Zelph’s Fosters Pot and a MYOG Fancee Feest

Hi Bob,

I'll have to try using the cap to see how many cap fulls would equal 10ml which is the amount I'm currently using in my tests. Thanks for suggesting it. That one was sitting right under my nose and I missed it. May be too many fumes from the stove tests I guess. ;-)

The walls of my windscreen are vertical it is only the photographer that is slanted. L O L

Malleable also means easily formed. I had to look it up to be sure. But I seem to remember someone saying that they are pretty rough on aluminum windscreens. That would seem to make easily mashed fit well in this case too. ;-)

Party On,

Newton

Newton, I will not try to claim that this is the very best solution. However, there are some tiny plastic caps that might serve as your dose caps. They may not be what you had in mind, but they might serve. A Chapstick cap weighs less than a half-gram. Now, it doesn't have any nice milliliter marks on it. You might have to calibrate your head to thinking that two of them equals so many milliliters, or three of them is a full dose. OTOH, two grams isn't too bad.

Some safety/childproof containers have a two part cap. One inner part may be metal, and the outer part may be plastic. One or the other of those have been handy to me in the past. I used a metal one as an alcohol burner, and I used a plastic one to measure the fuel dose. It's just an idea.

But, hey, don't listen to me. My last alcohol burner weighs 2 grams plus another 2 grams for the pot support. Then I have to store that in a caddy that weighs 5 grams.

–B.G.–

Bob,

"But, hey, don't listen to me. My last alcohol burner weighs 2 grams plus another 2 grams for the pot support. Then I have to store that in a caddy that weighs 5 grams".

It's called the law of diminishing returns. Still you had a burner that worked and weighed 9 grams total. Zelph's Mini Fancee Feest stove weighs 8 grams.

I have a 6 gram alcohol burner that is its own pot stand. I could use it but it is only 1.5" in diameter. I'm afraid it would be a bit tippy on its own. It is basically a cat can stove made out of the bottom of a 2 oz Garnier hair spray can. It's an inch and three eighths tall. I believe it could be shorter and still handle 1 fluid oz of alcohol. Hmmmmmmmmmmm!

As far as the dose cup goes I am thinking about etching/marking some graduations inside of the stove itself.

Party On,

Newton

"It is basically a cat can stove made out of the bottom of a 2 oz Garnier hair spray can."

Some of us are lucky to be able to use hair spray at all. Or maybe you use the hair spray on the cat.

Yes, a tippy stove is terrible.

–B.G.–

"While looking over some photos of Zelph's Fancee Feest stove I noticed what appeared to be some tiny notches at the top of the pot support."

The notches prevent presure buid-up inside the stove that would cause fuel to rise up between the support and the stove body and over flow.

The lower the pot support, the slower the stove burns. The slower, the more efficient says lots of folks here at BPL. (me also)

Yousa guys are gram concious :-)

Dan,

Thanks so much for the explanation of the notches on the Fancee Feest pot support.

As far as being gram conscious I stand guilty as charged. ;-)

The older I get the more I want to hike. Less weight in my pack lets me go further with less effort. I'm on a mission to find the lightest, practical and efficient kit within a reasonably inexpensive budget (a.k.a. cheap). L O L

I am tempering this off with creature comforts such as a LightHeart Gear Solo tent and a small Pro Lite inflatable sleeping pad. I place a high priority on a good nights sleep the older I get.

Party On,

Newton

@ Clayton,

I just got a shipping update on my Dritz eyelet and pliers kit from the USPS.

It said it was finished sorting this morning at my local post office. This usually means that I can expect delivery this afternoon.

If all goes as planned a picture of the final product(s) with posted weights will make it on to this forum thread this evening.

I'll be making a few more test runs with the clone stove. I've been using 95% ethanol (Everclear / Diesel) as the fuel. I'd like to experiment with Heet, and a 75% / 25% mix of ethanol and water. I'm interested in seeing if a different fuel or fuel mix will calm the flame down just enough to keep the flame ring under the cook pot edges. ;-?

Party On,

Newton

Edit:

Mail came and mailman went. No eyelet kit as yet! ;-(
USPS tracking says that it was "Out for Delivery" since 8:25 am. ;-?

Tomorrow, tomorrow I'll see them tomorrow! It's only a day away! LOL

The ability to track your shipments is both a blessing and a curse.

My Dritz eyelets & pliers kit arrived in the mail this afternoon at 3:38 pm. ;-)

Construction of wire bails and eyelet installation immediately ensued. After a little trial and error plus the obligatory weigh in, my Modify Your Own Gear project is now complete.

Weight for the 1 cup generic can / cook pot is now 16 grams. It is a weight gain of 1 gram!

Weight for the 2 cup Fosters can / cook pot is now 27 grams. This is the same weight as stated on Zelph's product page on his site! Zero weight gain or to little for my scale to register.

Again the wire used is Malin Hard-Wire from Academy Sports. It is .024" in diameter and has a coffee colored coating. Information on the package labels it as #10, 131 LB. TEST, Length 42 FT and ITEM: LC10-42. It sold for $2.49 plus tax at my local Academy.

I have to say that I was pleased with the quality of the pliers in the Dritz kit. While searching the net for kits like this one many posted their dissatisfaction with the installation tools included in other kits. The pliers / installation tool with the Dritz kit was very sturdy and up to the task.

The kit comes with two sizes of eyelets. They are 5/32 and 1/4 inch. this is the size of the holes in the eyelets not the size of the holes that need to be punched.

I used a 13/64" drill bit chucked up in a thread tapping handle to "gently", "ever so gently" finish sizing the hole punched with the Dritz tool.

Care was taken to insure that the eyelets and the looped ends of the wire bail would not interfere with the aluminum lid and or plastic ring / lid.

Not so final weight tally is:

1 cup pot 16 grams
stove 11 grams
plastic ring 2 grams
aluminum lid 5 grams
dose cup 2 grams
mini Bic 11 grams (with child proof thingy removed but showed no weight change)
windscreen 9 grams

So my total now is 56 grams plus my 106 gram full fuel bottle. My total today is 162 grams or 5.71 ounces.

Not so final he says!?! I'm going to search out a set of travel size plastic bottles without the child proof cap. I will then use Bob's suggestion of determining how many cap fulls of alcohol equal 10ml, 15ml and 30ml. By doing this I'll be able to remove the 2 gram dose cup. I may replace the weight of the dose cup with a circular piece of foil to act as a heat reflector to increase my stove's efficiency.

It would be an exact trade off in weight with the dose cup.

The diameter is the same as the cook pot 3 1/4". The hole is cut out in the center to reduce weight and allow it to nest on top of the aluminum lid and under the plastic ring.

My 1 cup cook pot gained 1 gram in weight but on the "plus" side I was able to remove the need for the 19 gram lightened MSR pot lifter. I netted an 18 gram weight reduction.

My focus now is on lighter fuel bottle(s) minus the extra weight of the child safety caps. I'll also be doing some stove testing to see if a different fuel calms down the flame ring or if I have to find some smaller diameter can stock for a narrower / lighter clone stove.

Party On,

Newton

"I will then use Bob's suggestion of determining how many cap fulls of alcohol equal 10ml, 15ml and 30ml."

Hey, don't blame it on me. I just sweep the floors and turn out the lights here.

I'm not sure that I would have put my own efforts into a one-cup cook pot. The two-cup pot makes more sense. I generally use a 2.5-cup pot and fill it to the 2-cup level.

Instead of your reflective foil bottom sheet, you might try an ordinary piece of thin crumpled foil. If crumpled, it will leave more dead air underneath the burner, and that might act like insulation. If the pot sits down directly on a heat sink on cold earth, the fuel won't get so hot.

You might want to look into a better digital scale so that you can see those milligrams adding up.

–B.G.–

I love the idea of cutting out a circle in the foil base. Why didn't I think of that? I bet this is one of those threads where most readers just roll their eyes. That makes me like it even more.

Also, congratulations. This is a fine achievement.

@ Bob,

You grew it, you chew it. ;-)

"Newton, your dose cup weighs 2 grams. Is it possible to measure your denatured alcohol using the regular bottle cap? I use a 2 gram cup myself".

"Since most of my dehydrated meals are portioned out for one cup of boiling water I think the Generic 1 cup pot will be my go to pot".

Make no mistake this is a solo cook kit.

Even though I concentrated my efforts on using the 1 cup I did work on both. See the OP and my last post showing the finished cook pots.

Your comment on the heat reflector opens up a few questions. As I said I'm interested in calming down the flame ring so that it only "covers" the bottom of the cook pot. I wonder if the "heat sink effect" might not be an aid in accomplishing this goal? If the stove were to just be set on the "cold earth" I can see the heat sink effect having a detrimental effect on the stove output. Metallic reflective heat barriers are widely promoted for their insulative qualities. I have a bit of both worlds here. My reflector is "aimed" at reflecting the heat of the flame upwards but I do see how the hole in the center could "cool" the stove.

The answer may be to use a piece of aluminum cut into an elongated oval shape and then corrugated so that its extreme edges form a 3 1/8" circle. The smaller diameter circle would allow the reflector to be packed inside of the pot. The folds would add material and therefore weight. Those same folds could allow cooling air to flow under the stove and steal heat from the fuel cup. How about a piece of foil on top of a piece of 1/8" Evazote ccf pad. My answer would be to find a flat rock to set up my stove, reflector and cook pot and avoid the "cold earth" if at all possible.

Only real world testing will yield an answer.

@ Clayton,

Thank you for the kind words. The hole was an after thought after I weighed the original reflector disc and it showed 3 grams. L O L

Party On,

Newton