Pocket Rocket Integrated windscreen

[nategfunk]

I just finished a prototype integrated windscreen for my pocket rocket out of aluminum flashing. It came out pretty well. The head of the pocket rocket can unscrew from the base, allowing one to put a sheet of aluminum between the two parts to act as a windscreen base and a heat reflector. The pictures below better explain the setup. I have not been able to test it yet but am worried about increased CO output. Can this setup cause incomplete combustion and thus increased CO output?

[Roger Caffin]

It could cause an increase in CO production, depending on how you run the stove. If you want full power I would strongly recommend increasing the space allowed for air inlets by a factor of 2 – 3. That's not hard to do.

Be warned: that aluminium is going to get VERY hot, so getting the windshield off the stove at the end will be tricky. The handles on the pot are going to be way above boiling point (not glowing, but …), so picking up the pot is going to be very chancy. Both can be solved by using a pot lifter such as the small light MSR one.

cheers
Roger

[nategfunk]

I think i will add some adjustable flaps similar to the vari-vent by trail designs. Hopefully this will allow for enough airflow.

[Sam Haraldson]

Jon –

Your construction looks very clean. Please continue to post photos and results of any further adaptations you make and test results in terms of field and/or lab usage.

Thanks,
Sam

[Fred Stevenson]

Aluminum burns, and the pocket rocket is a blow torch. So I did a little mock up of this and turned it on high with a full pot of water. The aluminum melted in seconds. Same pot and same AL flashing.

[nategfunk]

Hmm I didnt notice that happening. I only went up to about half 'throttle; and stopped testing it when the bottom of the pocket rocket started getting too hot for my taste. I developed a workaround which i was going to post soon, but if the aluminum has a propensity to melt i might have to look into other metals. Thanks for the tip.

[Michael Skwarczek]

I think your experiments with the aluminum screen will be short lived. At the thickness we're typically using for windscreen material it doesn't cope well with direct flame and high heat. But check out these sections of .005 (freakin' thin and light!) Titanium You may have a winner there. It's thin enough to be cut and tooled same as thin sheet steel, e.g. you could use kitchen sheers but not a paper hole punch.

-Michael

[Greg Mihalik]

Jon,

If you haven't found this similar thread look at

http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/xdpy/forum_thread/9505/index.html?skip_to_post=82370#82370

If you use your stove as a blowtorch it Will melt aluminum.
But thin gage aluminum has been successfully used by many.
With care, it does well.

[nategfunk]

The titanium would certainly do well. Ill have to look into it.

[Fred Stevenson]

This will fit in pot with fuel.
Wind screen around pot.
This is my first attempt at posting pictures, so it is a mess. The first picture is the whole unit. The second is the base wind screen. The third is the pot wind screen that slides up to insulate the pot after it is off the burner. The whole thing fits in the pot with the fuel canister. It would need to be titanium to work. Other tweeks may also be evident. My biggest curiosity is will the titanium loose it's spring to clip the base into the holes in the pocket rocket if it gets tempered by the heat.

[Jeremy Sperry]

So I put this together this morning in a couple of hours. Hind-sight being 20-20, there's probably a couple of things I would do differently, but overall it seems to work great. I was all set up to do a 1L boil test, and ran out of fuel about 2 minutes in. So I'll have wait to give it a full test. You'll note that there isn't too much for air holes. But it did burn fine. After I ran out of fuel, I cut some small air holes in the bottom of the sides.

[Author]

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