Snow Peak windscreen weight reduction!!

[Shane S.]

This is a mod that I did awhile back. It eliminates close to a ½ ounce. It perplexes me why Snow Peak doesn’t make a Ti or Aluminum wind deflector. I have used my windscreen with these holes in it for a few years now and have noticed no reduced effects of windblocking.

To do this Mod, you need access to a drill press and a way of clamping down the deflector because the drill bits are going to snag the thin sheet metal and twirl it around causing possible injury.
This is how I did mine. I marked 4 spots of uniform and equal distance in the deflector. Then I used a center punch to mark the holes for the drill bits. Best drill bits to use are cobalt, which goes through stainless a bit better then high speed steel drill bits. You must start with small drill bits like 1/16” and then go to 1/8” and so on until you get to ½” which is large and it’s really going to want to grab that thin metal, so you must go SLOW and not use very much pressure. Be sure to wear proper safety equipment.

[Donna C]

I made one out of a disposable pie plate and works just fine. Weighs nothing on the scale. Just cut it out a bit larger in size as the original, lay it inside so you can mark the openings and where to bend the sides. No fancy tools…just scissors.

[Shane S.]

That's a great idea too! how sturdy is the pie plate,does it deform fairly easy?

[Denis Hazlewood]

I made a windscreen for my Snow Peak Giga Stove that is light and tough. I used a Snow Peak Titanium bowl. It limits the pot diameter to that of the BPL Firelight SUL-1100. I'm in the Denver airport or I'd have dimensions and weight.

Also, I can't seem to post a photo with my Blackberry.

Snow Peak Titanium Bowl – Wind Screen – Weight=1.66 onuces.

Since I took this photo I have put additional holes, between the pot support slots, for additional combustion air.

[Jeremy Greene]

"That's a great idea too! how sturdy is the pie plate,does it deform fairly easy?"-grinder

It is a little fragile. I moved to the SP made one. Either way I feel the system could be simplified. I cannot imagine a practical reason why tiny canister stoves fold or why they lack integral wind/heat panels.

[Daren Neufeld]

drilling those holes would be a lot easier with a step bit. i'd still use a drillpress and clamp the material down to the table, just to be safe. step bits are designed to cut large holes in light metal.

DarenN…..

[Donna C]

Shane, the pie tin does need to be treated carefully but most UL items are anyway. It fits in my pot, so I don't worry about it bending. If it breaks, I can make another. It's pretty sturdy for the amount of time I use it.
Give it a try. I like some of these other ideas, but I don't have the tools…nor do I want them.

: )

[Inaki Diaz de Etura]

the pie plate bends easily but it doesn't break. You can bend it back into shape. It will develop a hole at a sharp bend but it'll still work. I've been using this for years and I usually squeeze a couple seasons out of each and it's always the rather narrow tabs that embrace the stove that break but it's just too easy to make another one. You can even do it on the go if you're on a long hike.

Like Donna, I store it inside the pot so it's only exposed during actual use. It's made into two pieces so it fits inside.

There's been several threads on this same issue in the recent past on this forum.

[Mike M]

After finding out that the SnowPeak windscreen weighed almost as much as the stove I figured I better try something else. Titanium came to mind, I bought a small piece of Ti foil from ti-goat to give it a whirl. I soon found working w/ titanium is like herding cats! It is not in the least bit malleable like aluminum- even thin stuff.

You can cut the stuff w/ scissors, but it won't bend worth hoot. I ended cutting four slits to help wrap it- I'm going to have those overlaps spot welded.

I used a dremel to cut the slits and stove hole while using the SP screen as a template.

SP screen- nice, but pretty heavy.

ti screen- not pretty, but light :)

[Mike M]

first JB weld will NOT hold up- it quickly caught fire and melted away, the titanium on the other hand has no problems at all w/ the heat

I also wanted the windscreen to come up higher, so I cut a piece that added some height- I could have gone higher w/ .9 liter pot, but I also use a 1.4 pot when going in a group- so I got it to where both pots just cleared

I had an acquaintance spot weld the additional piece on, I had a scrap that he practiced on and he eventually found the right settings

it did add an additional 0.1 oz bumping it to 0.4 oz, still significantly lighter than the SP steel version and higher as well

[James Byrnes]

Its possible to form ti with a butane torch. The kind like small soldering torches. I have formed 1/8 inch ti stakes this way. I believe that this works because ti is actually a poor conductor of heat, so temp builds up in a small localized area because heat is not conducted away as fast as alum or steel. Heat to cherry red and form as you go by burnishing with a rod (screw driver, chisel ect.)

good luck

[Mike M]

ahh- that a good tip that I could of used :) I'll know next time, thinking about a lightweight lid for SP 900

[Vick Hines]

Mike,
nice job. You can work Ti easily if you keep it heated to red. That's a little tricky, but if it is bent cold, it will fail on the bend eventually. Bent hot, it will not.

[Mike M]

I've got a small torch, next time I play it w/ it I'll have to break it out

I'd like to get a little heavier stock and make a nice lid for my 900 :)

[Frank Deland]

I used the aluminum from a cheap oven pan sold in grocery store for a couple of bucks and used the snowpeak screen as a template. Then I took a piece of wire mesh with a piece of doubled over heavy weight aluminum foil as an added windbreak. When the foil went all the way around it snuffed out the flame. Aluminum foil by itself doesn't last very long.

See pp 2+3 of this "Album".

http://outdoors.webshots.com/album/138113519qFGLOd?start=12

I found that the aluminum top of a small kettle or coffee pot made by Open Country http://www.rei.com/product/401139
fits into the smaller cup of the SnowPeak nesting pots like Denis used above. See the photo on p. 3 of my webshots.
I could MYOG to make a lighter lid, but the fit of the aluminum top is perfect and I think with the open piece at the top I can tell when the water is boiling without having to peak under the lid. As we know "a watched pot never boils"!

[Ashley Brown]

Nice work Frank. How much the mesh weigh? Also how did you cut the holes in the pie tin… just with a stanley knife?

[chris mcfarland]

I'm mostly a lurker, but this time i think I've got some thing good and haven't seen anyone chime in with it yet:

with the half surround alu it weighs in at a whopping 18 grams i made a 7/8 surround and it totaled in at 22g. the wire is from a coat-hanger formed with pliers and a vice. it hooks onto one side and slides over the top of the burner. then the slider i made out of the sniped end of a 22.cal shell.

all of this still fits in my mini solo pot so no extra bulk

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