Home built folding camp stove

[Scratch]

Here's the "prototype" stove I made.  I was using an alcohol stove, but I don’t like having to carry the fuel and worry about it leaking, especially with an unlimited supply of wood fuel all over the place.  I will make another one or two out of thinner steel, and make some design changes, before I make it out of stainless steel.

Some of the things I think I will change is:

Make ash pan much MUCH thinner to save weight.
Cut slots in firesticks, and maybe bend hooks also.
Make slots in stove and ash pan for firesticks.
Remove some of the side air vents.
Move the diamonds for firesticks on end pieces, different heights than side pieces.
Make diamonds for firesticks a little smaller.
Make opening for fuel a little larger.
Cut feet on side corners for uneven terrain.

Let me know if you have any input.

https://youtu.be/NCN9W_pSiGc

[1mlt]

Great video Scratch. Can you make the fire box slightly larger? Sure, it's a survival stove and you won't carrying around you home cookware set, but a bit larger will heat quicker, I think. Not that 7mins is bad. And it would, perhaps, be more stable. What about some short detachable 'legs'? In the 'wild, there may not be a tree stump to set it on. I'd buy one from you if you make them for sale. Good job on a simple design !!!

Marcus

[Danjal]

Delete all the side holes for more efficiency. All your heat will back up on the bottom of your pan then pour out the side holes in order to keep combusting the fuel at maximum rate. By letting the heat only escape up top you use less fuel to boil or heat the same food/water.

One hole on bottom,one on top. Also let the pan/pot sit down in the chimney a bit. It heats the pot edge a bit instead of the bottom only. Totally encasing your pot would be the most efficient, but when dealing with multiple container sizes the small lip or small air gap under is best. Edited to add: Now that I reread this, primus is using a similar feature on their efficient line. A heat sink to catch more hot air and wider pans than the stove to catch more heat run off.

Most efficient.


More efficient.


Basically all these use the hot air that's still moving to heat more of your pan. Any heated air that vents off is lost efficiency, and thus you need more fuel to burn. Kinda like a double barrel wood burner trapping hot air in the upper barrel.

[Danjal]

If you want legs, add some nuts on bottom. Use bolts as adjustable legs from there.

[Scratch]

I made two more today.
The one on the left was my first attempt in 16 gauge steel.
The middle one has less heat loss vents, better feet design and is in 18 gauge steel.
The left one has "plus" slots for even less heat loss, and is in 20 gauge steel.



I like the light weight of the 20 gauge steel, but I need to burn a couple fires in it to see how it holds up to the heat.  I also will need to cut the assembly tab slots thinner since the steel is thinner, if I go with this gauge steel as it's pretty loosey goosey.

We got a bunch of rain all day today so I probably won't be testing it out tomorrow...

[Scratch]

I tested out the new stove (the thinnest one on the right) today.  It boiled 2 cups of water in 3:50.  Here's a quick video of it.  sorry for the vertical filming... I forgot.

https://youtu.be/OC3BqnYlF3A

[Danjal]

Nice. I'll be interested to see how it stacks up to the others and does with more weight on top.

As you know, the heat will soften the metal. Im wondering if it'll deform with a decent amount of weight on it or worse.

Do you know what they weight?

Any reason for the + slots?

[Scratch]

Nice. I'll be interested to see how it stacks up to the others and does with more weight on top.

As you know, the heat will soften the metal. Im wondering if it'll deform with a decent amount of weight on it or worse.

Do you know what they weight?

Any reason for the + slots?

Right now, in A36 steel (regular, mild steel) the latest one weighs just under 2 pounds.  The thickest one weighs about 3 pounds.  I'll probably make the SS one in the middle thickness and I still think it'll weigh almost 3 pounds.

The + slots are for the "fire sticks".  You can see 3 of them going across the top, just under the cooking grate.  But they can be moved lower at different heights, and turned 90 degrees, if you need to put a cup or pot lower into the stove, or if you need to raise the heat up, like if your using a fuel tablet, Sterno, alcohol stove, etc...

[dmr47]

Nice work Scratch. Enjoyed the Vid.

[Messiah Jones]

 Scratch ! - It seems I keep finding your vids before realizing its you from the SKSBoards. Awesome content AND filming/editing! Top notch man! Thanks to my insomnia I watch hours of YouTube per night so I have a lot to compare you to and you have some of the best vids out there.

 I agree about the top loading stove. It makes sense right? - After I saw your vid it dawned on me that I could make a heavy duty stove out of a charcoal chimney lighter. Not for backpacking of course but for long-term camping / descreet fire cooking. I bumped it up to a 55 gallon drum for what I needed. I have a big permenant camp that we use about three times per year. There might be 20+ people. The top loading feature you explained extends to the giant sized stove. A stove is much more efficient during the day when you don't need the fire light and uses much less wood.

[Scratch]

Thanks for the compliments on the stove, I've found it to be very convenient when camping and leaves "almost" no trace.  I really like the design but still wish it was lighter.  I'd love to get a sheet of titanium and make one out of that, but I'm not much of a gram weenie so I probably won't.

Thanks for watching my videos too! 
Not too long ago I got my first payment from YouTube and got real excited!  I recently got a better camera, new PC, better video software, and better editing skillz, and am always watching YT for different ways and tips to create shots.  I really like making these videos, but find myself having a hard time thinking of new ideas for videos.  It's been almost 3 weeks I think, since my last video, and I really want to make another one, but can't think of one, and thanks for the compliments on my filming/editing skills, although I feel only the last 10 or so videos have been of good quality.

I'm also having a hard time deciding if I should create two channels, (which I really don't want to do) or just stick with the guns AND camping thing... Not sure... but I've got almost 800 subscribers now, and I don't want to have to start over.

And you shouldn't have a problem seeing which ones are mine anymore.  I went back and changed ALL my thumbnails to a consistent template which is an orange bar along the bottom that says SCRATCH THE JEEP GUY on it.