, saying that she was ugly, that this was a working girl not a beauty queen, but that with a little lipstick and mascara, she might be presentable. He replaced the cap gasket and got the pump in working order. I guess she looked good enough to him because he took her for a spin and cooked some breakfast on her.

I took out a second mortgage to pay for shipping, but it was worth it. It was much nicer than I pictured. It was only "California rusty". I promptly put some fuel in the tank to test it out, and ran like a champ.

It's large size is also it's greatest asset. It has the main burner in the middle, which means the skillet can actually fit over the burner and not hang off the side like with the standard size.





With the lantern tucked inside...



I spent few minutes with a brush knocking some of the surface rust off of it, followed up with a veggie oil rub down to season the metal.





If you'll recall, I scored a boatload of parts from Craigslist. It turns out there was a really nice 426 tank in the pile. After I burn through the fuel I already put in the original tank, I'll swap the valve over to the pretty one.



... and here's the money shots - cooking up some pancakes, bacon, and sausage for dinner. With a proper griddle, this thing could really be a pancake factory.

 

[Cruiserdrew]

Looks great Cam. Hopefully, with you cooking dinner and entertaining kids, your wife was OK with it..

So the meth head connection:

I answered an ad on the local Craigs for a 426B, Lantern and Cooler for $140. The single photo was the kind of blurred cell phone shot that you can tell, required the entire brain power of the person taking it to actually get it on to Craigs. The stove looked ok but the pic was dark and it did look like a 426.

The woman sent me her cell # and I got an address in Elk Grove, which is a nice suburb just south of Sacramento. Except the street address is actually East of what I consider Elk Grove. So driving down there I'm headed into old ranchettes, trailer parks and not the manicured suburbia I expected.

I turn onto "Elk Street" (Name changed to protect the uninvolved). GPS says I am there, except I'm down a back road, a lesser back road, and the address is actually just a dirt track that leads through a falling down stone arch way. Down there I see dirty children playing with broken stuff...it doesn't look good. SO I slowly drive down the dirt track into the back and there are a couple of houses and what looks like a 1960s storage unit development. With lots of broken down cars, barking dogs, more dirty kids...a mess. Like WalMart without the store.

Anyway, someone has converted the old storage units to living spaces. The roll up doors are rusted in place and painted over, but the units have had doors cut in the side and one of these is my destination. I was afraid to knock on anyone's door so I call and the woman steps out of "306" with a stove. She is mid 30s, 110 pounds, stringy hair, tatoo'ed on all the skin I could see and is missing many significant teeth. She's pretty beat, and so is the stove. She apologizes that the lantern and cooler "just sold" but she would like $40 for the stove.

The stove actually is not that bad. And, it's Coleman's best-a 426C, not a B like the ad said. I look it over, it's complete, she says it works but there is no trace of fuel in it. I actually said no and went to leave, but she is desperate. "We'll take less." I offered $10. She has to go in and talk to some dude, and after about 5 minutes of yelling, head banging, dogs barking and children screaming, "the dude" steps out from the stoage unit. He is s***FACEDRUNK. He accepts the $10 and steps back inside. Tatoo girl is apologizing for the mess and I give her $10 hoping she would give her kids something to eat. I go back to my car where the dirty children are petting my dog. WTF??? They have let MY dog out of MY car so they could play.

I was happy to get back to civilization.

 

[rusty_tlc]

Your going to love that stove.

 

[FJ60Cam]

Looking on Google Satellite Maps now...

 

[FJ60Cam]

Looks great Cam. Hopefully, with you cooking dinner and entertaining kids, your wife was OK with it...

Your going to love that stove.

I already love it. This is going to see lots of use in the backyard alone. I just need to find a proper griddle.

Believe it or not, my wife even likes it, no rolling of the eyes or anything. She also thinks the 242 is awesome and wants to leave it out hanging on the patio. (I said we have to at least bring it inside if we aren't using it.) But she might have just been high on pancakes.

 

[Cruiserdrew]

Here is the griddle you need:

 

[Finnyfam60]

Andy, let me know next time youre heading into suburbia and I'll roll with you. I need a 426 and griddle!

 

[FJ60Cam]

This, maybe?



They make a heavier one, but it is huge.

 

[Cruiserdrew]

This, maybe?


They make a heavier one, but it is huge.

That's it, and old school like your stove.

 

[FJ60Cam]

Put some lipstick on 'er...

 

[Cruiserdrew]

That's cool, a brand new OEM fuel tank from 50 years ago. That tank was used 1954-1963. Changed from gold to red paint in 1959. Hang on to the old one since it's sound and the check valve is good, someone may need it.

 

[spressomon]

Looks great Cam. Hopefully, with you cooking dinner and entertaining kids, your wife was OK with it..

So the meth head connection:

I answered an ad on the local Craigs for a 426B, Lantern and Cooler for $140. The single photo was the kind of blurred cell phone shot that you can tell, required the entire brain power of the person taking it to actually get it on to Craigs. The stove looked ok but the pic was dark and it did look like a 426.

The woman sent me her cell # and I got an address in Elk Grove, which is a nice suburb just south of Sacramento. Except the street address is actually East of what I consider Elk Grove. So driving down there I'm headed into old ranchettes, trailer parks and not the manicured suburbia I expected.

I turn onto "Elk Street" (Name changed to protect the uninvolved). GPS says I am there, except I'm down a back road, a lesser back road, and the address is actually just a dirt track that leads through a falling down stone arch way. Down there I see dirty children playing with broken stuff...it doesn't look good. SO I slowly drive down the dirt track into the back and there are a couple of houses and what looks like a 1960s storage unit development. With lots of broken down cars, barking dogs, more dirty kids...a mess. Like WalMart without the store.

Anyway, someone has converted the old storage units to living spaces. The roll up doors are rusted in place and painted over, but the units have had doors cut in the side and one of these is my destination. I was afraid to knock on anyone's door so I call and the woman steps out of "306" with a stove. She is mid 30s, 110 pounds, stringy hair, tatoo'ed on all the skin I could see and is missing many significant teeth. She's pretty beat, and so is the stove. She apologizes that the lantern and cooler "just sold" but she would like $40 for the stove.

The stove actually is not that bad. And, it's Coleman's best-a 426C, not a B like the ad said. I look it over, it's complete, she says it works but there is no trace of fuel in it. I actually said no and went to leave, but she is desperate. "We'll take less." I offered $10. She has to go in and talk to some dude, and after about 5 minutes of yelling, head banging, dogs barking and children screaming, "the dude" steps out from the stoage unit. He is s***FACEDRUNK. He accepts the $10 and steps back inside. Tatoo girl is apologizing for the mess and I give her $10 hoping she would give her kids something to eat. I go back to my car where the dirty children are petting my dog. WTF??? They have let MY dog out of MY car so they could play.

I was happy to get back to civilization.

I'm sitting at the kitchen table with my cookies and milk...before bedtime you know...Great read!

taccruiser97, loved your stories about your Coleman job...and then writing the co-worker up.

Let's rename this thread: Great Coleman Stories!

 

[desertdude]

Encore Andy, Encore

"We'll keep the light on for you"


::::

 

[taccruiser97]

I will say that I haven't really thought much about Coleman products I have used over the years until I started following this thread.

I think it was this thread where somebody scored a deal on an older Coleman tent that was in really good shape and posted some pictures. I could not believe it, the pictures that were posted were of the kind of tents we used when I was in Scouts. When I was first in scouts we camped out using old canvas tents which I believe were probably surplus. Some local businesses in the small town where I grew donated some money and bought the scout troop all new Coleman tents. These tents HAD FLOORS, you could stand up in them, we had moved up in the world. Those tents got a lot of use over several years before they finally wore out.

I guess for me, Coleman is like Toyota to me, it has never let me down and a brand I do not hesitate to buy.

Another Coleman story I will relate. A couple of fork lift drivers were racing each other one night while I was still on 3rd. One fork lift swung a little wide, hit a lathe that made small metal parts and knocked it over into another lathe which fell over too. The plant manager got called in and fired those dudes on the spot.

There were 2 guys that ran a big several ton press that turned big flat discs into the upper/bowl shaped part of the fount. In order to make standard and bonus these two yahoos would pop speed when they were coming into the plant or while eating lunch. This was not the crazy part. In order to operate this press, for safety reasons the operator had to push two buttons at the same time with two hands. The automatic operation feature had been disabled. The operator would dip the metal disc in a soapy solution, slide the disc in flat, hit the two buttons simultaneously, the press would come down and form the bowl, the operator would pull the bowl out and send to his partner who operated the punch machine that put the holes in for filler and pump. These two took some scrap metal and jammed the two buttons down so the machine would run on automatic. On speed these guys would perform the above operation and go like crazy. How they kept from getting their hands caught in the press is beyond me. The shift lead man did not care because they made him look good and they gave him some pills too. These two left Coleman within a year of me leaving and went to work for Boeing making airplane parts. Every time I flew somewhere in a Boeing, I always wondered if these two had made a critical part for the plane I was on.

 

[BreckenridgeCruiser]

And now I will be driving everywhere from now on.

 

[Cruiserdrew]

530 Stoves

I thought I post up what in my opinion is the coolest and at the same time most useless product that Coleman ever made. These are beautifully made. Thick polished nickle plating, stainless uppers, brass burners with nickle plated hardware. The fount itself is brass, not steel like the war time 520s. It got all of coleman's best stuff-a tip cleaner and the instant light valve inside the fuel air tube. These were the innovations that had allowed Coleman to dominate the gasoline appliance market. Anyway, they went to a lot of trouble to make these...for 2 years, 1946 and 1947.

It was a derivative of this:

I personally think the 530s are very, very cool. Coleman designed a locking aluminum can to protect it, which is why most of these 530s are in great shape even today. Notice, even the fold out burner is stainless.

One thing these stoves are is HOT, and so, Coleman provided a steel diffuser plate so the burner flame would not melt the aluminum pots, that form the container for the stove. Notice the included wrench which can service every nut on the stove is also a pot handle.

You can see this one of mine is a B47. Since no C or D has ever been seen, I can only assume it's the second half of 1947.

These are the 3 that I have, in their containers. The painted one is a 520, and I'll post up separately about it.

I added a pre-heat cup to make it easier to light. You fill with denatured alcohol, burn for 2 minutes and then light it:

After it lights, F15s on afterburner makes less noise:

The underside of the burner:

So why is it useless? It's tall, top heavy, extremely/unbearably loud. It's very hard to light without the preheat cup, though it is fun to have a 4 foot dragon tongue of napalm fire to impress your wife. It can boil it's large pot of water in 6 minutes, so it's OK for coffee, but it isn't good for much else. Very fun to play with though.

 

[FJ60Cam]

What fuel do you run in those?

This the model my Dad used in Nam. This one was new when he brought it back. He said it fell off a supply truck or something

I like this way you describe the noise - this thing has always scared the crap out of me.

I guess this is what the military stove evolved into. This one's case doesn't have a built in handle like yours. It does have a few holes near the top of the lid where we've attached a bail handle fashioned from a coat hanger. It does have a small wrench like the modern coleman single burner stoves.








The pump is built in to the cap.




It has a spare generator clipped into the frame. It looks (and probably is) the same generator for the 530.






It has the pre-heat cup with a wick. The burner bowl has a hole in the bottom so you can turn the valve on and dribble gas down into the cup.

Which is why this thing scares me because it is a huge smelly flaming ball of gasoline until it transforms into the jet engine. It has absolutely no turn down. It is really only good for boiling water. He said these never has the steel disc.

 

[Cruiserdrew]

That is an M1950, which was an evolution of the M1942. Kind of a parallel universe to the 520/530 evolution. The Army farmed out production of the M1950 to many companies, yours is a Rogers obviously. The M1950 was used from Korea up to the early 1980s I believe. If you look at the model 400 stoves, you can see the similarity with your M1950.

You're right about the binary nature of these-off, or full afterburner. They were not made for delicate simmering!

The generator is close but not the same. You can retrofit an M1950 generator into a 530 if you oalso swap the burner. Lots of people do that because the 530 generators are getting a bit hard to find.

 

[rusty_tlc]

I have an M1950 I picked up for $3 at a rummage sale in Brookings OR while on vacation.

I keep it in case I need to sanitize massive amounts of water from the slough behind the house or run out of propane and want to boil 7 gallons of wort to make beer.