Vargo Titanium 0.9 L pot w/ Ti spoke handle

[Mike Barney]

I purchased the Vargo 0.9 Liter non-stick pot pictured below. The pot and lid weigh 4 ounces / 117 gm, and the lit fits well. I laughed when I pulled the pot grabber out of the box, which is the orange painted device on the right of the picture. It weighs 1.5 oz, a little more than the lid. It seems very ironic that Vargo would ship such a heavy and large holder with this lightweight cooking pot.

My guess is Vargo decided to include something quick and easy and off the shelf as a handle, ending up with gross overkill. Since the max weight of this pot filled to the brim is < 1Kg, I don't know why they couldn't have included a much smaller and lighter handle. So, I decided to make my own handle, as we had some used Ti spokes from a 24" bike.

To mount the spoke handle, I drilled 2 small holes on opposite sides of the lip of the pot, perpendicular to the spout, then bent the spoke to fit. The end of the spoke on the left side was already crimped. I used a MAPP torch to heat the Ti. (MAPP's temp is just below Ti's melting point, so it's a good choice.) You can see the tight bend the right side of the picture.
Without the lid, my pot with handle weighs 2.7 oz. The spoke by itself is about 3 grams.

The lid is easy to get on and off. You can only remove it from the front or back with the handle up, but comes off easily if you push the handle down.

I may take another spoke and use it to put a small tiping handle on the very back for better control.

MikeB

[b d]

Way cool, or hot … love that one. bd

[Jim Colten]

very nice. Looks like the radius of the bale is approx that of the pot. Is that correct? Does it handle well?

[Mike Barney]

The spoke "just fits" for a bale. If you shortened the spoke ~ 1/2 inch, it would lay just inside the lip. I'd rather have it just hanging over that so it's easier to grab. It handles fine, one of the reasons to make sure you get the 2 attachment points exactly opposite each other.

[Eric Eaton]

Nice work Mike!

A question though:

I have been considering putting a bail handle on my MRS Ti pot (the small one from the Titan kit). The thing holding me back is how does one "make sure you get the 2 attachment points exactly opposite each other."?

My assumption is that if I were off even by a smidge, a balance would not be achieved.

Some thoughts were to us two thinner bails (like a guitar string or something) and make a shallow X, or use a wider bail.

Any additional thoughts from experience or imagination would be appreciated.

Thanx all,
Eric

PS. An interesting note: the small MSR Ti pot with an aluminum lid weighs exactly the same as the BPL Ti pot with handles and lid. I would have gone for the handle-free version, but they were out of stock. Still, the BPL takes less space in my pack, and has less capacity.

[Jim Colten]

how does one "make sure you get the 2 attachment points exactly opposite each other."?

IF the pot is reasonably close to truely circular, cut a circular piece of paper the same diameter as the top of the pot and fold it in half. The ends of the fold will be exactly opposite each other. Use it to mark the hole locations.

[Eric Eaton]

Nice.

The simplest solution is usually best.

Thanx!

Eric

[Roger Caffin]

> The lid is easy to get on and off. You can only remove it from the front or back with the handle up, but comes off easily if you push the handle down.

Of course, if you took another spoke and bent it the same but with the hooks pointed INwards, you might be able to take the lid off with the handle in ANY position.

[Mike Barney]

Good questions:
…"make sure you get the 2 attachment points exactly opposite each other."
Pretty easy, you can be off and the pot will tilt in a proportional amount to how much your off. What I did was get a tape measure, measured around the perimeter, and marked the 2 spots that were perpendicular to the spout, and opposite from each other. (does that make sense?) Jim's idea also works well.

I thought about having the bale handle come in from the outside of the pot, but there was enough of a lip to where I would have had to get a longer spoke and fashion it differently.
Thanks,
MikeB

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