Swiss Volcano Stove need a different cup

Hello everyone. My first post (there is always a first). I am a sailor at heart, but also love camping/backpacking. I am going to be spending as much time in the boundary waters this summer when I am not sailing Lake Superior.

I just got one of those Swiss Volcano stoves from Cheaper than Dirt. I know its not the best, but I am still pretty broke from college and all (plus I like burning wood or the trangia when necessary). Anyways I would like to deep 6 that novel aluminum cup that came with it to get something that won't slowly poison me. Anyone use anything in particular with that stove or should I reconsider?

I don't have a quick answer, but in case you haven't seen, there is a u shape on the lower part of the handle that slides into the side of the swiss ranger to hold up a pot inside the tube. Any small diameter pot should do the trick.

Wikipedia says: Although the use of aluminium cookware has not been shown to lead to aluminium toxicity in general, excessive consumption of antacids containing aluminium compounds and excessive use of aluminium-containing antiperspirants provide more significant exposure levels.

Short term I wouldn't worry too much about the aluminum. it is a nice fairly light set. I picked one up and plan to play with it this summer.

Thanks
Yeah I noticed that lip. I really like how light the thing is and someday I will probably get the Littl Bug or the BushCooker Lt (since they are locally made for me). But in the meantime I want to try cooking with wood for a while, and thinking that some sort of 1 liter pot and pan from Snow Peak or Back Country might be nice and keep the small aluminum cup for water/tea. I suppose if I really were concerned, I could always have it anodized around town here.

I love cooking and I would like to be able to make some good grub, so I am torn between cooking/ rehydrating food on the trail. Obviously rehydrating is lighter and quicker, but that requires prep before heading up north.

That Swiss Volcano stove was not designed to cook wood.
It was meant for Esbit/alcohol and the Borde stove .
Franco

I have heard that of people burning a whole in the side of the ranger. I also have seen people using with wood without a problem.
For $10 I would do that carefully, but without much worry.

I had heard that it wasn't meant for wood. The problem is getting embers right up against the aluminum wall that cause the sides to melt. This seems especially true when your doing something more substantial than boiling water.

I am going to make a penny stove to setup inside it as a when burning wood is not allowed.

If this works well enough, I will probably bite the bullet on something better that burns wood. Without getting into the aluminum debate, I feel that the only thing aluminum has going for it is that it is light. I do know it does not like to interact with stainless

You might be happier with the penny stove, burning alcohol, or a
more designed for wood type stove if you wanna burn wood.

A recent project in the make your own gear section here had a pretty sweet looking double wall woodstove made from cans.

There's no point in putting the penny stove *inside* the volcano, as it works very well with just the little u shaped pot support made out of coat hangers and a hunk of aluminum foil or turkey pan for a windscreen.

I agree,

I did a lot with a heineken stove, cheap walmart aluminum pot, coat hanger potstand and cheap tin windscreen.

I will be trying out the ranger in the future though.

With bmadau's help I now have a cleaner burning version of the woodstove made of cans. I'll post a link when youtube finishes uploading it. I'm contemplating taking the concept to someone to see if it is worth making a stainless or titanium version with nesting pot.

Paulo I will be very curious to see how your stove turns out (especially if you end up doing a ss or Ti version). The input has been really helpful.

I just got the volcano a week ago. I have been messing around with it a bit. I agree it could be done much much lighter without the volcano parts.

On that note about wood stoves. I have noticed that the BushBuddy is really the only one i have seen so far that doesn't potentially scorch the ground. I have been wondering what gives with other stoves not following that idea (a way to really Leave no trace).

A production run would need some more tweaking. I don't see that happening any time soon. My biggest issue is that I'm at high altitude right now and need to test the concept between sea level and 3000 feet to see how that affects it.

The biggest thing about ground scorching is the distance between the bottom of the outer can and the inner can. If it is far enough the heat shouldn't scorch the ground. There are a few factors, but that is the biggest one.

So, out of sheer curiosity I took a simple tin can and put some holes in it, and loaded that inside the volcano stove. Did the double wall and IT WORKED GREAT. Very strong vertical flame, directed heat, and it really burned out all of the wood so there just ash left. Took about 7 min to boil.
I will throw some pics on soon.

My thought is that the cup on the inside perhaps makes it a ghetto gassifier, but more importantly the added wall thickness and all spreads the heat from the coals. Which I think ought to keep the volcano from melting.

I found a can that matches with about 3/16 smaller diameter than the volcano. I am going to cut it down the height and see how it works.

The swiss ranger might actually do very well with solid fuel. I never like solid fuel, but my stove came with a solid fuel and I managed to boil about 2 cups of water in about 5 minutes.

I don't have access to esbit tablets. It'd be worth a try with them.

Yes . The trick with Esbit is to have some clearance under the tablet (about half an inch is enough) and about 1.5" from tablet to pot.
I has success with that using my Caldera Cone/Gram Weenie set up, the Volcuno should do well too.
Franco

Yeah it seems to do well with wood. I will have to get some esbit tablets to try out.

The tin can is a good free cent option to upgrade the volcano. I got a new tin can with an opening to shove wood in and i cut it down to fit the cup in. I had to use bbq skewers to keep the cup off the can before... version 2. I am really pleased though.

I don't know about that Franco. Have you tried this with the swiss ranger?

I used a basic esbit stove and the same solid fuel tablet (not esbit) and it took 8 minutes 2 inches above the tablet. With this same tablet, but the using the swiss ranger it took only 5 minutes. Also, the pot was a lot more than 2 inches above the tablet and there was no clearance beneath.

Maybe it is the different type of fuel tablet, or the stove, but it was much faster with the swiss.

My son made a small wood srove out of a flour sifter. It worked fairley well. I have seen them made out of the small size coffe can as well. Son used a snow peak single wall Titanium cup ontop of his. I have a tin cup made of aluminum but use as a second small cookpot if needed,or for cold drinks only. Tin cups are brutal on the lips with hot coffee in them. I use a small isulated plastic cup for that.

A shower drain cover would work well to raise the platform for an esbit and also allow air to reach the underside of the tablet.