Sorta light, sorta budget, wood stove

[NW307]

After I sewed my tut copycat last winter and added a stove jack I've been scheming of a way to make a lightweight stove to go with it. I liked the option of buying the foil from suppliers and making my own but when I crunched the numbers I wasn't really saving all that much from a pre-made one. Since I made my tent for a fraction of what a factory one would cost I wanted to keep that momentum going into my stove build.

What I came up with after researching it as much as I could was copying a stainless bread pan/banquet tray stove I saw somewhere and biting the bullet and buying a 10" by 8' piece of Ti foil from lite outdoors, along with their cables and damper. I held the 6"x13"x4" bread pans together with 6" carriage bolts and wing nuts. I simply cut up an old license plate for the door and rests on the lip of the pans and I can slide for the amount of venting I want. All in all it works very well, is super easy to set up, is a very robust stove body, and cost me around $130.

I can't really say this is a budget project because it did cost a little over $200 in total for the stove and tent but I'm pretty happy with it. The stove itself weighs around 3 lbs according to my digital bathroom scale. The flat top of the stove holds a good size pot and the tent actually nests into the bread pans when I stack them if I take the stove pipe out. I bought the Winco bread pans off amazon for $14 and cut the door opening out with an angle grinder, and drilled the chimney hole with a hole saw. It works great in my backyard and I'm looking forward to taking it back country next week. Once again I apologize for all the sideways pictures, if I knew how to rotate them I would.

 

[zeroforhire]

Very cool

Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk

 

[WoodBow]

I can dig it. Nice work. I eventually caved and bought one from seek outside. But I plan to build a large and more robust stove for when I'm truck camping. Maybe out of one of the tall propane bottles.

 

[mtnhmr]

Simple. Enough said. Nice job. Going to apply the build for a larger stove.

Any issues with intense heat? Burn time?

 

[NW307]

Thanks, I can't really say if the heat is intense. It pretty much cooked me out of my tent when it was 35 degrees the other morning. As far as burn time goes I'm not really sure either. I loaded it up about half way with little chunks of wood around my woodpile and it stayed hot for over an hour. The door is about 4"x4" so in theory you could load a piece of wood close to that big. I didn't get it in the pictures but I have a piece of aluminum that rests on the lip between the halves and can slide back and forth to control air flow along with the damper. I've never used a titanium or stainless cylinder stove but aside from mine maybe being a few ounces heavier, it's definitely stout and easy to cook on. Good luck with your build, look forward to seeing it!

 

[weekender7]

I really like your stove. Could you show pics of the door and air flow slide please?

 

[NW307]

I really like your stove. Could you show pics of the door and air flow slide please?

I’m having trouble loading a picture of the door but it’s simply a piece of aluminum that rests on the lip of the two pans and covers the opening cut into the upper pan. That is the only vent and it seems sufficient. The suction from the combustion keeps it tight to the stove opening. I still need to add a handle because it gets pretty hot. I simply slide it side to side to control air flow.

 

[Mac7]

I like it, neat little stove.

 

[NW307]

Took the stove out for its first backcountry trip and it worked great. Heated up my tut sized tipi very nicely in 20 degree snowy weather. It will boil a liter water in around 5 minutes. I got it red hot with no issues at all. I definitely need to make a spark arrester for it tho. Picked up a few pinhole sized burns from sparks even with bone dry absaroka wood.

 

[Rokwiia]

Very clever. Kudos.

 

[NW307]

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Had the tent and stove out on a 5 night trip last week and it was great. We got all sorts of weather, wind, rain, snow, and a little sun and it worked better than i could have hoped. I tried to put a stainless mesh drain strainer in the stove pipe for a spark arrestor and it clogged up almost immediately and turned the tent into a smoker. I still need to either make a baffle or figure out a spark arrestor because i picked up several more burn holes unfortunately. Boiling water was super quick and easy.