Wood Heated Shelter for less than 3 lbs.

Callahan,

The legs thread into T-Nuts which are pop rivited to the stove base. Not sure what you are refering to as set screws.

I burned the stove again yesterday and was able to get the kettle to a rolling boil in about 15 minutes. Which may seem slow combared to alcohol or gas stoves, but when you are just laying back enjoying the warmth, it's not too bad.

Ed

Hi Ed,

That looks like an amazing little stove, quite elegant! I'm curious, once you get it going with a good load of wood and if you close the vents up as much as possible to get a slow burn, how long will the stove keep going? Does it require much tending? I'm thinking not so much for cooking but for heating a tent.

Thanks!

Daniel,

The little cylinder will hold fire for close to an hour, but to achieve any real heat output, it needs to be quite often.

The funny thing with the wood stoves, is you can get them to burn longer, but without flame, the heat output is greatly lessened. I have found it's actually best to just maintain a steady feeding of various size sticks and keep the fire hot.

Ed

Ed,

I should have written 'machine screws' not 'set screws' when referring to the legs, the result of typing when tired, sorry for the confusion.

I like the idea of T-Nuts, more of a support area than Riv-Nuts, are they, and the rivets, stainless too?

Many thanks,

Callahan.

Callahan,

Yes both the T-Nuts and rivits are stainless.

The legs are 8 x 32 machine thread screws. 3.5" long

Ed

Hello Ed,

I wondered how you've found the stove with further use, and if there were any more photo's.

Regards,

Callahan.

The Kifaru Paratarp weighs 11 oz. The Paratarp annex weighs 4.75 oz. The parastove weighs 37 oz.

That's 3.3 lbs.

I wonder how comparable that is to your setup, Ed? I don't know anything about wood stoves in tents, but I like the cut of Kifaru's jib.

Has anyone tried materials like these:
http://www.extremeheatprotection.com/
for stove building? Could it work?
Just some steel wire frame for large but really packable stove.

There was a thread in MYOG some time back with a picture of a stove a guy made with a ceramic cloth sack with a wire frame. It appeared to work. I don't know how durable it was though. I haven't seen any posts since.

Of the stuff at the web site you posted, I don't think the fiberglass would work. I've used it for wicks and it becomes brittle and fuses to itself. The vermiculite coated stuff might fair better. It looks like it adds 500 degrees to the heat resistance which might make it last longer if not indefinitely as a wick in say, an alcohol stove. The charcoal in a wood burning stove is much hotter. I'd do a lot of experimenting before marching off to the woods with a stove made from any of those materials.

I posted about that ceramic fabric stove quite a while ago. I'm suprised that anyone still remembers it. I think this is the original thread:

http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/forums/thread_display.html?forum_thread_id=16426&skip_to_post=123900#123900

I've used it fairly regularly since then, and I constructed a few other unimpressive stoves along the same lines. That original stove has held up really well. I've learned a few things about various ceramic fabrics since then.

In my experience, glass (E and S) and pure silica fabrics aren't suitable for wood stoves. E-glass melts, S-glass crumbles, and silica fabric (like Omnisil, Refrasil and others) doesn't melt but undergoes a transition at wood stove temperatures from the vitreous (glassy) state to a very brittle, crumbly, crystalline ("cristobalite") form.

Fabrics made of Silica/Alumina fibers (not fibers of each type but fibers of a mixed Silica/Alumina ceramic) hold up much better than pure silica. They remain vitreous at high temperatures and don't become as brittle. Some of the "3M Nextel" fabrics are made of Silica/Alumina. Pure Alumina works also, but it's a little more brittle than Silica/Alumina.

Zirconia (if Yttria stabilized) is the most durable. It tolerates higher temperatures and is less brittle than any silica or alumina based fabric. A company called Zircar sells 18" x 24" pieces of it.

Hafnia and ceria textiles are available also, but at very high prices, and they are more brittle than zirconia.

Silica fabric (which is not durable) is available as low as 3.6 oz/yd, and the lightest grades of the other fabrics (sil/alu, alumina, and zirconia) tend to be around 6-8 oz/yd.

Here are some links:

http://www.zircarzirconia.com/

http://www.3m.com/market/industrial/ceramics/materials/fabric.html

They are fun to play with:

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Thanks Colin for sharing all that experience. You saved lots of time and money. (Or, used your time & money so others don't need to). After reading the original thread I realized I had seen it. It was just hidden in my brains and jumped out like it was a new idea.
Anyway, plan was to construct something you could heat a tent with. Long pipe and everything. I'll test with cheap glass fibre and post comments in original thread Colin started.