1 oz. grill

[Benjamin Tomsky]

I made a light grill primarily for fly fishing trips in the Sierra Nevada. On my recent trip to test it out, I only caught fish above the legal fire altitude… so I made some quesadillas with the grill once I was below 9k feet:

The grill weighs 1 oz, which compares quite favorably to the otherwise lightest options I have seen (at http://www.purcelltrench.com/). I used the BPL Titanium Alloy UltraRods, which I cut in half, and thin aluminum tube, into which I drilled holes. The Ti rods weigh 22g total (0.23 g/inch * 8 rods * 12 inches) and the tubes weigh 5g (0.48 g/inch * 2 tubes * 5.25 inches) = ~27g = ~ 1 oz.

I packed it for transport by disassembling, putting the rods in the tubes, and rubber banding it all to a fly rod:

It is definitely a luxury to be able to grill on a UL trip, but I think it’s worth it for only 1 oz….

[AK Hiker]

Very nice! I can really see this getting some practical use. I think I’m going to copy your design if you don’t mind.

On another note, what rod are you using?

[Joshua Mitchell]

Nice, basically a homemade (and MUCH lighter) version of the Grilliput

[Casey Bowden]

Brilliant,

A much cheaper option, although heavier, is to replace the titanium rods with stainless steel bicycle spokes. I have used spokes for some time to support my pot with an alcohol stove and they have shown no signs of strength loss due to the heat. How do the titanium rods hold up to the heat?

[Anonymous]

Ben Excellent idea!

The commercial Grilliput is nice but just begging for a UL Make Over.

Regards

[David Lewis]

You can buy Titanium spokes too… but they would probably be much more expensive than the BPL Titanium rods.

[Benjamin Tomsky]

Yeah, the grilliput was admittedly my inspiration for this design. I was given one as a gift, after admiring it in Germany and a local REI a few times. It really is designed and executed well, but the thing is crazy heavy (19.6 oz., to be precise). Seems fine for car camping…

I thought long and hard about how to really replicate its stability and features with Ti and Al, and in the end decided to just keep it simple and drill some holes in Al tubes and let the extra length of the Ti bars keep it together. I did another design that used bent Al rods, which double as a pot stand for an alcohol stove. I’ll post pictures of that, if anyone is interested…

The rod is a Cabela’s Stowaway 3 wt (2.8 oz), and the reel is a Sage 3200 (3.2 oz). I caught this pretty nice fish with the setup in Emigrant wilderness last weekend:

[Anonymous]

Nice Trout

How was the weather?

Where were you?

[Benjamin Tomsky]

Weather was great during the (short) days, in the 60s and sunny, but pretty cold at night. I had a little thermometer for the entertainment value, and it informed me that it was in the mid-20s when I woke up in the morning. I was under an ID poncho tarp, in a WM Summerlite, and did okay. The absence of bugs was so nice…

I did a 50-mile loop from Kennedy Meadows, from Friday morning till Monday at noon, camping at Emigrant Meadow Lake, Deer Lake, and Summit Creek. It was essentially intended to be a slow-paced fishing trip to get to know that area a little better, since I thru hiked from Kennedy Meadows to Mt. Whitney earlier in the summer and rushed through that section…

[Ken Helwig]

That is some nice area. One of my more favorite areas to backpack. Deer lake especially!!

[Benjamin Tomsky]

Yeah, Emigrant Wilderness has the beauty of Yosemite, without all the people, permitting, and bear issues. It’s only a three-hour drive from the SF Bay Area, so very doable for a long weekend.

The fall colors on my last trip added some unexpected variety:

[Scott Peterson]

Some of the best parts of the Sierra, fly-fishing and UL grilling? I just got a weeks worth of deep thoughts from these posts!

Regarding the grill…can I ask how much it would cost to replicate?

The color of the Aspens (?) in the shot remind me that I need to go to the Hope Valley on the eastern side of the Sierra’s at that “perfect time” some day.

[Benjamin Tomsky]

Calculating the cost of the grill depends on some assumptions. At the least expensive, I calculate that it costs $12.00 = $22.49 * 4/10 + $3. That’s given the following assumptions:
1. You are a Premium Member of BPL, so you can buy the Ti rods for the Premium Member price of $22.49.
2. You have some other use for the 6 Ti rods not needed for the grill
3. You can find the Al tubing for pretty cheap, like I did, approximately $3 for the needed length
4. You are already placing an order for something else at BPL, so you don’t consider the added cost of shipping the Ti rods. (Surely you want something else anyway, right?)
5. You own a drill, drill bits, and hacksaw
6. You don’t count the cost of your time for MYOG UL gear projects…

Those are the assumptions that apply to me, anyway. Obviously if any of them don’t apply to you, the cost will go up up up. Assumption 6 clearly offers the most variability. ;-)

[Bill Fornshell]

Several months ago I made my grill.

The tubes were two different size Al arrow shafts and the cross pieces were made from Stainless Steel bike spokes. The spokes if you had to buy them were about $1 each. This was the second or thrid version

This was the first version and part of one of my MYOG thread here:
The grill is toward the end of the thread.

[Benjamin Tomsky]

As I mentioned in an earlier post, another possibility is to use some Al rods. First, I made a simple pot stand by bending the rods:

Then I realized that I could drill holes in it to make a freestanding grill:

This is multiuse as pot stand and grill, and the binder clip also has some uses, like a backup headlamp clip for photon-to-hat connection.

[Ken Helwig]

you mean 3 hours without the Friday nightmare getting out of the Bay Area and the lousy traffic through Tracy. Still, it is a nice place to get away for the weekend..Nice photo!

[David Stenberg]

Where did you get the aluminum rods to make the grill? Great job, I can’t wait to make one myself!

[Benjamin Tomsky]

I got the Al rods for the combination pot stand/grill from Home Depot. Similar rods should be easy to find at any hardware store. The tubing is not as easy to find. It’s more of a hobby shop kinda thing than Home Depot….

[Terry Boldt]

Benjamin – have you tried using a pot on the grill. Will the TI support the weight?

Thanks

[Benjamin Tomsky]

Haven't tried a full cookpot on the grill yet, but I'm also interested to know if it will manage. I'll test it out at home and let you know…

[Terry Boldt]

Made 2 versions of the grill.

Both use the BPL TI rods cut in half. 20 12" rods for the grill.

For one used 12" of 6061-T6 AL, 0.5" OD, 0.035" wall thickness.

The other used 12" of 6061-T6 AL, 0.5 inch OD, 0.028" wall thickness.

The TI rods store in one AL tube. either the 0.035" or 0.028" wall depending on which I'm going to use. The later is the lightest of course. Using plastic end caps to seal end of storage tube. Would prefer an AL on end cap, but have been unable to find one to fit the 0.5" tubing.

With 2 0.035" wall tubes, the total weight comes in at about 3.5 oz for a 12" x 12" grill.

The grill is great – great idea.

[Joshua Mitchell]

TB… it seems to me you out to be able to find two similar bits of al tubing that would nest into each other if you looked…

[Terry Boldt]

Most likely I could find a tube to nest inside the 0.5" OD tube. The only problem with that is the fact that the TI rods already fill the inside of the tube. Trying to get the rods into a smaller OD (and hence ID) AL tube that would fit inside the 0.5" OD tube, just will not work. The rods fill the inside of the 0.5" OD tube as it is. One reason for this is that I bent the rods approximately 3/16" from one end about 30 to 40 degrees. I did this so that one end of the rods would not slide through the AL tube. I found that trying to get all of the rods through one tube and then get them through the second tube takes patience and a lot of it as they tend to slide out of the first tube while working on the second tube. By bending one end of the rods, I don't have to worry about the rods sliding out of the first tube while getting them into the second tube. Hence setup is much, much quicker by this simple expedient. Now I understand why the Grilliput grill slots the rods into their tubes instead of sliding them through. Much simpler. Requires a lot more extensive machining though. If you look at the Grilliput specs, they use one tube with almost a 1" OD. They needed to do that so that the second, smaller tube that fits inside the larger tube, is also large enough for the rods to fit inside that tube. To get nesting tubes, I would have to do as Grilliput does and use a tube of probably about 0.85" OD. Then things start getting bigger and heavier. I think it better to just use the two 0.5" tubes and strap them together. Adds slightly to the bulk, but only slightly and keeps the weight down.

It would seem that there are some options here:

1. Do as Grilliput does and use a larger and smaller tube and retain the grill size. This option increase weight for a given grill size.
2. Do as in option 1, but decrease grill size. This cuts the weight since you are using fewer rods and can maybe use smaller OD tubes. What size grill do you need? I arbitrarily decided on 12" x 12" since the BPL rods are 24" and yield 12" when cut in half. Now that I have the grill in hand, I think that size ia about right for me and I would not want to decrease size.
3.Retain grill size and use 2 tubes of equal OD and strap together or just place in pack where convenient and not even bother with strapping them together. For given grill size, this option is lighter than either 1. or 2.

I have decided to use high temperature (tops out at 600F I believe) silicone rubber end caps. They are light, seal the ends of the tubes to capture the rods and are less expensive and lighter than AL end caps. Also, with the high temperature rating I may not have to remove while using and hence reduce the risk of losing the end caps. To practically eliminate the risk of loss, AL end caps would be best, but again heavier and more expensive. Also I'm not too sure that AL end caps would work since threading the thin wall AL tubes may not be practical.

[Benjamin Tomsky]

Hey Terry, I experimented tonight and confirmed my suspicion that with my grill (8 rods evenly spaced over 5 inches), the Ti rods are easily capable of supporting the weight of a solo cookpot + 1 pint of water. The cookpot rested on 5 of the rods and bent them slightly. How's it work with your grill, given the rods are spaced a little further apart?

[b d]

I use a cheap, sold all over cookie cooling, metal "kitchen cooling rack" for a cooking grill over wood fires. It is a commercial product that is intended to cool cookies on. I cut off half, it is about 8" – 10" by 16" – 20" in the store. Cutting half off gives a square, works great in small stone ring fires. Weighs 2.5 oz. and is 5" x 10".

Update: Here is a picture of the grill, uncut w/ an MSR Titan Kettle on the upper quarter of the 10" x 10" grill, weighs 5 oz.

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