Reflector Oven… Pizza and Muffins anyone?

[Mark Andersen]

Tim,

The way I've drawn it, the width is the same as the height (in oven mode). Height and width wouldn't necessarily have to be the same, but your spokes would obviously have to be long enough to fit the longer of the two dimensions. I arbitrarily drew it at 12" x 12", but you could pick any dimension that balanced weight and utility, I'm sure. It looks like the longest spokes commonly available are a little under 12", so it could be that 11" or so is a more practical dimension. I figured one end of the spokes is already crimped, so that would keep it from coming through. Maybe the screw-on nipples that come with the spoke could be used to secure the other end…? Even titanium spokes don't appear to be too expensive, if you buy them in quantities of 25 or so.

As far as a shelter heater..I think you could adapt this to work for what you suggest. I'm not sold on wood-burning stoves for heat on a small shelter, though. I would be very worried about fire risk, oxygen depletion, carbon monoxide, etc. I think wood stoves work in big canvas, outfitter-style tents because canvas is breathable and not readily flammable, and those tents tend to be drafty, anyway. I know this is a discussion that has been touched on in other places on this forum. What little I know is that if your fire box is not 100% sealed from the living space, then you need plenty of ventilation so you don't have CO buildup or oxygen depletion. Having a drafty tent sort of negates having a stove, to some degree. The other option would be to have the firebox sealed completely, with intake and exhaust to the outside of the shelter in a closed loop, which is probably not practical with a cobbled-together stove.

I think a better option might be to build a fire in the reflector, with it tilted toward an open tarp configuration–similar to what the old-timers did with lean-tos and fire reflectors. Not as efficient or neat, maybe, but probably still useful, and safer.

Re: learning SketchUp–the Push/Pull tool is your friend. Once you learn how to use that well, everything gets easier.

[Dan Baker]

Hi guys,

It looks like a few of you have been busy… :)

some great points raised, i will add my two cents from experience:

direct placement of a fire on the Ti will cause it to blue, and stain, does this affect reflectivity? I don't think it does, my vague understanding is that we are reflecting Infra-red, and therefore the surface polish is irrelevant, I expect to be corrected on this :)

I tried Ti for the sides, the foil is to thin and not rigid enough, and I dont think the aluminium will put up with direct fire/coals on it, having said that, i have not trialed it.

I toyed with more spokes across for the shelf, and decided against it, two supports my Ti baking tray/shelf fine and the tray/shelf is less weight than two spokes.

I have tried the design with a stiff curved spoke instead of sides and found it was dramatically less effective, the food cooked slower and did not brown as well as it did with the sides.

I am on leave at the moment but am returning home tomorrow, when i PROMISE to make a start on a PDF set of dimensions, I will also weigh the individual parts as i cannot remember the weight of the sides.

In terms of using the design with a second 'half' over the top for a shelter heater type setup… my concern would be in the ability to seal the two halves, I would be thinking more along the lines of a double sized reflector that could be wrapped into a cylinder and capped to use as a heater, and alternately be opened out as a semicircle for use as a reflector oven.

Does any of that make sense?

Are there any specific size/weight/construction questions you guys would like me to include in the PDF?

ALSO, I have completed trials of a new oven that works with propane/petrol stove as well as an alcohol stove…
More to come in the next few weeks. :)

Best Regards to all,

Dan.

[Tom Peterson]

Great design for your oven Dan; and great design ideas for the variations. As for a tent heater, I agree with Mark, better to use it to reflect heat rather than radiate it.

Back in the Dark Ages when I was young Boy Scout, before the dawn of the internet, Boy's Life magazine was still delivered by a mailman and it was neatly lettered on a glossy papyrus type material (circa 1974), I remember following the instructions in an article on how to make a reflector oven from a cardboard box lined with aluminum foil. It was an early attempt at lightweight backpacking equipment and reflected the expectation (bad pun – I know, flame me) that you would use a wood fire for all your cooking and heating needs. If you weren’t using wood, then you could use the can of Sterno as a replacement for the fire.

As I recall, all I did was line the box with foil, turn it on its side, put the dough pile on a plate in the bottom of the box and set it in front of a fire. There wasn't even a shelf.

I used it once. Burned the bread I was trying to bake and decided it was too hard to use since my bread didn't turn out perfectly on the first attempt (imagine such pomposity from a fourteen-year old!). I don’t remember how big the fire was, but guess it could probably be seen from several miles through fog.

I think that with very little modification, a foil lined cardboard box would work. It would be fantastically inexpensive material for prototypes. For more design flexibility and to make it even lighter as a prototype, a piece of poster board or a manila folder (lined with foil) could be used. It may not be bad for a permanent piece of equipment either, just not very durable.

[Author]

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