Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Backpack Hunting My rollup wood stove

Well... about a week of evenings and I've got a working prototype.
Roughly 10.25" diameter. Current stove pipe is 8' long but that may get trimmed once fitted to the shelter.

Sorry for the crappy cell phone pictures here


Glowing Red. I wasn't able to really get it cranking due to limited time, though the whole body did glow red at one point.


Burning away


Shot of the stove fully assembled except for the pipe. The dual air control was an experiment. A single plate would be much easier to manufacture and allow for a larger door. The leg arrangement allows for the use of a snow platform that can be attached to the legs if needed.

Lesson learned... don't clamp the cylinder too tightly. I didn't allow for thermal expansion and the stove body picked up a couple of creases where it caved. It may also be a good idea on a larger diameter stove like this to up the thickness from .004 to .005 or .006

Next on the list... make a stove jack and install it in the tarp. Do some more burn tests and boil tests to see how it really performs... maybe make a stack robber. Think about a baffle. Get a weight for you guys. The body and current mega-pipe come in around 1.5 to 1.8 lbs without the ends or rods. So I'd guess around 3 to 3.5 lbs total.

--thumper338

Very nice!

Looks really good!!

I've got a brand new one that I just bought and havent burnt it yet. Looking forward to getting it out this week or next to burn!!

Now I just need to order a stove jack from Kifaru!

For any inquiring minds or industrious members. Here's a list of materials available from McMaster-Carr with quantities and part numbers.

- 1 each 9784K45 Type 301/302/304 SS Shim Stock Roll .004" Thick, 12" Width X 100" Length
Stove body 12"x43" and a 3" diameter stove pipe of 57". The top of the stack would be about 5'6" above ground level. If you need a stove pipe longer then use a 12x50 length for the stove body and the 12x100 for the stove pipe.

- 1 each 9506K15 Stainless Steel Shim Stock Rolls - Full Hard .005" Thick, 12" Width X 50" Length
If I had this to do over again, and I might do another stove body to see if it helps, I think that .005 or .006 might be a better choice for the stove body.

- 1 pack 96995A110 Plain Steel Washer with Tag Hole .21" A-Dimension, .02"-.04" Thick, packs of 10
Bend the tag hole end to about 45 degrees and use them as clips to grab the cylinder ends.

- 4 each 98848A011 18-8 Stainless Steel Threaded Rod 10-32 Thread, 3' Length
Cylinder rods were 13.5" lengths
My legs were 12.75" because 12.75 was too short to be a cylinder rod.

- 1 pack 92001A311 18-8 Stainless Steel Wing Nut 10-32 Thread Size, 29/32" Wing Spread, packs of 25
- 1 pack 91841A195 18-8 Stainless Steel Machine Screw Hex Nut 10-32 Thread Size, 3/8" Width, 1/8" Height, packs of 100
Use two hex nuts jammed together on one end of the cylinder rods so that you only have to deal with one wingnut per rod.
Use two hex nuts jammed together on legs to set the height of the stove on the leg brackets.

- 2 each 91115A152 18-8 SS Female Threaded Hex Standoff 1/4" Hex, 3/4" Length, 10-32 Screw Size
I used these for the handles of my air intake control


- 50 ft. 3461T175 Type 304 Stainless Steel Wire Rope 1X19 Strand, 3/64" Diameter, 375# Break Strength
1 pack 3883T21 Tin-Plated Copper Oval Compression Sleeve for 3/64" Rope Diameter, 3/8" Sleeve Length, packs of 50
Used to create retaining rings for the stove body and for the stove pipe. Don't forget to account for the thickness of the cable in your calculations.


- 1 each 9011K88 Shim Stock Sheet Stainless Steel, .01" Thick, 8" X 12" today $7.59 each 7.59
Optional to create a damper collar like Ed_T put on his stove. I'm undecided on whether I'm going to add one yet. I have enough .004 left that I may make one out of a double layer.

- 1 each 9238T322 Particle-Sifting Woven Wire Cloth Type 304, 6 X 6 Mesh, .028" Wire Dia, 12" X 24" Sheet
I'm not sure what others have used for spark screen, but this seems like a decent choice of mesh size. I forgot to put this on my first order, so my spark screen is a mesh stainless kitchen sink strainer that is quite fine. I don't know yet how it will hold up or if it will clog.


Now for the ends. There are lots of choices out there. Ed_T used 7.5"MSR Mountain plates, others have used 7" Snowpeak Ti plates, I found some 9" stainless plates at Wilderness Dining. I wound up using SS burner covers. My suggestion... Buy two sets. I sacrificed two of the 9" plates to make my door, brackets and air control parts.

Tools required
- pliers
- hammer
- Pop-riveter with steel rivets (a hand operated pop rivet gun will not do stainless rivets so I just used steel I figured the aluminum rivets would melt)
- drill
- Uni-bit one with 1/8" tip and one with a 3/4" max hole size
- sheet metal snips that can cut curves (try to avoid ones with serrated blades as that just creates finger slicers)
- leather gloves to avoid cutting off a finger.
- dremel with fiber reinforced cut-off wheel

Optional tools
- sheet metal tongs
- spot welder

Great job! My prototype is using the SS Burner covers also. My set included a 7" set and a 10.5" set, I thought the 7" set would make a big stove - that 10" one is a barrel!

NXP

Great job! Nothing more satisfying then DIY gear.

I can think of a few things that are, but to each there own. ;D

Nice looking stove for sure. Great job!!!

Thanks for sharing. I am looking to build a portable stove for my tent

Nice DIY project. Looks great.

How does the pipe connect to the stove body?

I ask because on another recent thread, the builder fit a stainless cup (bottom cut out and rim trimmed) in the exhaust port of the stove body.

very impressive... what kind of tent are you packing with that stove?

It is supported by a 10-32 rod through the pipe that rests on the top cylinder rods. The pipe extends down into the firebox about 3 inches if set one way or about an inch if the pipe is flipped.

I'm still experimenting with the flue. I think I'm going to need a damper though. I tried to boil some water, and while the stove was really cranking and I was sweating it didn't boil 2 cups of water. The water got hot and I didn't have a lid on it. It may have boiled with a lid.





I'm also thinking about putting a gasket around my door and trying a baffle. I think I've got a design for the baffle that would be self supporting and allow for the flue gasses to travel the full length of the top of the stove before heading up the pipe. This would give me a better hot spot right where I'd put the pot.

--thumper338

I've got some fiberglass cloth that I'm making a stove jack from. $15 for a linear yard. + $3 for a tube of silicone.

--thumper338

Very impressive.
For those with "less" skills,you can also use SS biscuit barrels or SS toilet brush holders,in fact once you sort of have an idea as to what you want the best place I have found for stuff is IKEA of all places.

Thanks for the pictures Thumper... very nice brother

Looks good. Great post!

Experimental baffle is built and installed but I haven't had a chance to fire it up yet. The plan is to have secondary air inlets above the door that will provide fresh air and a secondary burn right were I'll have a cook pot.

Door gasket and blurry shot of baffle.


Clearer shot of baffle.


Showing the rear hole with rear damper open.


Showing front holes with front damper open.

Is that a Forester's Tent built from a poly tarp? I really like your stove, but I'm also curious about your tent design. It's got a neat old school look about it.

I guess it is akin to what you're calling a forester's tent. I was inspired by http://nwwoodsman.com/Articles/TarpSetUp.html

The key relationship to the tarp is 3 units by 4 units. The nwwoodsman tarp was not tall enough for me to stand up in which has become one of my critical criteria, so I worked out that a 12'x16' tarp gave me a 8' peak height and about 8' wide by about 10' deep.

Great looking work and thanks for the material list, my homemade stoves are laughable by comparison.

One thing I've learned through making a few of them is that the wood "fuel" used makes a lot of difference in which design works best and the wood I use in the mountains late season when it's wet and cold can be hard to light and keep going.

I originally worked on long burning/efficient stoves but these days design more around getting air under the fire so they will relight when reloaded with wet fuel.

olypen, great observation. The wood fuels I have here to work with are mediocre at best. I like the idea of having ample air-intake, with the ability to slow-down, and the air gaps around the spark screens at the bottom of the stove pipe to also oxygenate the gasses going up the flue. Much of the heat can be generated from the stove pipe itself. Tim.

Thanks Thumper. I stumbled into that website last year and liked the lineup of traditional gear, but forgot about the tent. Very cool IMO.

I think you'll really appreciate having a stove. Warmth and cooking w/o worrying about wind direction.

I don't have to worry about dry fuel. With all the beetle kill in CO, especially where I hunt in Grand County, there's standing dead everywhere and pitch balls on every tree for fire starting. What I have to worry about is not setting the whole place ablaze.

The beetle kill has really started to change the animal behavior in the area too as more feed is available in what used to be thick timber.

So... I finally got to test burn with the baffle/damper in place. I'm very pleased with how the stove performed. In a future version I think the secondary air above the door should be adjustable, but for my first season hunt this will do nicely.

I got 1L of water to a rolling boil in about 14 minutes. It may have been sooner, but I was distracted for a bit and didn't check any earlier.

The heat profile in the pictures shows a MUCH hotter hot spot right under the pot where I wanted it. And the secondary air above the stove does seem to provide a secondary burn right under the pot.

The front/back selection with the dampers to control the flue gasses also worked out nice as I can adjust the heat to the pot or send the flue gasses to the back when loading the stove. With both of the dampers nearly closed it does a nice job of reducing the draft. The dampers in combination with the inlet air control provided well over two hours burn/heat from the last load of wood which was 3-4 min into the boil test. The stove ran full tilt for 20 min or so while it boiled water and I played with it before I damped it down. About 90 minutes after the last load of wood I opened it up so that I could burn it down and get to bed... at the 2.5 hour mark It's still got hot coals in the bottom that I stirred up.

--thumper338


BEFORE baffle



AFTER baffle

Thumper...just wondering how the stove worked out for you last year. I'm getting ready to build one myself and I really like your design. What's your total weight on that? Is the baffle stationary? Any thing that you would recommend doing different? I hunted 18 last year and was a bit disappointed. Might be venturing elsewhere this year.

Ok, I don't know a lot about metals, but what about a 3x3 piece of copper(fairly thin) right on the top of the stove where you would cook? I think copper is a super conductor of heat and would speed up boil times? Could I do that instead of a baffle? I was thinking of cutting the foil body, replacing with a small copper piece and welding or riveting. I don't know...what do you guys think?