Pot Lifter – MYOG

[Henk Smees]

Hi Bill,
Although I’d never, ever, heard about the Rhosgobel Rabbit :(, I absolutely LOVE your design. I honestly think it’s beautiful but…… it’s far too large and I want it to be sturdy and light at the same time; that’s the reason (1) I want to make it from Stainless Steel -don't have thick enough titanium- and (2) I had to make my own drawings (design). When I started the first drawings, I got carried away and already made 5. The last one, which at the moment is the lightest (in theory – probably less than 10gr = 0.35oz.), is this:

PS – I did read the link you added and the first thing that draw my attention was the “Schipperke”; it’s a very long time ago I saw this breed, native from Holland/Belgium (well, in reality, it’s Vlaanderen – the Flemish region of both countries) for the last time. I left my country 30 years ago and have not been back often.

@David
I don’t think anyone can make a custom-made pot lifter (or anything else) without having the pot as well. At least if you want it to be of “perfect fit”, which is what I would demand.
As I wrote before, once I’ve made my version I’ll post some pictures. If you really like it, you might want to send me an email and I’ll see what I can do for you.

[David Hunter]

I realize it wouldn't be a perfect fit. I'm using a Foster's can over a windscreen enclosed fire, and I need a way to get the can off of the fire without burning my fingers. The Vargo lifter works well, but it is over an inch wide.

[David Hunter]

The cargo pot lifter- http://www.outsideoutfitters.com/p-21015-vargo-pot-lifter-utensils.aspx?variantID=51989&gclid=CPaB6ozfs7YCFQTqnAodnkMAyQ

[Henk Smees]

@David.
Now I understand why you want to have a new pot lifter :) – apart from the Vargo being an inch wide, it’s heavy as well (0.8oz). Made out of Titanium??? Must be really BIG. Mine would be much smaller; as I said before, I want it to fit inside my BPL 550SUL Firelite Cookpot – therefore it can’t be longer than ≈ 8cms (just over 3”).

@Bill
This was one of my first iterations; would that appeal more to you???? :)

The problem is the weight; the total superficial area would be about 2400mm2, which would mean over 11gr where the last version would be about 2050mm2: "only" 9,5gr :). The holes inside "save" about 0,7gr which isn't much, so I don't know whether it's worthwhile.

[David Hunter]

Looks Good!! How heavy?

[Henk Smees]

@David,
At the same time (09:34) you posted the question about the weight, I edited my previous post and added these. The only thing that’s not taken into consideration is the 0,?? gram for the “rivet”. Once I’ve finished mine, I’ll have exact figures, but I wouldn’t like to keep using Bill’s post for “private” conversations. BTW- I will post the pictures ,as promised, once mine is finished.

[Bob Gross]

"I'm using a Foster's can over a windscreen enclosed fire, and I need a way to get the can off of the fire without burning my fingers."

Stainless steel wire bail, about 6-8 inches long.

Newton suggests titanium fishing wire.

–B.G.–

[Bill Fornshell]

Hi Henk and others,

I don't mind you posting about your Pot Lifter on this thread. I think this is a good place for it.

When I made that Pot Lifter it was for the big red Trangia Pot that is shown in the first group of pictures at the beginning of the thread. The Pot is somewhere between 1.5 and 1.75 liters. It is used as my snow melting Pot and gets heavy at times.

The Pot Lifter might be large for a smaller Pot but still only weighs 13.3 grams or 0.47 ounces. I have some 0.016" titanium that might make a Pot Lifter like this one weigh about half that of the aluminum one.

The nice thing about being able to "Make Your Own Gear" is making things to "just" the size necessary for what it is used for. Lager Pot Lifter for a larger Pot or a smaller Pot Lifter for a smaller Pot. I have a bunch of different size Pot Lifters.

Henk, I like your newest design but I also liked your first one. When I was playing with my paper patterns I noticed a resemblance to a rabbit profile. I liked that so much I just never changed it.

It makes me smile every time I look at it.

[Henk Smees]

Hi Bill,

This is my latest design; I think it’s going to stay like this. Having said so, once I leave theory and start with practice, I never know what I end up with :(
After some minor “shavings” and “drilling” the holes in the previous design, the superficial area becomes 2117mm2 so the theoretical weight would be 9,84gr. Adding the “rivet” makes it around 10 gram (0.35oz).

[Henk Smees]

Hi David,

I tried to send you a message but I can’t because you haven’t enabled an email address. Please send me a PM – you can find the address in my profile.

Best regards,

Henk (TFD)

[Daniel Fish]

…

[Henk Smees]

With Bill's permission, here's my version of his design:

Another picture with the length (it's really small):

The pot grip "in action":

The TFD pot lifter together with the rest of my "kitchen system" (for reference – the spork is a Lite My Fire Little):

As I said, it's really small and that makes it very light as well: 7,9gr (0.12oz) (Edit: WRONG – as I explain in the next post, 7.9gr = 0.28oz NOT 0.12oz). It does a good job at lifting my small pot (BPL SUL 550 Ti) with half a liter of water, but a larger pot with more water would be a different matter.

Hope you like it.

[David Hunter]

That looks outstanding! When can I buy one?

[Henk Smees]

I made a mistake with the weights I mentioned earlier in my post. Being Dutch, although living in Spain, I think in grams and when I converted these in ounces I trusted my memory – bad thing when one gets old :(. The weight of my TFD Pot Lifter is indeed 7,9 grams, but that is NOT 0.12oz. It's 0.28oz.

The reason I made this mistake was because I'd calculated how much a titanium version of my prototype with a thickness of 0.4mm (0,0157") would be.

A) The weight of my lifter -without the rivet- is 7.9-0.1=7.8gr and the weight of the material I used being 37.7201gr/100cm2, makes the superficial area of the lifter: 7.8/37.7201=20.678cm2.

B) The specific weight of titanium is 4,507 kg/m3 (= 4.507 g/cm3), thus…… a titanium version (at a thickness of 0,4mm) would have a volume of 20.678×0.04=0.827cm3, which would give me a weight of 4.507×0.827= 3.7278grams. Adding the rivet back makes a total of ≈3.83gr and that works out to be the ≈0.12oz I mentioned earlier.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

[Bill Fornshell]

Henk,

You did a great job on your Pot Lifter.

This demonstrates how being able to make some of your own gear helps lower your pack weight and now you have a tool made for the job it is being used for.

[todd]

Yeah, I agree with Bill – you have something YOU made that works great for YOU!

Feels good to do that.

I have to give it a go.

[John Donewar]

Bob,

"Newton suggests titanium fishing wire."

I used stainless steel leader wire…

…for my bail.

I sourced the wire from Academy's fishing "department".

@Bill,

I'm partial to rabbits and I really like the look of yours. ;-)

Excellent workmanship!

Party On,

Newton

[Roger Caffin]

I doubt that Ti is available as a 'fishing wire'. Try Ti welding wire instead – that is available. Also SS welding wire is very available. (Yes, I use both.)

Pot lifters: remember that Al is about 1/2 the density of Ti. This means you can use Al sheet twice as thick as the Ti for the same weight. What is not expected is that it may well prove stiffer (more stiff) than the thinner Ti. This is because the thickness of the metal turns out to be extremely significant.

Cheers

[John Dallas]

@theflyingdutchman if you still have a copy of the drawings could you please post here in a size where I can read the dimensions.

thanks,

John

[fred L]

I know that this post has been recurrected multiple times since 2006. What is the policy about that here ? I figured its better to keep all in one place instead of spreading out in various threads.

I have found a cheap and easy way to make a light lifter for bigger pots. It comes in at 22 grams and is a simple gramcracker approach to the original trangia pot gripper (48 grams). The entire top portions of both the parts are cut out and the front trimmed. At 45% of the original weight, it is still feels sturdy and grips my full 2 liter pot with now issues. Probably a few more grams could come out but I am happy with it at this point.

The Vargo titanium pot lifter @ 23 grams for 27 dollars was the inspiration for this hack. It has no top part of the handles, which accounts for most of the weight savings. Note that on the hack the very end of the handles are retained to keep the original level of functioning (it barely shows on the pics)

If this hack is performed on one of the 3$ copies of the trangia gripper, it is very cheap.

It took me two hours to do and the unalloyed aluminium is very enjoyable to work with. With a side cutter the alu cuts like a scissor cuts leather, its soft enought that filing it feels like grating a harder cheese and a blade will even cut thin strips like as if it was frozen butter. I never had to use a hack saw. It was finished up with sand paper.

The other 55%

[Daryl and Daryl]

Here’s an option for those who want to buy a lightweight pot lifter.

https://suluk46.com/product/miksa-pot-lifter/

[Anonymous]

A kevlar glove also works very well as a pot lifter, etc, and is more multipurpose.

Some years ago, I organized an East coast BPL meetup, and during same I did a stupid human trick.

I donned some light/thin mostly wool gloves with kevlar gloves over same, and kevlar arm sleeves, reached my hand/arm into the fire, and picked up a thickish burning stick/small log and held it for a bit. Yeah, it singed my kevlar glove a bit, but didn’t feel any pain during any of it.

You can buy these kevlar gloves for pretty cheap.  Sold usually for work protective wear.  If it’s warm weather, just bring one. If it’s cool enough for gloves, they actually make pretty good gloves in general. Aramid fibers are apparently some of the only ones that when they get wet, they actually slightly shrink, rather than expand/swell like most other fibers.  The former, actually helps to increase insulation a bit, while the latter tends to decrease it.

[Anonymous]

The nice thing about the Kevlar gloves also, is that you can thin out some silicone and give them a light, outer coating of same, and get nice wind, light rain, and/or snow resistance at low weight. More over, it protects the sensitive Aramid fibers from UV degradation, as that is their kryptonite par excellence.  (They can lose a lot of strength when exposed to even moderate UV). Silicone on the other hand, is very UV resistant and absorptive.

Also makes them more grippy for picking up things like pots, etc. Put extra silicone on the bottom of the glove for extra grippy grip.

[Author]

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