Story below. Here’s my DIY wind screen made from 2 crowler cans. I spent about 8 hours one day, going thru 4 other cans with ideas that failed. They were all more complicated. When I got to this idea, I was like “Of course! Something simple!”
Here it is packed in a 1 liter bag, weighing 30 grams.
Here are the parts of my windscreen spread out. The 2 end pieces are folded over lengths of wire hanger and stapled to keep it snug.
Here is the screen body slid onto the stove. You can see my first repair. I knew the aluminum would eventually tear, especially since I didn’t cut the hole in the center very smoothly. My first version only had one end. I punched a few holes in the bottom after adding the second end. No idea if it really needs them.
Assembled windscreen. It doesn’t sit level, but the pot will take care of that. The wire hanger ends poke thru the small holes. I was worried about the wire popping out during cooking, but when the flap is rotated into place, the body can’t pull out far enough let the fire fall out.
And finally a pot above the screen. It’s not quite tall enough to push up flush against the pot, but that’s how big the crowler cans are. I have some ideas for version 2, when this wears out, or I get bored some day after drinking for crowlers.
…and how I got to trying this in the first place: My first time backpacking with my now wife had calm weather and things cooked fine. It was pretty windy the second or third time, so we were trying to prop up our seat cushions, but mostly we had to hold them around the stove so the water would actually boil, or at least in less than 15 minutes. I don’t remember what I did the next couple times. We didn’t go backpacking for about 5 years, and then started again this summer. I remembered the wind and wanted something way better. I knew I didn’t want that canister to get hot, so I couldn’t tightly wrap the whole contraption. I did some searching online and found lots of samples that protected the stove, as well as hopefully reflecting more heat back up to the pot. That’s how I got to making my first MYOG.
