surface protection for stove

[Jon Fong / Flat Cat Gear]

The heat shield should extend beyond the stove to cover the windscreen as well.  Windscreens can get hot enough to leave burn  marks on wooden tables: I have seen this happen before.  My 2 cents.

[Roger Caffin]

But while we are being all 21st century and high-tec, don’t forget the simple 3-ply base-board. It works just fine and is a lot cheaper. It is also rigid.

Cheers

[David Thomas]

And the 3-ply plywood doubles as a cutting board.

Just as a stable base, another option is waxed corrugated cardboard (found as produce boxes behind the grocery store or I can mail you some).  It also double as a cutting board and triples as a fabulous fire starter.  But while it would take 450F to ignite, the wax will melt at a much lower temperature, so maybe not the best solution for a hot stove base.

Either such rigid base could be cut into thirds and stitched or taped to unfold again if you wanted it to be large but still fit into a pot.  The cardboard could just be slit halfway through and then would fold in one direction for storage but be pretty stiff in the other direction.

[Roger Caffin]

3-ply plywood doubles as a cutting board.
Yeah! I forgot to mention that.

Cheers

[DAN-Y/FANCEE FEEST]

plywood will give you splinters when you least expect them

use 1/4″ solid balsa wood

[Roger Caffin]

Splinters … well, after many years of service, I have not yet had a single splinter.
I do sand the edges down and coat the ply with some linseed oil before putting a base into service. Maybe that helps. Certainly, it helps keep the ply functional in the snow.
Maybe really cheap crappy ply might be worse.

Cheers

[DAN-Y/FANCEE FEEST]

3-ply plywood doubles as a cutting board.
Yeah! I forgot to mention that.

when you least expect it! when used as a cutting board. ;)

[Roger Caffin]

Well, after all those the years of use, I still haven’t had a splinter.

Cheers

[Chris R]

We use ply with a layer of aluminum flashing glued on top for under our wood stoves in the winter. Stops the snow from melting beneath the stove. Edges are sealed with foil tape.

[Roger Caffin]

@chris Photo? (with stove of course)

Um … glued? What glue, and how hot does the flashing get?

Cheers

[Edward John M]

I do the same Roger and I use roofing silicon as the glue, flashing gets hot enough with the MSR XGK and the remote stoves to sizzle when touched with a wet finger. While not essential I think the foam helps a bit and adds very little weight

[Roger Caffin]

Yep, silicone adhesive would work well.

Cheers

[Russ Bogardus]

Hi Diane,

I simply use a 3/8 or 1/4 inch foam board covered with aluminum furnace/duct tape. I cut it to extend pass the wins screen. I’ve also used 3/8 plywood as others have suggested. Either choice has worked great.

Kind regards,

Russ

[Diane Pinkers]

Within the cone, the distance between the stove and the bottom of the pot determines some of the efficiency of the stove.  I take it that most of you have the cone on the protective surface, so that the stove-to-pot distance doesn’t change?

I’ve got several choices selected for surface protection to try out.  I’ve got my damaged Cascade Wild table, I figure that should be a good test piece, to see if further damage happens.  I’d really like it if one of the flexible/thin options works, so that I can fold or roll it into my kit. I used to insist on heavy duty foil and usually have a piece that is doubled back on itself, so that it was 2 layers of heavy duty aluminum foil.  It may well be that I’m seeing this issue now because I got lazy about buying heavy duty foil, and went with regular foil–I’ll have to check.

Roger and David, if I did use the 1/8 ply, would I need a board as large as the diameter of the cone, or are you suggesting a platform big enough to set the cone on? I figure the Trail Designs Fissure probably has a diameter about 5 to 6 inches?

[Roger Caffin]

The burn marks I have seen are usually just the size of the stove itself, so anything larger than that should be enough. Making the base large enough to support the cone should be ‘ample’ or more imho.

In fact, there is no magically correct answer here. My needs, with a 4-legged canister stove, are very different from what you might need with a TD 12-10 stove, and quite different from what one would need with a wood gasifier stove. Experiment.

Cheers

[David Thomas]

Yeah, I’d say to save the picnic from the stove’s heat, it only needs to be size of the alcohol stove itself.

I’m usually using a stove base to provide more stability under a butane canister and/or to use on snow so it doesn’t melt and settle.  4″x4″ works on firm surfaces like coarse gravel, 5″x5″ or 6″x6″ is better on snow which supports less weight (cause it’s the fuel + stove + pot + contents and on a group trip that can be 6 pounds).

[Diane Pinkers]

I ran through several stove-platform-windscreen iterations. The conclusion is, if I’m getting damage to the surface, it suggests the wrong stove-windscreen combo. The cone I have worked best with the Modified Starlyte stove, which is what it was created for, although that took the longest to get a rolling boil. Worst was sticking the Kojin in there-damage to surface, no rolling boil, flames blowing outside the cone. The Toaks stove with a Four Dogs windscreen was great-full boil in 6 minutes using about 5/8 ounce fuel. I really like the stability of the cone windscreen, but I may have to change my tune and use the 4 dogs screen with the Toaks stove.

I’m waiting for a Trail Designs Fissure cone to come in the mail tomorrow. Will repeat some of these experiments with that cone, and 3 different stoves again.

Oh, and platform materials….I may well stick with my original aluminum foil, and just upgrade to the heavy duty kind. Certainly, the so called grill sheet did not prevent damage, and makes me a little squeamish about using it to cook food on it on the grill. Cork is nice,but it also is flammable, so this may not be the best application.  Since the problem is more one of proper stove selection, the use of the aluminum foil still is multipurpose: clean place to rest spoons and mugs, also can be folded up on the edges for a second windscreen in breezy conditions when trying to get the stove to light.

[DAN-Y/FANCEE FEEST]

Diane, USPS tracking says you should receive your package tomorrow.

Your Starlyte looks like a “Simmer” Model. This is what a Modified looks like, larger opening:

[Diane Pinkers]

I’ve got some of those, too. Maybe I should try that one, too. But, you’re right, the stove I used had a smaller opening,  so it must have been the simmer model.

[Paul H]

You could try using a welders blanket, its made of fiberglass I believe.

[Diane Pinkers]

Definitely need protection the width of the cone, when using as a windscreen. This table was already damaged, but using a disc of material only the size of the stove itself, resulted in this:

That’s the diameter of the windscreen, not the stove. I wasn’t using any foil, just the disc under the stove. Since the cone does not allow for heat to leave around the top edge of the pot, it probably concentrates the heat downward, hence the melt. I will say that this was not an orthodox cone set-up, and should not be representative of Rand’s stoves’ performance.

[Roger Caffin]

Well, yes and no.

That melted ‘table’ looks like extruded polystyrene corrugated sheet, of the sort used for Real Estate and political posters. Polystyrene has an actual melting point of about 210 C, but it starts to ‘flow’ around 100 C, and starts to decompose and give off fumes by 70 or 80 C.

In other words, selling a ‘table’ made out of the stuff is very close to defrauding the customer. Despite the company’s advertising, I would not put a hot pot on such a table for fear of it falling through the surface. I would never ever put a stove on it!

Sorry Diane, but I personally think you were conned. And I think the company is seriously in the wrong.

Cheers

[Diane Pinkers]

The literature for the table specifies a melting point of 324 F, and describes it as resistant to boiling water. It does not say it is safe to put a stove on to it. True, it is depicted with a cannister stove on it, but I’d guess that the gas cannister does not get hot directly like a stove does. I’m the one trying to use it possibly in a manner for which it was never intended. If it weren’t for the incident where I melted the varnish on a state park picnic table, I’d just chalk it up to bad surface for the intended purpose. I’ve typically tried to fnd a rock to put my stove on, but sometimes there’s no easy spot, so the table seemed like a good idea. It might not be worth the added weight, if I can’t use it for cooking, but I have enjoyed not having my kitchen in the dirt, so I may play with it more.

My search for a surface that prevents heat transfer was also stimulated by camping in California for the first time, and being really nervous about the dryness. Coming from the damp PNW, it was a little scary.

[Roger Caffin]

We carry a bit of coated nylon fabric, about 500 mm x 300 mm, for use as a food prep surface. Works on sand, dirt, grass, snow … and weighs next to nothing.

It’s folded in half (quarters?) here.

I wouldn’t worry about the dryness: so what?

Cheers

[Roger Caffin]

I mentioned this to my wife. Her immediate reaction was that she expects to see damaged and half-melted ones littering common campsites. Or partly burnt remains in fire rings.

Just what we need! Revolting.

Cheers

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