Hanging Upright Winter Canister Stove

[David Gardner]

I apologize if this thread is repetitive of any earlier ones. I searched BPL and wasn’t able to find anything like it but I have the nagging feeling I may have missed something.

At any rate, here is a Hanging Upright Winter Canister Stove that I just hacked together from an MSR leg set and some inexpensive parts from the hardware store:

I’m not aware of any hanging canister stove rigs that are commercially available, except those made specifically to fit only the MSR Windburner and JetBoil stoves, which cost $30. This rig costs about $22 ($3 of cable, $1.40 for aluminum crimps, $.75 for three split rings, $1.50 for a mini caribiner, and $15 for MSR’s canister stand). It weighs 2.9 oz for the hang system, 3.6 oz with the copper canister heating strip, and a total of 4.5 oz with a BRS 3000T stove. It will work with any canister stove and with either of the two common canister diameters, and with just about any normal pot size.

PARTS: MSR legs, 10′ of 1/16″ 7×7 Stainless or Galvanized braided steel wire, 7 aluminum crimps, 3 metal split rings, 1 mini carabiner, 1 washer with 1/2″ hole, 6″ of heat shrink tubing or a roll of electrical tape

TOOLS: wire cutters, crimper or hammer, lighter if using heat shrink tubing

Cut the cable into 4 pieces 30″ long. 3 pieces will be the hanger wires. The last bit will be for making a retainer/lock ring for the pot. (I picked 30″ based on an estimate of where I wanted the rig to hang inside my BD FirstLight tent, about 14″ above the floor. Choose the length you need based on your own tent configuration and preferences.)

If you’re using heat shrink tubing, slide two 1″ pieces onto each cable. Make little end loops and crimp at both ends of each hanger cable. Slide the heat shrink tubing over the crimp and cable end, then shrink with the lighter. If you’re using electrical tape instead of heat shrink tubing, put a few wraps around each crimp. (Caveat: the legs on MSR are not equal length: the clip leg is 1″ longer, so the 3rd cable needs to be a hair longer or it will appear to come out short and the rig will lean slightly.)

Next put a split ring on one end of each hanger cable, then attach one cable to each leg:

Slide the washer over the three cables and then attach the cables to the mini caribiner. Hang from something. Clip your canister and stove into place on the MSR legs. Place your pot on the stove and slide the washer down to hold the pot in place while you make the retainer/lock ring.

Make the retainer/lock ring by simply looping the last bit of cable around the pot and hanger cables snug enough that you can just move the loop up and down over the top of your pot, with about 1″ of cable overlap. Mark, cut, and crimp. Unhang the mini carabiner and put the loop down over the hanger cables. If you have more than one pot of different sizes, buy some extra cable and make a retainer/lock ring for each size pot you plan to use. You’re done fabricating the hanging system.

For the “cold” weather part of this system I used a strip of copper held tight to the canister with a hook & loop band and a bit of welding blanket in between, a la Bob Moulder. (Some cool person showed up at the SF Bay Area GGG last year with a bunch of pre-made copper strips that he handed out, and I was lucky enough to get one, so no cost to me for that item.)

To use the system, first clip the legs, cables and mini carabiner to whatever you’re going to hang it from. Pull the washer up near the mini carabiner and clip the retainer/lock ring into the mini carabiner. Mount your canister and stove in the legs. I call this the “ready position”:

Next place your pot of water on the stove and slide the washer down to hold the pot in place:

Finally, unclip the retainer/lock ring and slide it down over the pot:

Fire it up!

Weight of finished hanging rig:

Weight of hanging rig and cold weather copper strip:

Weight of hanging rig, copper, and BRS 3000T:

The stove and hanging rig fits in my 800 ml pot:

The whole rig including large canister fits inside a grease pot:

I used 1/16″ 7×7 braided aircraft cable because it is cheap and readily available, as are aluminum crimps to fit. The cables are massive overkill and could support something like 1500 lbs so a lot of weight can be saved by going to a much smaller cable, but the issue then becomes finding a way to crimp the cable into loops at the ends. Perhaps picture-hanging braided cable would work, and be flexible enough to tie into knots instead of using crimped loops and split rings at the attachment points. Also, I used some chromed steel split rings from my key drawer, but you can buy stainless steel or  titanium split rings for about $10 from Amazon. Price factor for the Ti is ridiculous, but so is the coolness factor. Finally, I used a big fat washer that I happened to have on my workbench, but a much smaller one will work. It just needs a whole big enough to squeeze your cable loops through (or use a small washer but run all three hanger cables through it before fabricating the end loops). With thinner cables, small washer and/or Ti split rings you can probably get the weight of the rig under 2 oz.

One final nice feature of this rig is that the cables are easily removed from the legs, which can still be used independently.

[Ken Thompson]

Cool. Here’s two more,

https://backpackinglight.com/myog-hanging-stove-system-banner/

 

https://backpackinglight.com/forums/topic/92396/

[David Gardner]

Changed to smaller split rings and a smaller tightening washer, cutting the weight by 0.4 oz:

Then I remade the entire rig with thinner picture-hanging cable and shaved the weight another 0.9 oz:

[Gary Dunckel]

That’s pretty sweet, David, and quite creative.

[David Gardner]

Thanks Gary. An easy MYOG project for anyone with wire snips and a hammer.

Here is the rig with an aluminum “Moulder Heat Strip” for cold weather:

[R]

Cool stuff.

Could you use fiber glass or kevlar wick instead of wire?  I’m thinking of the stuff that’s basically string/cord in those materials.  Knots instead of swages, larks heads instead of split rings, and another short strand could probably be substituted for your tightening washer – maybe a prussik loop.  Or a small silicone o-ring.

I’m seeing Kevlar thread on ebay starting at $9/1000ft for 70lb test, good to 800F.

And while we’re at it, I suspect that velcro strap could be replaces w/ a nylon cord of just the right length, leveraging the natural elasticity of nylon to keep things snug.  The curved top of the canister would make it relatively easy to slide it on.  Or more of that kevlar thread w/ a small o-ring for tension.  Cut a long piece of thread, tie the ring to one end, thread the other end through the ring, assemble the strip pulling the thread snug, then mark the position of the free end at the ring w/ a Sharpie, disassemble, and tie the thread at the marked length.  Maybe tie 2 or 3 loops along the length of the thread to create pull tabs since you’ll likely be wearing gloves.  Yes, you’d need different assemblies for different size canisters.

And I bet you could replace that steel canister stand (1.2oz?) w/ aluminum bar stock / carbon kite rods.

[David Gardner]

Rene, interesting ideas.

Here is the rig made entirely with 300 lb Kevlar cord I happened to have:

I don’t love the steel canister stand but it’s cheap, fits both diameter canisters, clamps the canister securely, and I didn’t have to fabricate it from scratch. It weighs 1.09 oz:

Making an aluminum of CF leg set would save weight for sure, but it’s a whole ‘nother project. Actually I’m surprised the MSR stand isn’t made from aluminum to begin with, since it’s not an application that requires great strength.

I like the velcro strap because it presses the Moulder heat strip to the canister across the entire width of the strap, though you could probably achieve a similar effect with several cords.

[R]

Nice.

MSR lists the stand at 1.2oz, so pleasant surprise there.

Agreed – it’s way easier to dream up new designs than execute on them :)

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