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After being frustrated that Trail Designs won’t sell a Ti Sidewinder alone I decided to make one myself. I asked Rand on two separate occasions.
I’m pretty happy with the results. $12 for the aluminum flashing. It weighs 1.5 ounces with Tyvek sleeve. I already had the stove and short .9L pot. I got 750ml of cold-ish water from the refrigerator to boil with .75 oz of alcohol in about 10 minutes. This is enough for 2 cups to rehydrate a typical meal and the rest for a cup of coffee.
Looks good Don!
Details on construction please.
I used this Youtube video for the foundation of making it.
If the link isn’t working the title of the video is
MakingCalderaCone 0001 and it’s 4:57 in length.
The other thing of note is that you want the distance from bottom of the pot to the top of the stove to be 1-2″. Mine is about 1.25″ apart. I kind of guessed the height of cone and trimmed it down a little afterwards. The ending height of the cone is 4.5″. Note, this is the measurement of the cone’s actual material height NOT the height when it’s set up.
I’m using the Starlyte stove which I bought directly here. I have the modified one but I’ve heard it doesn’t matter with the cone. This is the second cone I made and one thing that I learned is the “closure tabs” should be bigger that you think. I’d say .75-1″. If they’re too short the cone will keep opening up. Trail Designs has a great closure system but I don’t have this type of metal skills or tools. I just used a regular hole punch for the holes and cheap scissors from Harbor Freight to cut it. Afterwards I sanded down all the edges for sharp spots. The flashing is 10″ by 10 feet. I cut a 2 ft section for each cone so you can get 5 from each roll. I’m not sure the gauge, but I got the thinnest one Home Depot had. It should be obvious when you’re there.
I almost forgot, if you’re using a 12-10 style stove you will need to use Ti stakes to raise you pot since it’s taller than the Starlyte. You could make the cone taller but then it may not fit in your pot.
I would have gladly paid Trail Designs at least $50 for just the Ti Sidewinder but as I wrote earlier they won’t do this. They said they need to make sure you have the right stove even though I already did. To get the Ti Sidewinder package it would cost me $94 after tax and shipping. TD’s is much more refined and lighter but for about a .7oz weight penalty I saved $82.
Nicely done. It never occurred that TD wouldn’t sell just the cone as I bought the full kit. Seems kind of strange if you can tell them exactly what pot you are using.
George,
Rand said they used to but people were using them with stoves other than the 12-10 or Starlyte. I’m not sure if that resulted in too many returns because the cone didn’t work properly with those stoves. Maybe it’s a way to increase sales, not sure. I actually don’t mind that either but if that’s the case I’d just like them to be upfront. “It’s not cost effective to sell the Ti Sidewinder separately” or something like that. They sell the aluminum, original Caldera which I would’ve bought too but not in the Sidewinder version (fits inside pot). This is the reason I don’t get his reasoning for not selling it separately.
Just so you know, Rand will sell the Sidewinder separately if you already bought the package and for some reason you need to replace it such as damage. Not sure the price though.
For those who want an easy very fast method of producing a Cone template:
Once you get familiar with the process (minutes), then printouts can be generated in seconds.
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