How they are Made

Really old lanterns, after being procured, they pass 4 distinct phases before they end up in finished articles:

Restoration & Metalwork

Depending each lantern’s condition a typical restoration involves:

  • Fire treatment (controlled fire makes easier rust, debris and old paint removal) flame_treated
  • Steel brushing either manual or with high speed rotary tool
  • Acid bath. A few hours or even days of the metal to a mild citric acid solution with intermediate scrubbing to assure in depth rust removal even to most unreachable spots.

Afterwards the chassis is checked for irregularities or imperfections: those are fixed, bent wires are straighten, loose points are soldered etc. The lantern should look nice and even and give a robust feeling when handled. Some also minor metal parts are welding as red led holders etc

 

Metal Finish

paintwork

 

Basic paintwork involves

  • hand brush with a primer (flooding the lantern with a thinned primer to get everywhere)
  • spray paint with a color of choice (black or red, glossy or matte)
  • for more rustic look, hand brush is also done especially when time is of no concern (takes 1-2 weeks to fully harden)
  • for a polished bare metal special look, Owatrol rustol oil is applied on metal.

As for globes, those are to meticulously cleansed and frosted  nice and even internally. This is a major advancement since an internal frosting assures a nice shine look of the glass globe and in the same time the necessary frosting to be unaffected by scratches and knocks on the glass.

 

Chassis Preparation &  Engine addition and Wiring

 

This phase includes, GU10 led holder fastening, wick controller to regulating pot assembly, red led fixing, necessary internal drilling, power jack to chassis fastening etc. Then follows the addition

RewhumSt2_13-wiringof lantern’s engine to lantern’s body. Considerable wiring is taking place . A successful end of this phase is the normal light up of the finished article.

 

 Finalizing & Test Running

 

In this stage, the lantern is checked for paint irregularities and all kinds of small things that make a difference. Test running is a typical 4-5 hours run on cells, 24 hours run on 5v wall plugged charger and another 24 hour run in 12v mode. All test runs are done at max setting at room temperature.