Random slightly cool stuff you built but not worth its own thread, thread

[igor 12,770]

Youngest has made a forge/furnace thing to melt beer cans. Forced draught courtesy of his mother's hairdryer. He needs a better crucible. The stainless steel jug wasn't quite up to the task. Check out jetret's experiments on youtube for more.

[tortron 63,957]

Made a small windshield/pot stand to use with a chafing dish warmer

It's full of gelled meths, so it's pretty safe to use, can't really spill it, no fumes, nice and silent, don't need to bring another bottle of fuel like an alcohol stove, and it's basically fail safe

 

Downside is 21minutes to bring 500ml to a rolling boil under perfect (sitting on my kitchen bench) conditions

The pot holds 200g of fuel and will burn for about 3 hours. So can boil around 4.5L of water. A can costs about $2-3

 

Weight of my mug, windshield, and a full can comes in at about 340g.

I'm going to zing some holes in the windshield where I can and try cut the gel with something to get more BTUs

A home made alcohol stove should boil the same amount in under 10mins. They have the benefit of self pressurising and getting a strong flame, the gel also results in less energy than straight denatured alcohol.

I might try make a round screen if it will fit inside the mug around the can (this one was just cut out of a much larger screen I have)

 

 

 

Edit

Straight meths knocks about 5 mins off the boil time in the same set up

The flame gets a bit unwieldy though. I tried some stainless steel wool as a wick, which helped. But irl I don't think il bother, I also added meths to the gel until it was quite thin and it took about 1-2 mins off the boil time. 

Gona stick with the can as it is and perfect my windscreen

Maybe something like this

Thier alcohol stove is made from a beer can, seems to chooch harder than my gel and boil in half the time. Wonder if a small tube would supercharge the air intake

[tortron 63,957]

Tried some other things. One was a tin can with steel wool in it and a bunch of holes. I managed to get the gel to roar in this set up, but boil time was still about 20mins, and it was hard to extinguish and carrying two things you may as well use an alcohol stove.

Seems I got it right the first time, I tried a pot stand that sits on top of the tin, but it blocked too much air and increased boil time by 3-4 mins. Modified my original shield to support the mug better and put a few holes around the bottom.

 

There's a few ways I could force feed it some air, but it's just extra complexity and weight for minimal gains, the tin itself doesn't promote it either. I have an idea about having 2 lids and some drilled tubing like a carb emulsion tube to get oxygen inside the can but eh maybe.

 

As a comparison, an esbit tablet (solid hexamine fuel) boils 500ml in 8-9 minutes. It leaves some gack residue on the bottom of the pot though, however easy and reliable. I might see if I can find a clean burning firelighter for cheaper. Also it's faster if you break the tablet in half for more surface area

 

 

The price is right on these cans, but in 20mins I can have cooked and eaten.

 

 

Note to add- some forests around the world have fairly strict rules on camp stoves and gel fuel is allowed

 

Also a 100g gas canister will boil about 10l for $6 so may as well use that

[tortron 63,957]

Those caldera shields above seem to do a good job though. 20% more efficient use of heat. 

[Yowzer 33,818]

How fast will a Mapp torch boil?

[tortron 63,957]

I'll test it tomorrow

[Willdat? 4,278]

15 hours ago, tortron said:

Tried some other things. One was a tin can with steel wool in it and a bunch of holes. I managed to get the gel to roar in this set up, but boil time was still about 20mins, and it was hard to extinguish and carrying two things you may as well use an alcohol stove.

Seems I got it right the first time, I tried a pot stand that sits on top of the tin, but it blocked too much air and increased boil time by 3-4 mins. Modified my original shield to support the mug better and put a few holes around the bottom.

 

There's a few ways I could force feed it some air, but it's just extra complexity and weight for minimal gains, the tin itself doesn't promote it either. I have an idea about having 2 lids and some drilled tubing like a carb emulsion tube to get oxygen inside the can but eh maybe.

 

As a comparison, an esbit tablet (solid hexamine fuel) boils 500ml in 8-9 minutes. It leaves some gack residue on the bottom of the pot though, however easy and reliable. I might see if I can find a clean burning firelighter for cheaper. Also it's faster if you break the tablet in half for more surface area

 

 

The price is right on these cans, but in 20mins I can have cooked and eaten.

 

 

Note to add- some forests around the world have fairly strict rules on camp stoves and gel fuel is allowed

 

Also a 100g gas canister will boil about 10l for $6 so may as well use that

https://www.gearshop.co.nz/products/jetboil-micromo-cooking-system?variant=29523955286114&currency=NZD&utm_medium=product_sync&utm_source=google&utm_content=sag_organic&utm_campaign=sag_organic&gclid=CjwKCAjw2uf2BRBpEiwA31VZjxNWWOzPDchYBoT78rTMf3xuWrTjfx5RqIjrt58LbRz92Lf6rA69XRoCbc8QAvD_BwE I have one of these, 12L /100g and boils 500mL in 2 mins. I was super cynical until a guy next to me set up, cooked, ate and cleaned up before I'd even boiled with my meths burner. 

[tortron 63,957]

Yeah I have one too

I'm a camp stove barry

[SOHC 10,708]

Parts of this are made from the Mitsubishi colt rear seat I hacked out in a bad mood because I couldn’t find the bolts.

[tortron 63,957]

Wife sent me this picture a few days ago

 

I told our neighbor you would make this for her.

 

 

No, just buy one, it will be cheaper

 

Apparently none available. So today they are getting this

She wanted a removable shelf, so I went one better and made it adjustable

[Rupertg 682]

Is that barbed wire on your wall? I presume that is not the neighbour you are going to effort for. 

[tortron 63,957]

Just now, Rupertg said:

Is that barbed wire on your wall? I presume that is not the neighbour you are going to effort for. 

I went to the NZ prison supplier and said give me something that's going to cause permanent disability to anyone who thinks.about going.over my fence

[h4nd 6,714]

On 06/06/2020 at 09:32, Willdat? said:

https://www.gearshop.co.nz/products/jetboil-micromo-cooking-system?variant=29523955286114&currency=NZD&utm_medium=product_sync&utm_source=google&utm_content=sag_organic&utm_campaign=sag_organic&gclid=CjwKCAjw2uf2BRBpEiwA31VZjxNWWOzPDchYBoT78rTMf3xuWrTjfx5RqIjrt58LbRz92Lf6rA69XRoCbc8QAvD_BwE I have one of these, 12L /100g and boils 500mL in 2 mins. I was super cynical until a guy next to me set up, cooked, ate and cleaned up before I'd even boiled with my meths burner. 

Cool. It looks like 80% of the benefit is using a heat-sink in the base in reverse to couple the flame heat into the liquid, and also insulating the sides.

I wonder if it'd be worth passing the exhaust up the side a bit, too

Or something like this:

https://www.wired.com/2014/07/a-jet-engineer-designs-a-saucepan-that-heats-up-super-fast/

Maybe even with a shroud up around the gas to keep it in to the sides of the pot, during the windy.

Step one, glue 486 heatsink to bottom of pot?

[tortron 63,957]

MSR make/made these copper heat exchangers

The problem being it's actually quite a niche market. Most hikers won't hike long enough to get the fuel benefit of carrying it. Easier to carry an extra boils worth of fuel. Takes a while for the weight to pay itself off.

Most useful when you are melting a shit tonne of snow for water, so the market is extended mountain climbing for groups

[tortron 63,957]

Further camp stove barrying

 

[h4nd 6,714]

I paused your video as the siren was going off, and there was a siren in-sync in the background here. Aliens. Off topic. Not spam?

[tortron 63,957]

woop woop thats the sound of the police

 

woop woop thats the sound of the beast

[Lord Gruntfuttock 23,839]

Why weren't you weighing in on the slipper chat in spam...

[h4nd 6,714]

Back on topic, nerds  I made a test jig out of bean tins, RC servos and spit. It worked great:

[MightyJoe 4,790]

I bought this and a trowel today for $3 . Didnt expect much but it had weight to it.  An hr with some wet and dry and it turns out its got some age and was a good make in the good old days.

'Rabone no1905 8". '