Monday, September 25, 2017

The Supercat Ultralight stove and Firebucket windscreen

Thanks to Jim Woods (http://jwbasecamp.com/Articles/SuperCat/)  I had a great ultralight alcohol stove to use for my hike when I decided to start hiking with a stove to heat my food.  The stove, windscreen and fuel bottle together weigh less than 25 gm.  (an ounce is 28.35 gm)

Here they are on a scale:
The stove, 6.37 gm.

Fuel bottle and foil windscreen.  17.44 gm.  


Jim Woods' Firebucket
Jim also has another innovation I made but didn't take.  He conceived his Firebucket as a better windscreen for reasons enumerated on this page.

Jim Woods' Firebucket windscreen/pot stand
I made a Firebucket.  I haven't used it in the field because my triple fold foil windscreen did the trick on a stormy night under my tarp. 
For my bucket,
1.  I left out the bolts and wingnuts (which I'd surely lose) in favor of a fold on each edge of the joint, that work like the caldera cone's joint.
2.  I used an inverted empty 5.5 oz aluminum cat food can as the platform for my super cat stove. I can easily light my Supercat without the Firebucket getting in the way. I use another 5.5 oz can as a snuffer.
3.  I cut the flashing so my saucepan would sit on the supercat on a 5.5 oz can.  The Firebucket's diameter was just small enough to support the saucepan (with 3 cups of water) without the supercat underneath  I could use a penny stove on the ground below the stove.  I can put out the flame on either stove by dropping an inverted spare 5.5 oz can over its top.
4.  The Firebucket weight:  51 grams = 1 3/4 oz


My Firebucket's joint.

The inverted 5.5 oz cat food can serves as a stable base for the stove.

The stove on the base.

My Evernew saucepan on the stove.

The saucepan with nothing underneath, the top of the Firebucket holds the rim of the saucepan on the right.  I wanted it to fit a little tighter than it does for just a smidgen more confidence that the lip on the right won't slip.