suggestion for windscreen?

Just bought a titanium alcohol stove, and wanted to make a windscreen for it. I was thinking on different ways to make one, but was wondering if anyone had any suggestions on here.

My original plan was to take a piece of sheet metal and duct tape the ends to hide the sharp edges. The only problem is I think if I were to roll it up to fit it around the stove, it would be tough to roll back flat to fit back in the pack. Any suggestions?

Thanks

Heavy duty Aluminium foil or gutter flashing.

look at zenstoves.com. There are a multitude of designs and most of them are covered here.

Sheet metal is too heavy. I keep my gutter-flashing foil windscreen, with paper clip adjustment, lightly rolled in my Titan Kettle. Gutter flashing is a little heavier than aluminum foil. It can take abuse .

And now for the soap box.
Please don’t get discouraged with titanium alcohol stoves. A lot of people get turned off of alcy stoves because their first stove was a vargo titanium alcy stove. There is a big fiddle factor w/ these stoves. When it gets a little cool outside, you will also need a 2nd stove to start the Ti stove. Certain styles of aluminum soda can stoves perform about 10x better because of better heat conduction and ease of lighting.

-Barry

A few places sell titanium foil. I'd rather trim & file the edges than use tape. I think Titanium Goat and Backpacking Light are two sources.

hah, thats exactly what I just bought, the Vargo. I have yet to use it as I got it yesterday. It does seem a little flimsy, but I feel like I have enough patience, I know I will just have to take more care when cooking.

I tried making one outta heineken keg can, but botched it so decided to buy one.

What was the problem with the Vargo?

Also, can you elaborate a little bit on why I would need two stoves to work one ti in cooler weather? Thanks

My favorite all around windscreen is oven liner. It's thicker than foil, thinner and lighter than flashing. It's also cheap. Titanium is OK, but so light it can blow away. and you are usually stuck with a straight cylinder. With oven liner, you can make a cone - better for shedding wind. An oven liner wind screen 4 inches high and 12 long will weigh about 0.2 oz.

The problem with the vargo is that the thicker titanium doesn't conduct heat as well as thin aluminum - so it takes some effort to get the thing hot enough to boil the alcohol.

if you botched the heiny can design try something simple, like
a supercat stove, or google for the "penny alcohol stove" - that's what I use.

After a work party, I commandeered one of those aluminum pans they use for large catering events. Washed it with a little soap and hot water. Used a pair of tin snips to cut out a piece a little larger than the desired height and length so I could fold in the sharp edges. Used a pair a pliers to really crease the folds down. Works great.

This is my favorite kind of recycling!

I'm going to make a windscreen out of a throw-away turkey pan from the grocery store. It's cheap and heavier than aluminum foil.

Right now (while studying abroad) I've made one out of cans. I cut the tops and bottoms off, trimmed them to 3" tall, and notched the ends so they fit together. Three can sections will fit around my tin-can pot. I can easily separate the three sections and put them inside my pot (along with the rest of the stove) for transportation.

“What was the problem with the Vargo?

Also, can you elaborate a little bit on why I would need two stoves to work one ti in cooler weather?”


This is for the Vargo Triad. The 2nd stove, that helps, is a tea candle stove http://zenstoves.net/TeaLight.htm . A very small one is ¼ filled with alcohol and then lit. Then push it under the Vargo stove. After a while, the Vargo stove’s jets will fire.

Some of the problems with Vargo:
1. As phat pointed out, it takes a while to heat up,
2. It can’t be filled fast because of the small hole. This makes it so easy to spill the alcohol over the edges.
3. When it is ‘filled’ the alcohol needs to be above the hole so you can light it with a match. This means that if lesser burn time is needed, lesser alcohol can’t be used, unless you use the priming stove such as explained above, to light it.
4. Another method (though very risky) to light an under-filled stove is to douse the whole stove with alcohol. Bring the match close and watch the whole stove flame up. This sometimes catches the main alcohol on fire. But if the stove is too cold, then you have to douse it again. What I’m trying to say is this baby needs some preheating and priming.
5. I don’t know why, but sometimes some of the jet holes don’t work.
6. Unused alcohol can’t be drained out as claimed, unless reclaiming a couple of drops is considered.
7. If it’s overfilled, get ready for some flame spitting.
8. It is sooo much easier to blow out than a regular pressurize pepsi can stove. This is a drag when you think your meal is cooking.

My favorite is open jet alcohol stoves. Just pour the fuel in the center and light. It sort of looks like ebay item# 220358666700
Some more info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beverage-can_stove

May everyone find their alcy stove zen

-Barry

I have two MSR windscreens and the have endured rolling and folding for years of winter and summer backpacking/sledpacking. Their heavy aluminum seems almost indestructable and it's'easy to cut for modifications. I try to never fold them the same way twice to avoid metal fatigue. So far very good. No other windscren I've tried works as well.

Eric

You might also want to consider aluminum tooling (embossing) foil. It's really easy to work with, and you can find it at a lot of art stores: http://www.dickblick.com/products/pure-metal-tooling-foil/

Bravo. I did exactly the same thing, even got it at a work party. And I'm still using a disposable plastic table cloth for a ground cloth. I rescued it from the landfill after another work party.

The local dollar store sells a variety of soft aluminum roaster pans that are easily cut into wind screens. I don't remember the price.

I second the suggestion for the Jim Woods' super cat stove. Simple, cheap, and easy to make but it works well. His website also has a slower burning version.

Thanks for the suggestions/hints/tips. I am going to make a Super Cat today actually. They do look really simple to make, then I will perform a few tests of my own to see which one reins supreme, thanks again.

Hey, don't forget to post pictures!

I ended up using my Vargo for Esbin instead of alcohol. It works well for the Esbit as you told me it would. However, I think I still prefer my isobutane unit. No muss no fuss.

Howie

So I made a Super Cat stove. I have to say off the bat though, I used a cork opener to create the holes, and pushed a tire repair kit tool through to create a hole I thought was close to 3/16".

I also eyed the measurements as I do not have the right tools. So needless to say it was a little less than perfect lol...but looked alright...

Still....the Super Cat worked great. I hiked a trail this weekend, it was about 25 degrees, a wind of about 10 mph. (Using a windscreen) It took about 6 mins to boil water, as soon as it boiled, however, it quickly died no more than a minute later. Which would be bad if I was trying to cook a meal, but this was just for tea.

I since have bought some new tools to add to my repertoire, so I plan on making another Super Cat, just more precise.

Believe it or not I have been so absorbed by making my own stove that I have yet to really test the Vargo. I plan on this weekend. I will take pics of the Super Cat when I perfect it.

I really like the Super Cat though, it performed to what I think was well giving the conditions, and it only cost me about 75 cents to make! Not including the aluminum flashing I bought for a windscreen (7 bucks)

I saw somewhere on the internet to make flame proof coozies. I was hoping to make one for my snow Peak Trek 700 so I can increase the efficiency of my stove, and keeping food/drink hotter longer. Any suggestions?

I recently made my first Supercat too, and performance was not as great as I had expected. I conducted my test on the basis of boiling three cups of cold water, enough for two commercial freeze-dried boil-bag meals (no solo hiking or cooking for me... yet). Using 1.3oz of denatured, a windscreen and an open 2qt aluminum pot, I got 12 minutes to boil and 16 minutes total runtime on a cold January day. Still perfectly acceptable, just not spectacular. I covered the pot and boiled 5 cups (for hot drinks/cereal for breakfast for a few people) and got a boil in 14 minutes.

But back to the question at hand, windscreens. I too got the aluminum flashing at my local Home Depot, as the thinner aluminum options don't seem bombproof to me (my screen weighs in at 1oz). My paper punch, used to make the Supercat, was not up to the task of punching flashing so I cut vents with tinsnips -- ugly but effective. I don't flatten and roll, I keep it rolled up inside the pot.

I cut slots/tabs to make it stable after assembly.

The interesting thing about the flashing was nothing happened for like 3 pots worth of boiling, then suddenly on the fourth it turned brown around the edges. Weird huh?


I also use an overturned 5oz catfood can to raise the Supercat up off the cold ground and provide an excellent priming pan (10 seconds or less until the alcohol starts to boil). It's a heavy 0.6oz, but with it I can blow the stove out before all the fuel is consumed and use the bigger can as a dump receptacle. From there, I can then pour the extra fuel back in the bottle -- I used a triangle file to make a notch in the place where the pop-top lid used to be, to form a pour point.

Some Supercat folks say you can't/shouldn't blow out an alcohol stove, but so far I've had 100% success. Just make sure you're blowing straight down and centered so your stove doesn't go flying. A quick strong puff does the trick.

I bought a Vargo Decagon titanium alcohol stove on a whim while browsing at REI. It looked like a cool design. Then I started seeing posts about how inefficient titanium stoves were compared to aluminum soda pop can designs. So I have been doing some testing. I live at 6,400 feet elev. and there is lots of snow at Lake Tahoe. I can bring 2 cups of cold tap water to a rolling boil at right around 5 min. 30 secs. every time. (Our tap water comes from the lake and it’s really cold.) It doesn’t seem to matter if I’m outdoors or in. Then I can refill my aluminum pot and get it hot enough to get bubbles on the bottom before the flame goes out. (If I were smart, I’d get a 32 oz. pot) An ounce of alcohol lasts about 14 minutes. The secret to getting it primed fast is to spill a little alcohol on the outside of the stove then it comes out of the jets in about 20 secs. Otherwise it takes about 45. The stove is sensitive to wind and I can blow it out so I too need a wind screen. And I can recover unused alcohol pretty easily with a paper funnel. I haven’t used the soda can design yet so I don’t know how to compare.

I also haven’t used it on a trek yet, but am anxious to. I think I’ll be happy with it.

I pick one of these up at a used gear sale $7.50, I use a 7" Aluminum cake pan from the dollar store( pack of 3) as a wind screen with my 1.3L ti pot. Need to fold the edges inward to fit in the pot, work great.

Thx for the link. Could this foil be used for a caldera cone (is it strong, thick enough ?) ?

I think it probably could, though I've never tried it. You can usually find the stuff on eBay cheaper than at the art stores.

Aluminum flashing (thin rolls of aluminum)can be bought in various thicknesses very inexpensively at home supply stores like Home Depot.

rionada

Well in the states maybe, but not over here, Belgium. Been looking everywhere and saddly no go. They only use zinc or lead flashing over here. Imagine a lead flashing windscreen.

And it's probably cheaper to have a small roll shipped from the states as well, if i can find a seller who whill ship to Belgium that is.

If you look for stuff like that http://www.hygiene42.com/plat_jetable/Plat_de_service_alu/p_296/f_60.html, it makes great windscreens.
Easy to find in many shops I guess in Belgium too. The bigger ones are 40/50 cm long.
You might even find oven liners, but it's far harder!

I'm looking for a piece min. 10" high by 25" long, metric 25x60 cm for a one piece caldera cone.

I've used the foil tray's to make pot lids, a little sturdier than tinfoil.

Can't find the oven liners either.