Piezo ignition for Roger Caffin stove

[Jan Rezac]

Having a remote canister stove in a windscreen makes lighting it somewhat annoying as the windscreen has to be removed. That's why I added a remote piezo ignition, placed outside the windscreen. I made one for a primus express spider some time ago and now I made another for the Roger Caffin stove I'm using now. It adds 10g to the weight of the stove. Now I put the pot on the stove first, turn the valve on the canister and click the button.

Here is the whole setup:

The heat conducting strip was replaced with one with a tab to which a teflon block is attached. It insulates the stainless steel rod that leads to the burner:

At the other end of the wires is an igniter from a ighter, fitted into a piece of a syringe which makes nice handle:

[Peter Nash]

Excellent project.

I like piezo igniters, even without windscreens. They are easy and convenient. (Except over 12,000 feet altitude. I learned that the hard way, when I didn't have any lighter or matches as a backup.)

I'd like to experiment with adding a piezo to a couple of different stoves.

Could you give some more details on the specific piezo igniter you used, and where to get one?

[Greg Mihalik]

… and the spark energy, if you have it.

[Roger Caffin]

Jan is altogether far too creative.
Neat!

cheers

[Jan Rezac]

Here are some details on the parts for those interested in building piezo igniters

– The piezo unit is from a common, cheap, one-use lighter. I haven't found any significant differences between units from different devices (the one from a more expensive household gas stove igniter looked the same). Connecting the wire that goes from it to the cable is a bit tricky when there is limited space in the housing as in this case – the connection has to be insulated well to prevent having the spark here – you can see in the third photo how I used some thin PE tube.

– I use teflon-insulated cables mainly to make sure they won't melt accidentally. Additionally, they have better insulating properties and more mechanical strength. Any common (vinyl-insulated) cable can be used but it might be less reliable.

– I guess the most difficult part to source is the insulator that holds the rod going to the burner. The rod might get hot, so it should be heat-resistant. It should have good insulating properties. Teflon is a perfect choice here, it is also water repellent so it should keep it's insulating properties even in wet environment. Polyimide (kapton) would be also fine. You can experiment with other heat-resistant plastic, some resin-based material would be the easiest to find.

– The sparking rod is a piece of a thin stainless steel welding wire. Titanium would be nicer… Anyway, it should be a metal with low thermal conductivity (these two are) as the tip gets red-hot.

– In the teflon insulator, there are three holes drilled vertically – two parallel, the third one in an angle so that it meets with the second one. Here is a figure:

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The U-shaped end of the sparking rod is pressed into the first two holes, the cable goes through the third one and meets the rod insides the block.

[Jan Rezac]

I have updated the igniter, fine tuning the details. The wiring in the insulator block is all hidden inside and the cables lead out in the right direction, away from the stove. The cover of the sparking unit is made from a black syringe instead of transparent one so everything looks neat from the outside.

[Roger Caffin]

Hi Jan

Amazing stuff. How well does it work in the field?

Cheers

[Author]

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