I think I threatened to post about this earlier, and now's the time I'm going to make good on it.
The Stove Trivet will sound like a silly idea to some, and that's OK. But it does allow me to stick to the "Leave NO Trace" school of thought, as none of my stoves will be leaving any sort of burn or scorch mark on the ground. Alcohol stove can get kind of cranky when set on a really cold surface. The Trivet will insulate the stove from the cold ground. And if you want to cook under a rain fly, on top of a water proof ground cloth, you can do so without worrying about the stove melting the ground cloth. It will also allow me to set up and cook in the boat. No damage to the poling platform seat, or bottom of the boat. The half inch deep pan in the Trivet will provide a measure of safety, as it will contain a fuel spill. (No liquid fire running down on deck and into your shoes.)
And yes, I could use an aluminum pan with sand in it for most of the above. . . But I have cats. Sit before a pan of sand and cook in it? Uh. . . No, I'm afraid I just can't do that. :shock:
So, here's the latest version, ready to be packed for a trip:
That bit of metal sitting in the pan? This was an "after-thought," but one that worked out well:
Just some sheet metal and aluminum duct tape for hinges. (The hinges are taped on both sides.)
At first, I was going to use some metal flashing material I had for the pan, and then I decided it just wasn't strong enough to set some of my stoves on, along with whatever I was cooking. So I cut a channel in the frame with the table saw and set a piece of door skin luan into it, for the pan to sit on. I did give that luan a heavy coating of high-temp paint on both sides. This left a quarter inch air gap underneath the trivet, and I added a sheet metal bottom to the frame, as well. I think the pan, ply, air gap, and bottom sheet metal, will provide the insulation effect I was looking for. And it is still pretty light weight.
Here it is with the Mountain Ranger Wood Gas Stove, and the Turbo Cat II alcohol stove:
(I hope those show up side-by side.) The folding wind screen really was an after thought. It was made after all these pics were taken.
Here it is with the NimbleWill twig stove and my Penny Stove under my coffee, uh, er, cup. Well, it's actually an IMUSA 1.1 qt pot, I mean coffee cup, (or maybe both?) Guess we can call this a "two burner" set-up.
And I did add a flame spreader to the Turbo Cat II, in order to make my thin pie tin/frying pan work better. This really does make a difference, too! Now Jack, if you study the picture below, I'm sure you'll agree that you would NEVER have used a rusty can lid like that one. I'm pretty sure I actually stole the idea from one of the guys on the bladesandbushcraft forum, as I know for a fact that he does not have a lawyer.
The rust-finished "heat diffuser plate" works so well, I'll be keeping that paper-thin frying pan. I will probably be adding either a deeper frying pan to my collection, or a cast iron griddle pan. I did have to modify the Turbo Cat II's wind screen/pot stand by cutting some scallops into the top edge for use with the frying pan, and it still works well with the converted "grease pot," too. (Those things are some sort of "must have" traditional cooking pots for the DIY crowd.)
OK,it was late in the day and the camera was a little tilted, and the whole picture came out a kind of wonky. But it does show how it works with the larger diameter pan sitting on top of the pot stand. And it was then that I got the idea for the fold-up wind screen.
Like I said, it might seem like too much work for no real reason, but I'm glad I did it. And I will be putting it to use, out on my first real excursion into the "wild" in a very long time, the 2nd Tuesday in November. (And I still have two project to be completed and tested, before then.) :wink:
Mike S.
Spring Hill, FL
The Stove Trivet will sound like a silly idea to some, and that's OK. But it does allow me to stick to the "Leave NO Trace" school of thought, as none of my stoves will be leaving any sort of burn or scorch mark on the ground. Alcohol stove can get kind of cranky when set on a really cold surface. The Trivet will insulate the stove from the cold ground. And if you want to cook under a rain fly, on top of a water proof ground cloth, you can do so without worrying about the stove melting the ground cloth. It will also allow me to set up and cook in the boat. No damage to the poling platform seat, or bottom of the boat. The half inch deep pan in the Trivet will provide a measure of safety, as it will contain a fuel spill. (No liquid fire running down on deck and into your shoes.)
And yes, I could use an aluminum pan with sand in it for most of the above. . . But I have cats. Sit before a pan of sand and cook in it? Uh. . . No, I'm afraid I just can't do that. :shock:
So, here's the latest version, ready to be packed for a trip:
That bit of metal sitting in the pan? This was an "after-thought," but one that worked out well:
Just some sheet metal and aluminum duct tape for hinges. (The hinges are taped on both sides.)
At first, I was going to use some metal flashing material I had for the pan, and then I decided it just wasn't strong enough to set some of my stoves on, along with whatever I was cooking. So I cut a channel in the frame with the table saw and set a piece of door skin luan into it, for the pan to sit on. I did give that luan a heavy coating of high-temp paint on both sides. This left a quarter inch air gap underneath the trivet, and I added a sheet metal bottom to the frame, as well. I think the pan, ply, air gap, and bottom sheet metal, will provide the insulation effect I was looking for. And it is still pretty light weight.
Here it is with the Mountain Ranger Wood Gas Stove, and the Turbo Cat II alcohol stove:
(I hope those show up side-by side.) The folding wind screen really was an after thought. It was made after all these pics were taken.
Here it is with the NimbleWill twig stove and my Penny Stove under my coffee, uh, er, cup. Well, it's actually an IMUSA 1.1 qt pot, I mean coffee cup, (or maybe both?) Guess we can call this a "two burner" set-up.
And I did add a flame spreader to the Turbo Cat II, in order to make my thin pie tin/frying pan work better. This really does make a difference, too! Now Jack, if you study the picture below, I'm sure you'll agree that you would NEVER have used a rusty can lid like that one. I'm pretty sure I actually stole the idea from one of the guys on the bladesandbushcraft forum, as I know for a fact that he does not have a lawyer.
The rust-finished "heat diffuser plate" works so well, I'll be keeping that paper-thin frying pan. I will probably be adding either a deeper frying pan to my collection, or a cast iron griddle pan. I did have to modify the Turbo Cat II's wind screen/pot stand by cutting some scallops into the top edge for use with the frying pan, and it still works well with the converted "grease pot," too. (Those things are some sort of "must have" traditional cooking pots for the DIY crowd.)
OK,it was late in the day and the camera was a little tilted, and the whole picture came out a kind of wonky. But it does show how it works with the larger diameter pan sitting on top of the pot stand. And it was then that I got the idea for the fold-up wind screen.
Like I said, it might seem like too much work for no real reason, but I'm glad I did it. And I will be putting it to use, out on my first real excursion into the "wild" in a very long time, the 2nd Tuesday in November.
(And I still have two project to be completed and tested, before then.) :wink: Mike S.
Spring Hill, FL