Bootsale bargain - Optimus 8R for £1

[ANGOF]

Picked up this little beauty for a quid this afternoon, its in a bit of a state but im hoping to clean and restore it to use as my backpack stove. Anybody know anything about them ?
http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa124/angof/003_zps08661274.jpg
http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa124/angof/002_zps4fc84519.jpg
http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa124/angof/001_zpse8e4aa09.jpg

[BJ]

interesting find. Would love to see some photographs when you have restored it. T^

[ANGOF]

Will do :o, a little digging on the net and i found this repair guide T^
http://www.spiritburner.com/fusion/showtopic.php?tid/137/

[bushratty]

fuel tank looks a bit close to the dangerous end to me

[Silverback]

good find

[Rasputin]

Lucky beggar, thats a cracking price and find. Never owned that particular model but all the ones Ive had/have run on parrafin and heat up with meths in the saucer/cup under the burner. They are a noisy stove, not unlike a Vulcan taking off, lol not for stealth camp. I believe that they will also run on white spirits, red/white derv and Coleman fuel, although I have never tried any of these.I believe there are also petrol versions of this type of stove but again I have never come across one myself.ATB in your restoration, Ken

[surplus 6]

that'll be nice when you've fettled it, nice resto guide

[Tigger004]

lovely find, keep us posted

[Sar-ian]

:happy-clapping:T^

[Phrayzar]

Very nice find. This is an early model 8R, the stamping on the lid and round sticker show the period. There are a few vids on the tube about them. I have one on my channel that shows my 8R hunter,99 and 199 stoves. The 8R and 99 have the same stove with different cases.

It is such a good design that it has been copied for use by many eastern block countries military and several knock off camping models exist also. Optimus still make a model today that has a vinyl tank called the hiker plus.

The safest thing to use in it to test it would be coleman fuel. There are various models within the 8R range that are either multi fuel units or petrol. Coleman fuel should let you know if it's working at least.

The 8R is a real character of a stove and when that chinook roar cracks through the silence of a morning you'll be smitten. I was.
T^

[shepherd]

i love it... keep meaning to hit some car boot sales but never get round to it!

[MadZ]

managed to grab a number 8 today for 5 quid with fuel in the tank still, smells like petrol to be fair, gonna try get a brew going on it shortly.

[Rasputin]

i love it... keep meaning to hit some car boot sales but never get round to it!

Tried that ! it hurts ya knuckles :evilgrin:

[JEEP]

A true classic! And a true joy to use - this one will give you many happy hours and many a hot meal/cuppa.

I am a great fan of Optimus stoves, though my favourite is the simpler - though not quite as simple to operate - Optimus Svea 123R. Which I also bring along to WWII re-enactments.

Once you get used to the jet/steam locomotive like sound of these stoves, it will forever remind you of countless pleasant houers spent in The Nature.

[MadZ]

after reading the rebuild article i decided not to bother messing with it, but to try fire it up instead and i have to say that it was a 30 second burn in the little warm up pool before it actually fired up and it did take a while for the burner to get a good flame licking out of it, i just put this down to not being used for years as the person i got this off said it was her great gramps camping kit (she looked late 50's) and its been in the loft for as long as she can remember, when it sounded like it was ready to enter orbit, i checked a pint of water into my frying pan and boiled up some water, it was 8 minutes to boil a pint with no lid, i'd say that aint bad.

had a quick scout through ebay, no number 8's but a few of the others and they looked awesome, but the price on some of them is quiet high 50 to 70 quid for what i guess is the rare ones

[Phrayzar]

Well done for getting it fired up. It's a bit of a leap of faith with stoves like these. What a character of a stove though!

[shepherd]

Tried that ! it hurts ya knuckles :evilgrin:

lol T^

[rik_uk3]

Great stoves, stick to Aspen 4T/Panel wipe or Coleman fuel. They fetch good money these days on ebay. I've sold most of my collection now but have kept a few back like the 8 range and 99 and 199...they are all simple stoves and just keep on working.

[Stevie B]

Great find there fella, good luck with the restoration. :)

[Tony1948]

Ant you guy ben on ear for a bit ? Rune been doing one up for 1or2 weeks and just done a vid,I think he;s just found an other one to repair.

[FishyFolk]

Thats the little brother of the Optimus 111 that I found the other day :-)

Nice find, and a stove for life if you treat it right :-)

[rik_uk3]

Ant you guy ben on ear for a bit ? Rune been doing one up for 1or2 weeks and just done a vid,I think he;s just found an other one to repair.


Tony, my stove Padawan, one does not repair stoves like these, one 'fettles' them ;)